Rumbleseat - Rumbleseat is Dead

If it seems that I'm constantly writing about Chuck Ragan albums, it's because I have a lot of them. I'm not 100% sure of the timeline, but I think Rumbleseat was the precursor to the solo Chuck Ragan albums, and stands up well against them. In fact, I'd consider it every bit as essential as his other studio albums.

The version of California Burritos here starts a little flat and underwhelming compared to the version that would end up on Feast or Famine, but improves as it goes on and ends up nearly on par (but, let's be honest, little can live up to that version of California Burritos, a song I still consider one of my all-time favourites). That acts nicely as a bridge into what would easily rank amongst the best Chuck solo songs, Cursing Concrete. If you're a fan but haven't heard this song, I recommend checking it out. It has a huge amount of power and a chorus that just soars. Whenever I finish listening to this album, that's the one stuck in my head.

Restless is awesome too - showing a softer side for the first time, but with a heavily strummed guitar (that song, as well as Jackson and Moonshiner make some of the best use of Chris and Samantha's voices). The other highlight here is Saturn in Crosshairs - Chuck's voice sounds incredible and peak-gruff-punk; the last line of each verse he brings it back just a bit so that the choruses hit that much harder. As well as some excellent originals, we also get four covers including two Johnny Cash and June Carter numbers (I have a Johnny Cash greatest hits album from back in the day, but haven't spent a great deal of time with his music).

If I remember correctly, this project started out as a bunch of 7" records that eventually got grouped together here after the band went their separate ways (I could easily Google this, but it doesn't look like I'm going to). I picked up this copy for a bargain £5.50 on eBay (including postage!). I tried to work out what pressing it was once, but pretty much all of them were some sort of grey marble like this one. I also bought the cd for £2 (bargains all round) a while later so that I could have mp3s of it, but as an added bonus it includes four demos and another untitled song, all entirely unlisted, which was a nice surprise.

Format: 12", silkscreened folded sleeve, insert
Tracks: 13
Cost: £5.50 new
Bought: eBay
When: 27/10/07
Colour: Grey marble
Etching: none
mp3s: none

Chuck Ragan - 'Til Midnight

This is the fourteenth Chuck Ragan record I've written about on here, so you all know the drill by now. The interesting thing about this record is that it remains the last proper/traditional album Chuck has released - now four years and counting (I'm not including The Flame and the Flood here, although it is an excellent record). For a long time, Chuck was redefining the word "prolific" in the quantity of music he was putting out. 2011-2014 showed a marked slow-down in this rate, with only this album and the Live at Skaters' Palace live album. Since then, we've barely heard from him at all, and seen him tour even less often. I suspect he's busy being father, but I hope for more music at some point.

'Til Midnight is his fourth LP, and continues fairly seamlessly where Covering Ground left off, but I'd say is an even better album than it - the songs are full, well-rounded and feel like they were written with the band in mind. Something May Catch Fire is a huge song, the closest thing to a "classic" since Glory on Gold Country, and Non-Typical is similarly great. Side B starts out strong too with Gave My Heart Out and You and I Alone is surprisingly energetic for a song squirrelled away so late in the album. The drums on the closer For All We Care are perfect and create an epic way to finish off the album.

The sad thing is that without seeing him live so often (I've only seen him play solo once since this album came out) these songs haven't had the chance to become live favourites; I'd like to hear them in that setting and give them the chance to shine.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £11 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 21/04/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Chuck Ragan - Live at Skaters' Palace

Chuck Ragan seems to have slowed down his relentless output in the last couple of years. Between 2007 and 2014 he was playing solo shows constantly, and cranking out albums at a pace that was hard to keep up with. We saw him whenever we could, and found ourselves singing along in increasingly large venues. In the last three years, he's only released one studio album (which is a perfectly normal cadence for any other musician) and I can't think when the last time he toured was.

