AXPONA 2023 – What About the Music?

One of my other favorite reasons for going to audio expos is that sometimes you get introduced to new music. I say sometimes because a lot of people play the same audiophile tracks over and over across the rooms.

If you’ve been to a show, you’ll know what I mean. Regardless, I did capture a good amount of music from AXPONA, as well as from the Florida Audio Expo that happened in February and made a Qobuz playlist of the tracks I heard that I don’t typically hear at these types of shows. If you’d like to explore them for yourself, you can find the playlist here:

https://open.qobuz.com/playlist/13524728

Who Needs Record Store Day Anyways?

Even though Record Store Day is happening today, I must say that many people, including me, got their fill of record shopping last week, The vendors upped their game, and it was great to see expanded offerings from Acoustic Sounds, Elusive Disc, Music Direct and others.

I personally was able to buy three records that were in my shopping cart (I was too cheap as I hadn’t qualified for free online shipping). From Elusive Disc, I got two Stockfish records from Chris Jones, including his most notable 180g 45rpm 2LP album Roadhouses & Automobiles and the 2LP concert album Are We There Yet with Sara K. Chris Jones is an incredible blues, folk, rock and country guitarist with an incredible voice. Most audiophiles know him for his track “No Sanctuary Here”, which tends to be on rotation at every audiophile show. But little do they know that the remainder of the album is just as good! Stockfish records always does a great job recording, producing, mastering and pressing all of their albums. I have a few of their records from Sara K already, and they are just wonderful. In Are We There Yet, while the live concert could have been better recorded, both artists perform at their best and still deliver a compelling show, and the mastering and pressing are, as expected, top notch.

I also came across a new repress of Acoustic Sounds’ Lightnin’ Hopkins’ Lightnin’ 200 gram, which I was pleased to repurchase for $40. I previously owned this album, but regrettedly sold it for about $200 when I thought I would be moving away from vinyl. But in my luck, it came back on market right around the time of the show, and I was able to pick it up and add it to my collection!

I hope you enjoy some of the music sampling above, and if you have anything you think I’d enjoy based on the selection you hear, please share with me, too!