PERUSING RECORD STORE bargain crates(while with some – mostly deliberate – input from the digger) introduces an analog, somewhat random, conceivably mystical, art and information delivery system.
Circumstances may steer a digger into directions which they may otherwise not have explored. Sometimes, eventually, with no particular objective in mind, one or more physical manifestations of recorded music will invite a purchase and a listen to its contents.
Bargain crates may contain newly-arrived music, albums that have been unsold for years, the damaged and the neglected – perhaps a now-cringe album, hip in its day, or one with only a few dozen copies pressed for some long-forgotten regional commemoration. A mislabeled category, unalphabetized title, the wrong tape in the right case, all contribute, as do the cover art, the names of bands and albums and singers, towards discovery of this particular music at a particular place and time, and possibly even to discovery of music which speaks only to that one particular listener.
This column is a celebration of that discovery. Each month we’ll take a deeper dive into the crate – the royal crate – and discuss a bargain find from a Kitsap record store that spoke to the columnist.*
OUR INAUGURAL SUBJECT called out from its foster home at C-Side Records in Port Orchard: Vera Johnson’s Bald Eagle, recorded live at the “Black Horse Folk Club” in 1974. (Vinyl was in surprisingly good condition.)Vera intermittently explains some of her origin story during the performance: she’s a divorced Canadian grandmother whose father was a railroader, and each song has a paragraph of liner notes.
The title track was written after a US nuclear test in the Aleutian Islands in 1971, but the general idea – foreigners liking the US but fearing its government – is all too familiar in 2025. One song is about then-Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who Vera thinks – as was often thought of his son – is “cute” (although according to the liner notes, she campaigned for his opponent).. The verbal intro to “Do it Yourself Divorce” explains that it came from personal experience, and the liner notes explain that it was written for a British Columbia TV program[me] on said topic.
If you need an explanation for her Ken Burnseque-hair, “You Can’t Let Your Hair Hang Down” provides. Sort of.
Other songs – like her US contemporaries John Prine, and Kris Krostofferson – combine cultural commentary, biographic anecdotes, and humor, particularly “Layabouts” and “Jesus was a preacher.”
C-Side’s Julian, who’d already listened to the album, remarked “I’m not sure if she’s more Pete Seeger or more Weird Al.” Maybe equal measures of both, vying inconclusively for his attention. Maybe vying for yours, too.
‘Bald Eagle’ by Vera Johsnon was available at C-Side Records as of August, 2025.
Like homeless kittens and orphaned puppies seen on a Humane Society website, if this particular cutie isn’t available anymore when you show up, rest assured there are many others like it who may also speak directly to you, and are equally deserving of your attention and love. // J. OVERTON
*Bargain being $10 and under. As with bottles of wine and romance books, these were selected for further study more for their intriguing cover imagery and interesting titles than for the imagined quality of their contents. The records to be reviewed here, for whatever reason, spoke to the author. Your results may vary.