Luckily, for every studio album of his I have, I also have a live album (I'm on five of each, not counting the split album with Austin Lucas, but including the Daytrotter 10"), which means I can get some of the Chuck Ragan live experience whenever I want. Live at Skaters' Palace is the most recent of the live albums, and probably the one I know the least well; it doesn't include mp3s and I tend to go for Chuck Plays Frankfurt when I want to hear him live, because I'm not sure I'll ever tire of hearing it.

The setlist here is strong, but some of the later songs never struck me as hard, and I find too much peddle-steel guitar a bit grating. Most of the classics are there though - it finishes with the brilliant duo of The Boat and California Burritos, and has excellent versions of Rotterdam and For Broken Ears. If I were there, I'd have been shouting for Glory and Cursing Concrete but I have both of those on other live albums (Daytrotter and Frankfurt, respectively), so I can live with them not being here.

The unexpected highlight of this set is undoubtably Drag My Body, a Hot Water Music song from their 2012 album, Exister. One of the last times I saw Chuck was an afternoon in-store in Banquet Records that I was very pleased to be able to go to (this was whilst I was still finishing up my thesis). It was a short set (and my request for Cursing Concrete wasn't heard) but he played brilliantly. It was great to see him play entirely solo again, as that was something I hadn't been treated to for a good few years. The unexpected highlight of that set was also Drag My Body, so I was happy to have a Chuck-solo recording of it - I remember being floored by what a great song it was that afternoon in Banquet, and that's true of this version too; it's an incredible song and I recommend either version of it thoroughly. It works so well as a solo song that I wonder if Chuck wrote it with that intention. The only other HWM song he often plays live is "God Deciding", which doesn't translate anywhere near as obviously - whenever I hear either version it takes me a moment to remember the other version.

Keen to keep my collection of Chuck Ragan albums reasonably up-to-date, I ordered this from Uncle-M records in Germany shortly after it came out and was able to get the blue vinyl version (which now seems to sell for quite a lot on Discogs). I remember it arriving, because we had my friend Vicky staying with us for a couple of weeks, who commented on what a nice colour the vinyl was. At the time I remember thinking that £22 was a lot for an album (including postage from Germany!), but clearly things have changed a lot in those few years since.

Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve, insert
Tracks: 17
Cost: £22
Bought: Uncle-M Records website
When: 03/02/13
Colour: Light blue
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Chuck Ragan - Covering Ground

Another day, another Chuck Ragan record. Covering Ground is his third studio album and a pretty strong one at that. With his last three albums (so all of them except Feast or Famine, which I've loved since the first time I heard it) I'm finding that they don't blow me away on first listen but over the months and years more and more of the songs stand out as being excellent songs and the album gradually changes from being a solid Chuck Ragan LP to being an incredible one. It happened with Gold Country, it's happened here and I can already see it happening with Til Midnight. It's strange that Feast or Famine grabbed me so instantly when the rest take much longer.

Highlights are Nothing Left to Prove, Nomad By Fate and Meet You in the Middle but there are plenty of other great songs too. There are a couple of slower ones that don't grab me so much but they don't take away from the record. It's a nice package too - gatefold sleeve and a huge poster with the lyrics in the newspaper-style layout. Strangely, there's a gap of (mostly) silence between Lost and Found and the "hidden" track, Camaraderie of the Commons, which is something you don't see so often these days; I thought silent gaps before hidden songs was a thing of the late-90's but clearly I was wrong (or maybe it's because I don't buy cds that often anymore). Still the extra song is a nice surprise and great despite having to move the needle to get to it.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, 24x12" poster
Tracks: 10
Cost: £14 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 14/09/11
Colour: Black
Etching: None
mp3s: Download code

Chuck Ragan - Gold Country

Another day, another Chuck Ragan record. However, I shouldn't complain - there's a reason I keep buying them and that's because I do love his music. Gold Country is his second solo record which I bought after nearly two years of excessively playing Feast or Famine. I picked this up when I saw Chuck play live for the second time, which was in TJ's in Newport and on the last day of my job. I'd been working in Cardiff for nearly two years and I'd first seen Chuck shortly after I arrived in the city, just before I started said job. It felt like an excellent way to book-end my time there, especially given how much I'd listened to his music in between.

