I was cleaning out the office space yesterday, and way back in a corner, I found the last box of the LPs of Mountain Home pressed on vinyl.
The album was originally released on April 26, so the album turns 2 years old today. Happy anniversary- we’ve through so much together.
This album was the first album we pressed on vinyl, and I quickly realized that you have to take good care of vinyl when you’re on the road. If it gets too hot, it warps or melts. It’s much more high maintenance than say, CDs. It’s seems CDs can withstand 120 F degrees, at least the ones I’ve owned for years and kept stored in the truck.
Having copies of your vinyl album while traveling… it’s like having a puppy. You can’t just leave it in a hot vehicle for a few hours.
So in the first few weeks after having vinyl for sale (it was spring/summer in Texas), when I was headed somewhere to play a show, I would never stop anywhere for long during the daytime. I’d park in the shade and just get everything to eat to go, drive thru, etc.
I was complaining to my friend Jamie Wilson about it, and I was saying, “yeah, I just have to keep the AC on, and I always have to time the travel right, so that the vinyl doesn’t sit in the car. Vinyl on the road is kind of a pain in the ass.”
She looked at me and said, with a clear and practical question that solved the problem:
“Why don’t you just get a backpack and bring the vinyl with you when you go inside?”
So that’s what I do now – someday you might see me at a Cracker Barrel with a backpack full of LPs.
But this last box has been in the air conditioning all its life.
If you want one of the last copies of the album on vinyl, we’ve got the last of them here-