This year is almost history, it’s 47 days ‘till Christmas and a few days later a new year will be here and we’ll start it all over again. I could have done without part of this year, them operations ain’t like eatin’ a chicken dinner, old sawbones said just before he started using that knife, "This won’t hurt at all" what he meant was, it wasn’t going to hurt him "at all"…He did say it was going to take a while to get back to normal whatever that is, anyway July the 23^rd seems a hundred years ago.
 

We have been asked more then once why we still buy cassettes to put in our catalog and actually that’s a very good question, so here’s the answer.

Over the years just about every 50’s artist had singles (45’s) to sell and send to radio stations and some had a LP or two and others when they came into style had a cassette album, now cassette albums were great to carry in your car, they didn’t take up much room and sounded really good as long as you didn’t leave them on your dashboard and then sun got to it.

As time went by a lot of those artists passed away, the companies that owned those masters re-mastered those old tapes and put them on what we now know as a CD, BUT some never did and that great old music for some was and will be forever frozen on a cassette album.

With all of the equipment that can now be bought by anyone that has a few bucks, and I do mean a few bucks, can put it (a cassette album) on a CD themselves for less then a dollar.

When duplicating equipment first came out several years ago, some of it cost a couple thousand dollars and up-up-up , and we are talking about equipment anyone could use in their own home not one of them big studios, now days if you look around a couple hundred bucks or less can buy you a machine that can duplicate you a CD in just a few minutes and unless you have ears that hear better then a mouse you have got a great CD.

If you want to take the time to make a label for your new CD, Staples or any other place that sells blank disc has the labels and with the package comes the program on a CD that has all the layouts and graphics to make you a great looking label and in color, that is if you have a color printer.

There are those who say, that those stick on labels will come loose and jam up your CD player well that’s probably true if you leave your CDs in the sun, if it’s 80 outside it’s probably a hundred and twenty inside your car when you leave it all day in a parking lot, that’s why kids and dogs die in there because you forgot to take them out.

We have been using those labels since day one and every one of them is still as tight on that disc as skin on a frog’s belly, not once has one come loose and jammed up any machine we have, but to each his own you can always just write on your new CD with a color marker pen.

NOW please understand this, if you have a machine and you make a copy from a cassette make sure it ends there, don’t be making copies to sell, that’s bootlegging and if you get caught you will probably go to jail and you should, one copy for yourself any artist would be proud to have you do that, but no more. China does enough bootlegging for the whole world.

So like we said some of the early artists who’s records made it to cassette were never put on CDs and if they were they are few and far between and super hard to find, if you can at all.

And that’s why we still buy and sell cassette albums because on them there is some great music, the cassette albums sell for about 3 bucks, a blank CD when you buy a stack of them cost you about 50 cents or less each and that plus a few minutes of your time and you have a CD pretty much second to none.

In the spring of 2010 if the good lord willin’ and the creeks don’t rise this whole collection of records, tapes, pictures, posters, cases of old contracts, and a ton of other country music stuff collected over the years will all be moved to our building in Kentucky.

We thought about other places but other places cost money and for what we want to do you are never sure of anything, since the buildings in Kentucky belong to us, nobody will be coming by tomorrow and throwing us out, we (my brother and I) do not plan on living in Kentucky at least for a while, we have enough cousins living close by to run the place for us, we will go down a few times a year and spend some time fishing or taking a snooze in the bluegrass or maybe just doin’ nothin’.

We will have a mini Museum and archive and gift shop with thousands of CDs and other stuff and for the most part will all be "Classic Country".

It won’t be the Hall Of Fame like Nashville or the Cowboy Hall Of Fame like in Oklahoma City but it will be good enough that old friends and new friends can stop by to play checkers with us on the front porch drink some free coffee and talk about all the stuff that might have been.

We will have a good and better mail order catalog and you don’t have to be in a fancy place to mail someone a CD.

Anyone that has any old country records or any thing else you think might look good hanging on the wall for all that come by to see we would sure like to have it.

The museum part will be a non-profit, tax exempt foundation so any thing you donate can be written off.

While putting Eddie Dean’s Star in the Palm Springs Walk Of Fame we noticed that all who had donated anything at all to that foundation, whether it be one buck or anything else they had carved their name in a brick to make a wall so all could see, we are already looking for someone near by our place that can do that for us because that’s what it’s all about.

We are putting together a package to send out to all those who have an old record or picture of one of the old Country artists or one of the great silver screen cowboys or anybody else you think might look good displayed on the wall.

We will keep you up with what we are doing with the Museum and Foundation, as I mentioned (I think) my Brother is in Kentucky right now putting things together and called just a short while ago to say he already had the sign painter lined up to call me for what was to be put on the signs for the front of the building and what color, didn’t take me long to say red, white and blue.

Anyway it is going to be a big move but I am sure looking forward to it, all this stuff will look good on the walls, nothing ain’t worth nothing if you can’t share it.

Funny how things run in spurts, just this month alone we must have had 15 request for Jim Alley music, records, CDs or anything else and Jim Alley pictures, we spoke with Jim a few months ago from his home I guess it was, in Chicago, but I am still not sure how many recordings Jim made or how many were released, what I do know is that his version of his song "Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line" was one of the best, if not the best.

I always thought that it would be interesting to see the names of who really wrote what, the names you used to see on records as the writer was not always true, for instance Willie Nelson’s "Family Bible" on most of the early records do not have Willie’s name on the record as the writer. Willie was short on money so they say and sold his writers right. I did see some where that he has since bought it back but a lot of writers never made enough money to buy back anything so the artists most times got credit and the money for the song they really didn’t write.

A great writer sat right here in my studio one night and named off 8 or 10 songs that he wrote lock, stock and barrel and then sold them never to receive another penny, some of the songs hit the top of the charts, but they all made a lot of money for an artist you all know well, the artist had a lot of money, the writer barely getting buy and let’s face it before it is recorded and released the words and music are just an 8 by 10 piece of paper with words on it, and the kids were hungry.

Oh boy, how would you feel to write a song that went on to become a million seller and you sold it for a few hundred bucks, that’s jumpin’ over the cliff time.

So do me a favor, start looking through your old pictures and old records for some you don’t need anymore, if the picture is one you treasure you can always make a copy, some of the copies now days look as good as the original and that’s fine and remember whatever it is you can always write it off.

There is a guy in Texas that you would really be happy to hear some of his music, his name is Brian Burns, you can find him and his web site on Google, and no, he didn’t ask me to write this, he doesn’t even know me but if this guy don’t sing a great song I’ll kiss your chicken.

And here is a PS before I’m through, most of the real country music now days is coming straight from-- deep in the heart of Texas. When you bring up Brian’s site look for this CD called "Highways, Heartaches and Honky Tonks" a couple of these songs will make your liver quiver.

There are a lot of other things we need to catch up on but for now and most of all we wanted you to know about the move and now you do. So we are going to call it quits for tonight and get this online so you can start looking for old records and other old country stuff.

We’ll see ye later but just in case we don’t, take care of yourself and God Bless America

Don Bradley

Country Classics