I think the album had been out a short while before the show, but I knew it would just be easier to buy it at the gig. They also had the Live in Zurich LP (on a lovely white and blue splatter vinyl) there that night and I bought both for £16. I'd heard Glory before on the split 7" he released with Brian Fallon and it remains to be one of my favourite songs on the record. Others have grown on me over time, but that is still the highlight for me.

I wasn't as instantly into Gold Country as I had been with Feast or Famine. The years have treated it well though and now there are loads of songs I think are great. For Goodness Sake is a great opener, The Trench and Let it Rain are great too. There are also some lovely slower moments too, like Don't Say a Word, Ole Diesel and Get 'Em All Home. All in all, a pretty excellent album.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £8 new
Bought: gig
When: 26/08/09
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "Mind the forked tongue" Side B: "Or wake up missing one"
mp3s: no

Chuck Ragan - Chuck Plays Frankfurt

When I saw the set-list of this unoffical/bootleg Chuck Ragan live album I knew I had to get a copy. I honestly don't think I could write a better set-list myself (save a few newer songs) - all of my favourite Chuck and Rumbleseat songs make an appearance along with some excellent covers. There are so many great songs I don't know where to start.

I arguably ended up paying too much for this record, but I don't regret a penny of it. I bought mine (238/300) on eBay near the start of my PhD and half a year after getting the Live in Zurich record. I normally don't get on board with bootlegs, but the songs here convinced me. Luckily the sound quality is excellent and the balance between vocals, guitar and crowd noise is perfect. I mention the last because the crowd add so much to these 23 songs and are clearly having a great time. On top of that, their cries of "more" keep Chuck playing for a whole extra side of vinyl, despite him claiming he'll only play "one last song" (luckily for everyone involved, these words have little meaning to Chuck). The two records have blank labels, a scratched out etching in the run-out grooves and the only way to tell the difference between sides A and B is to put the needle down. It's also worth noting that Coal Tattoo is mistakenly listed as Dream of a Miner's Child.

So where do I begin with the music? More than half of the songs on Feast or Famine appear which, given how much I love that album, is a good start. On top of that, my three favourite songs from the Rumbleseat album get played (Cursing Concrete, Saturn in Crosshairs and California Burritos, although I tend to consider the last of those three to be a Feast or Famine song). I haven't written about Rumbleseat on here yet, but when I do, expect a long rant about how great Cursing Concrete and Saturn in Crosshairs are. The crowd here provide some excellent backing vocals to Cursing Concrete. There's also another live version of Open Up and Wail, my personal highlight of the Los Feliz live album, and a scattering of other songs and covers. The closer Will the Circle be Unbroken is worth mentioning too.

One of nicest moments of the album however, is the cover of Bleeder by Alkaline Trio. When I saw Chuck in TJ's he played this after a few requests from the audience and everyone went mad for it. I've never been a huge Alkaline Trio fan and only knew the song from the Hot Water Music collection 'Til the Wheels Fall Off, but enjoyed it nonetheless. Here I see why everyone was so keen to hear it. There's woman in the crowd on this record whose voice you can hear throughout, but near the end she shouts out something about Bleeder and then screams in excitement when he starts playing it. I've always liked that you can hear how pleased she was that Chuck played her request because it really makes you feel like you're there in that venue in Germany.

So yes, I paid a lot for this unoffical record but I love it. I love that any time I want to feel like I'm in the crowd at a Chuck Ragan show I can just put on this album and be there, which is lucky, because I often wish I was at a Chuck Ragan show.


Format: double 12"
Tracks: 23
Cost: £51.51 new
Bought: eBay
When: 11/03/10
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Chuck Ragan - Live at Hafenkneipe Zurich

Live in Zurich was the second Chuck Ragan live album I bought and remains to be one of the nicest coloured records I own. It sometimes seems wrong to rave so much about the packaging, but they've done a really nice job on this one; the colours used in the sleeve and on the vinyl match brilliantly and the splatter looks great. Discogs tells me there are 500 like this and a further 1000 on two other colours/patterns.

