Kent Williams DJ Set KRUI 6/25/2011 – The Accidental Curator

I spend a lot of time at thrift stores, garage sales, and second hand stores looking for records. When I’ve collected enough interesting records together to fill a radio show, I lug the vinyl to the IMU for a radio show.

Someone who spends time on EBay and Discogs searching for records, who spends hours combing through YouTube going from one obscure house track to another in order to assemble their ultimate vinyl wishlist, end up with a certain sort of record collection. They’ve spent time boning up on music, read books on the subject, made and lost friends on the internet over records. They’re the true students of the art.

I’m more of a magpie — selecting records based on the relatively short list of producers and artists I’m already familiar with, and winging it based on extra-musical cues — the record label it’s on, the cover art, the song titles. I’m also happiest picking up records for a dollar or two. This mix is an assemblage of that sort of records.

And there’s some true gems that are in amongst all the copies of the “Victory At Sea” soundtrack album. How else would I have ever found out about Joy Ryder, or Claudia T? By the way I played Claudia T’s “Fatal Destination” at 33 when it should have been 45, and I think I like it better at the wrong speed.

And the incomparable Cissy Houston? Now, if people know who she is at all it is as the mother of R&B trainwreck Whitney Houston. But Cissy’s career went from gospel to backup singer to flirting with being a disco Diva. Her singing on “Think It Over” combines impeccable phrasing with deep soul.

Sometimes you can judge a book by it’s cover, after all — I do it all the time, and I’m pleasantly surprised more than I’m disappointed.