Bursts of orange color in the maple trees outside my office window

It’s time to break out those sweatshirts and all your favorite sweaters.

Mid-October on the New Hampshire Seacoast means the leaves are almost done showing off, the Habs are back for another hockey season, and my turntable is beginning to do most of the heavy lifting again. With the warmer weather ending, I have more time to spend indoors, spin my precious vinyl, read more books, and catch up on a few TV shows. I’ve been buying records for over 40 years, and somewhere along the way I picked up a simple test for anything that wants my time: Would I flip it over? The keepers are the ones that get me off my chair to drop the needle on side two without a second thought. I think I created this test sometime back in high school with my equally music-obsessed friend and neighbor, Ken.

The same goes for TV shows and books… would I read chapter two? Would I watch the second episode? This week, I’m sharing a few records that passed that flip test, a couple of books I’ve just read, and a brand new fall playlist.

No algorithm picked any of these. I did, and I’ll stand behind every one. Well, most of them, I think…

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🎶 Pressure Cooker by Clarence Gatemouth Brown

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown earned more respect in Paris, France than here at home, and Pressure Cooker proves it. Alligator Records released this album in 1985, pulling the best cuts from his five albums for the French label Black and Blue. In the early ’70s, he lived in New Mexico and mostly played with local country bands, but in France, he was a headliner. His take on Louis Jordan’s “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” is pure fun.

This isn’t raw Chicago blues. It’s swing, jazz, and a little country twang, played by an incredible band. It earned a Grammy nod, and I’d say it’s the best front door into Gatemouth Brown’s catalog. If you’re unfamiliar, definitely start here.

🎶 Ask Me Tomorrow by Mojave 3

I love the band Slowdive. I think Souvlaki is one of the best albums released in the ‘90s. It’s dark, ethereal, and shoegaze. That’s pretty much everything I wanted on an album in 1993. After Slowdive disbanded, former members Neil Halstead, Rachel Goswell, and Ian McCutcheon, along with keyboardist Alan Forrester and former Chapterhouse guitarist Simon Rowe, created Mojave 3. Their debut album on 4 AD Records is Ask Me Tomorrow. Some label it sadcore or dream pop, but to me, it’s just good music with a slight country tinge to the melancholy.

Mojave 3 has released five studio albums, but my favorite is the first one. A great record you can listen to no matter how you’re feeling.

🎶 Reckoning by R.E.M.

Released in 1984 on IRS Records, this album is one of my favorites. There isn’t a bad song on this record, but if I had to choose my favorites, I’d pick “Harborcoat,” “So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry),” “Time After Time (Annelise),” “Camera,” and “(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville.” That’s already half the album…

I was also reading somewhere that “(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville,” written by bassist Mike Mills, is a plea to his then-girlfriend not to return to Rockville, Maryland, where she grew up.

R.E.M. is one band I regret not seeing live, but if Michael Stipe tours after his new record is released, I’m definitely buying a ticket.

📚 Contrapposto by Dave Eggers

This novel follows Cricket, who loves to draw, at various stages of his life. He’s in love with an eccentric woman involved in the art scene. The two live very different lives but keep reconnecting sporadically as they travel. I loved this book. It spans over 60 years — yes, it’s a love story, but it made me think about my own mortality and how much time we all have. It’s okay if you get a little teary-eyed when you finish. Written by one of my favorite authors, too.

Contrapposto = in the visual arts, a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders & arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in an axial plane.

📚 Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel

It begins in Los Angeles, 2031, as a curfew lifts after California becomes a new nation following the fall of the U.S., and everyone wants to celebrate. A party host is having fun until a doppelganger drifts through the crowd and the host quietly disappears.

That’s where Emily St. John Mandel begins Exit Party, and it’s hard to put down once it gets going.

I’ll be honest. I lost track of who was who, as characters slip between timelines, and more than once I had to stop and ask myself, wait, which one is this? Stick with it. The more I read, and the more I sat with it afterward, the faster it all clicked. Mandel hands you the pieces and trusts you to finish the puzzle. If you read Station Eleven or Sea of Tranquility, this one is for you.

🍁 Playlist

A simple playlist of my favorite songs that always remind me of fall in New England.

By the way…

I’m having fun selling records and CDs on whatnot. If you’re on the platform, follow me and let me know what you think.

The best part is going live and talking music with the people in the chat, and then running a record and seeing who wins.

The worst part? Packaging up all the records afterward and bringing them to the local post office. It takes time, but it’s still worth it.

It’s time for sweater weather