Anyway, I bought this record the night of the second time I saw Chuck Ragan. He was playing TJ's in Newport and it was my last day of work in my old job. I went with my then-colleague Aled and it seemed like a nice way to end my last day in that job (as it happens the first time I saw him was nearly two years earlier, shortly before starting that job). The gig was great and at the end I bought this live album along with his newest album at the time, Gold Country. I still remember opening the records when I got home and being amazed by the colour of the vinyl of this one.

Musically, it comes across a more sombre set than on Los Feliz, but that was the feeling I got about Gold Country in general, so they seem like a good pairing (the exception on Gold Country being Glory, a fantastic and uplifting song). The set-list still has some favourites on (Between the Lines and a cover of Hot Water Music's Old Rules). Chuck is accompanied by his now-regular collaborators Jon Gaunt and Digger Barnes and they fill out songs like Geraldine and Rotterdam brilliantly. There's also a nice version of Revival Road, the song that came to the theme-song of the Revival Tour.

Two points of little significance: the photos inside show the crowd at this particular show, and it looks like it would have been a great show to be at. I've seen Chuck play huge venues like Shepherds Bush Empire and The Roundhouse but also tiny bars and record shops and they've all been excellent, but the small shows always seem more special; his music is suited to places where you can buy a drink and be just a few meters from the front of the stage at the same time. Secondly, the "thank you's" on the insert finish with the words "pura vida" which, after a recent holiday, I only describe as the Costa Rican for "cheers" (it literally translates to "pure life", but they use it in a similar way to the way we use "cheers"). All the other times I've looked at that insert those meant nothing to me, but now they do.

So all in all, another nice live album from Chuck, but I'm saving my favourite for tomorrow...

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £8 new
Bought: gig
When: 26/08/09
Colour: White with blue and black splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Chuck Ragan - Los Feliz

I've written extensively about how much time I have for Chuck Ragan many times before and how I can't get enough of his music. Luckily, he's also put out a bunch of live albums over the years and this is the first one I picked up.

On the 11th of October 2007 I had just seen Chuck Ragan for the first time, playing a solo show in Le Pub in Newport and it remains to be one of the best concerts I've ever seen. At the end I headed to the merch stand to pick up as much music of his that I could afford (which was only one cd at the time - a few days later I'd get my job and solve my money woes for a couple of years). I was tempted to buy Los Feliz on the basis that even if it was only half as good as the show that I just saw, then it would be amazing. My friend Hugh however recommended I get the album Feast or Famine, and given that it's one of my all-time favourite albums I think his recommendation was a wise one. I was £1 short of the £12 needed for the cd, but my friend Jon's friend who I'd only met a few hours earlier gave me the missing change. Either he was a very generous guy or perhaps that's the effect Chuck's music has on people (despite Cardiff being a very small city, I only bumped into that guy once more, but needless to say I'm still very grateful for that £1).

Anyway, I picked up Los Feliz when doing an online order from Revelation Records a few months afterwards. I'm reasonably sure the vinyl is the "gray mix" second pressing, but I'm colour-blind so it really be from any of the pressings. It looks nice either way. Musically, it's awesome, but we all knew I was going to say that. There are so many highlights it's hard to think where to begin, but Open Up and Wail deserves special mention for being absolutely incredible. I don't have a studio version of that song, but this one never fails to send a shiver down my spine. There's a moment in the last verse when a weaker voice would simply crack and the crowd cheer because they know only Chuck can pull it off with that much energy. What an incredible opener. The Boat and California Burritos are every bit as good as you'd expect them to be, the clap-alongs on For Broken Ears are great, and the Hot Water Music cover God Deciding is worth mentioning too.

I knew it would be impossible for a record to top my experience that night in Newport (because being there in person is a huge factor), but this album is certainly more than the half-as-good I was hoping for.

