Tag: Tango in the Night

Origin Story — Studying Popular Music and Preparing for The Stratton Setlist

At age 5 with my first record player, a Fisher-Price Change-A-Record Music Box Record Player

Editor’s Note: This is the first installment in a multipart series celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Stratton Setlist.

I never planned to be a music journalist, but I’ve been unknowingly training for it my whole life.

My parents and older brother, Steve, served as my coaches, offering me different educational resources along the way—ranging from albums, TV shows, and magazines to concerts and festivals.

Those resources helped shape my love of music, a desire to acquire more music knowledge, an obsession with live music and physical media, and an uncanny ability to remember all kinds of music facts and trivia. It was that lifetime of training that quietly prepared me to eventually seek a profession that combined my passion for music with writing.

Now, nearly 45 years later and a decade into running my own music blog, here’s how it all started.

Continue reading “Origin Story — Studying Popular Music and Preparing for The Stratton Setlist” →

‘Rumours’ – Fleetwood Mac’s Blockbuster Album Doesn’t Stop 40 Years Later

Fleetwood Mac's 2013 reissue of "Rumours."
Fleetwood Mac’s 2013 reissue of “Rumours.”

My mom retreated to her bedroom to unearth a classic rock album from her 1970s era vinyl collection.

She flipped through the dusty Linda Ronstadt, Carly Simon and Eagles albums to locate Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours.”

There it was. The original copy she had purchased when I was a baby.

She quickly grabbed the album and brought it downstairs to play during a family listening party one night in April 1987. She plopped the album down on my grandma’s large wooden stereo system, which featured a 1972 era record player inside and was adorned with large golden knobs.

My brother, Steve, and I requested the listening party after picking up a copy of Fleetwood Mac’s “Tango in the Night.” We wanted to hear the band’s mega hit album from a decade earlier in its entirety.

Continue reading “‘Rumours’ – Fleetwood Mac’s Blockbuster Album Doesn’t Stop 40 Years Later” →