Format: 12", a4 insert

Tracks: 12

Cost: £9.50 new

Bought: Revelation Records website

When: 14/03/08

Colour: Gray mix

Etching: Side A: "¡Una noche a recordar" Side B: "Con todos mis amigos!" (A night to remember with all my firends!)

mp3s: no

Chuck Ragan - The Sawblade 7"

This is a nice looking record, so much so even Chuck himself agreed when he saw it. Last November Chuck Ragan played an in-store show at Banquet records in Kingston on a Tuesday lunchtime and, being a lazy student with nothing else to do, I jumped at the chance to see him play a tiny venue again. He played for 25 minutes and squeezed in some great songs (including an acoustic version of Drag My Body from the new Hot Water Music LP, which might be my favourite song on there). Banquet recorded the whole thing and you can watch it here. It was a very cool show indeed.

Afterwards, they explained that Chuck would be staying around for a bit to sign any records people wanted signed. I usually don't go for the whole autographed records things, but this is the man who wrote my second favourite album of all time so I decided I would get something signed and thank him for his great music. The problem however, was that I already had at home all of the Chuck/HWM albums Banquet had in stock and the only record I didn't already own was the slightly-more-expensive-than-I'd-have-liked-but-lovely-nonetheless Sawblade 7" which, as you can see, is in the shape of a circular sawblade with the outline of Florida and a hammer crossing it. It is a lovely looking record, and looks even nicer in white. I had been thinking about buying it for a while and figured today was as good a day as any. I'm always happy to spend my money at Banquet, especially when they put on incredible free live shows like that, and I figured I would have paid at least a fiver to see that, so maybe the cost of the record isn't that bad after all.

Anyway, Chuck signed the label (see the last picture) and was pretty impressed that Banquet had it in on white vinyl, we had a brief chat and I was off. He is a thoroughly lovely man. Musically it's very nice too, although Live by the Sword has already found its way into my record collection twice (here and here), so calling it "unreleased" is a bit of a stretch (although the recording is different here, and a nice one at that - the backing vocals give it a haunting feel). The other song Field Holler is another great Chuck song and would have sat on his last record perfectly.

All in all, a nice record with even nicer memories of a great gig.

Format: 7" shaped vinyl (12" across at its widest)

Tracks: 2

Cost: £11 new

Bought: Banquet Records

When: 13/11/12

Colour: White

Etching: none

mp3s: no

Chuck Ragan - Feast or Famine

This album is one of my all-time favourite records. In fact I'd go so far as to say it's a safe number 2 in such a list (behind In the Aeroplane Over the Sea) and it has been for a good five years now. I'll start at the very beginning.

In 2007 I moved to Cardiff for no reason other than I had no reason why not to. I'd just finished university and had to look for a job somewhere, so I found a house with my friend Hugh and a couple of his friends. I was excited to be living in an interesting city after three years in Lancaster and very keen to start seeing bands more often. Not long after we moved in Hugh suggested going to see Chuck Ragan from Hot Water Music play in Le Pub in Newport. I only had Caution and A Flight and a Crash but enjoyed them, so agreed to it (and for the first time in years I was in debt to Hugh rather than the other way around).

On the 11th of October Hugh and I met up with his friend Jon, Reza, and two others whose names I since forgotten and we all got the train to Newport to see Chuck. The gig was incredible (Hugh claims it was the best concert he'd ever seen, and it's certainly one of my favourites). Gunrack? (a Wayne's World reference) opened up and were excellent (Young Hearts was always a classic) and then Chuck took to the stage. I'd only heard bits of the album briefly on the kitchen hi-fi at this point, so wasn't fully prepared for what happened; he belted out the most heart-felt, brilliant songs and played so passionately and genuinely there can't have been a single person in there not impressed. This was my introduction to the world of acoustic folk/punk and I couldn't have asked for a better way to start.

The Boat was incredible, a song whose meaning I have a lot of time for, but California Burritos was the highlight; about five or six guys near the front all had their arms around each other singing along every word to, what I didn't realise at the time, would become my favourite song. It was quite an incredible few minutes in an already incredible evening. At the end of the show I bought the cd of Feast or Famine, an album I've played more times than I care to imagine. Everything I felt about the live show is captured perfectly on these 12 songs and they've become the bench-mark to which I compare all other acoustic music. I can't recommend it enough. It's What You Will, Between the Lines and Do What You Do are all songs worth mentioning too. I ended up picking up a copy on vinyl at the No Idea Yard Sale because it's nice to have great music on vinyl.

Since most of this has been off-topic (more about that gig than the album itself), I figured it's also worth mentioning where this album has taken me: I spent ages trying to find records that are similar to this and seeing musicians of a similar style. If I hadn't seen Chuck that night I may have never heard music by Austin Lucas, William Elliott Whitmore, Sam, Jimmy and Helen, anyone on the Revival Tour and countless others (not to mention the Daytrotter Sessions). All in all, I'm pretty happy with what this record has led me to.

I used to be in a group on Facebook where each month we'd get paired up at random and make a mixtape for the other person. I put California Burritos on one I made for some girl in America (I've put it on practically every mixtape I've made in the last five years) and she sent me a message back saying how much she loved that song. Hopefully she checked the album out too and got at least somewhere near as much out of it as I did.


Format: 12", 10"x20" insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £4.96 new
Bought: No Idea Yard Sale
When: 29/10/11
Colour: Marbled grey
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Chuck Ragan + Brian Fallon - Gospel Songs

This is a nice little record. I picked it up one day in Spillers along with a couple of other 7"s and the reissue of Young Team by Mogwai. I'd only gone in for the Mogwai cd but figured I'd browse the 7"s too (something I rarely did). It was the year after my Tuesday-record-from-Spillers year and I was definitely going in less, probably because I was still catching up with the wealth of new music I'd bought every Tuesday the year before (both musically and financially). Anyway, two songs: one from Chuck Ragan (of his own, and Hot Water Music fame) and one from Brian Fallon from The Gaslight Anthem.

I'm a big fan of Chuck and at some point I will make the time to appropriately gush about how awesome I think Feast or Famine is. His song here is one of my favourites and by far the best song on Gold Country, his second album that came out shortly after this single. It's a fantastically upbeat song, dotted with handclaps, backing vocals and group "la la la la"s; all things I love. The description on sleeve about how the song came to life is lovely too. I like songs about how great music is.

I missed the boat a little with The Gaslight Anthem but people seem pretty keen on them and they do have some catchy tunes. The song Brian contributes here is possibly a little too far on the country side of the folk/punk/country genre for my liking. Sometimes I feel a little too British to really get on board with music about America in the 50's and 60's. It's not a bad song at all, but compared to Glory's uplifting feel it does come across a little dull. Maybe I should play this one side B then side A.

Format: 7", cd-sized insert
Tracks: 2
Cost: £4 new
Bought: Spillers
When: 08/08/09
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Chuck Ragan - Break Our Bread

The two songs on the b-side of this record both appeared in the same form on the split with Anderson Family Bluegrass so the only song I'll write about here is Will the Circle Be Unbroken. It's an old-ish bluegrass song that Chuck has covered live from time to time. It's a nice tune and Chuck's gravely vocals work nicely with it. He does sad songs like this just as well as uplifting ones like California Burritos.

The other two are pretty nice, but I've said that before. Since the chances of me ever completing my Chuck Ragan collection get smaller with each obscure 7" that appears, records like this seem a bit redundant, but it is a very nice 7". Interestingly (for record geeks), the labels are on the wrong sides here: side A in the picture below has two tracks and plays side B and vice versa.


Format: 7"
Tracks: 3
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Gig
When: 23/03/10
Colour: Black
Etching: no
mp3s: no

Chuck Ragan + Anderson Family Bluegrass - Split

Another from my far-from-complete Chuck Ragan collection. Not the cheapest, or most necessary record, but a nice one regardless. The first song is Revival Road, the song that came to represent the Revival Tour very well. I love the idea behind the Revival Tour and I was pleased they brought it over here last year - there are a lot of great artists involved, all making lovely songs. The next two are In The Clouds and Live By The Sword (a live version with Paige Anderson of Anderson Family Bluegrass) and are both on the Break Our Bread 7". Both are good songs.

Paige has a fairly shrill voice, but it works with the music (particularly next to Chuck's singing). That said, it still catches me off-guard each time I put the needle on the second side. Two more nice songs. Chuck gets a joint writing credit on the second song but doesn't sing. He could well be playing guitar though. I really know nothing about Anderson Family Bluegrass, I suppose the idea is the record will make me check them out. I like the songs but, ultimately, they're just less to my taste.

I picked this up when Chuck toured with Frank Turner a couple of years ago. I went to two nights of that tour (London and Portsmouth); I'm a big fan of both artists and knew people who'd want to go in each city. Chuck played Kingston without Frank a few nights later, but I had to go to Cambridge for a conference so couldn't make it. A rare example of my PhD taking priority over music. It's a nice coloured record and only 9 inches across, a format I assumed reserved for Nine Inch Nails singles. Kinda expensive though.

Chuck Ragan has been quite prolific over the last few years in putting out 7"s here and there, and the early ones are pretty hard to come by, so it's pretty fair to say it'll never be a complete collection. I can still enjoy the records I do have like this one though.


Format: 9"
Tracks: 5
Cost: £12 new
Bought: Gig
When: 23/03/10
Colour: Green and clear
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Chuck Ragan - Live From Rock Island - The Daytrotter Session

In January 2010 there were a number of things I didn't know: I'd never heard of Banquet Records nor the Daytrotter Sessions, and I didn't know the name of the attractive girl in my maths class. I've since forgotten the latter, but I did find it out at one point and naturally had a very quick Facebook stalk. In the Pages she liked there was one about Frank Turner playing at the Hippodrome in Kingston, all arranged by this record store that looked incredible. It probably says a lot about me that I then spent even longer on their website than her page on Facebook, promptly forgot all about her and planned a trip to Kingston as soon as possible.

A few days later I got on a train to Kingston (which always involved a 25 minute wait at Twickenham) and made a line straight for Eden Street. I wasn't disappointed. I'd seen pictures of the shop and thought it looked very cool. My memory is a bit hazy due to the excitement that comes from finding such a shop, but I'm pretty sure this is one of the first records I picked up in there, and when I realised that "very cool" was quite the understatement. I'm a big fan of Chuck (as I've mentioned before, and will again) and would buy every record he's ever put out if I had the cash. As I said, I'd not heard of Daytrotter, and even less that this recording existed so I was very excited to get it. I spent a lot of time and money that afternoon, and text Hugh afterwards very excitedly to tell him about the shop and my purchases.

The session on the record is awesome. I'm not sure Chuck has ever played a bad show, and even if he tried the songs would make it brilliant alone. When I come to talk about Feast or Famine on here I will undoubtedly rant about the first time I saw him and how California Burritos is way up there on the list of Songs That Changed My Life. That said, Glory is such a brilliant song I rate that one nearly as highly. The version on here is great. It's lovely little record in every way. Nice orange vinyl and some words from Chuck about each song too.

A few days after my first-of-many trip to Banquet I got round to checking out Daytrotter's website and was taken back again. The list of bands that have recorded for them is incredible. I spent the next day filling up my office computer with session after session of my favourite bands, bands friends were into, and bands I'd never heard of. Through that website I got into Low, Doomtree and the Constantines and heard so many fantastic recordings. I love the whole set up (bands passing by pop in and record a few songs for them) and the bands they get to come in never fails to amaze me. Not all end up on vinyl, but I'm glad this one did, otherwise I may still be ignorant to it.

All in all, this record alone represents a number of massively significant events both in terms of the music I'm listening to, but also (and more importantly) to the fact I now live in Kingston, visit Banquet nearly weekly and go the shows they put on. I can't even begin to list the bands I've got into because of them, nor the incredible shows I've seen. Of course it's mostly down to how awesome the guys that run Banquet are, but in part it's down to that little bit of Facebook stalking. I'd thank the girl, except I've forgotten her name and it would be incredibly creepy.

Format: 10", insert
Tracks: 7
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Banquet
When: 18/01/10
Colour: orange
Etching: no
mp3s: no (but all Daytrotter Sessions are free downloads)