This week, Christopher Long scores another vinyl treasure from his teenage pot-smoking past — a shockingly pristine copy of Pieces of Eight, the 1978 masterwork from Styx. And he got it for FREE!

This week, Christopher Long receives a FREE pre-loved vinyl copy of Joe’s Garage Acts II & III, the 1979 double-record masterpiece from Frank Zappa. And he soon relearns the correlation between music, heartbreak, and “unpronounceable diseases.”

Boasting a bounty of country-fried sing-alongs that shine as brightly as their rhinestone-studded outfits, Midnight Cowgirls is one of those special new bands that just demands attention. Christopher Long recently chatted up guitarist / vocalist Blaise Dahl about the Cowgirls’ warp-speed world.

Longtime Ink 19 staff writer Christopher Long spent almost the entire year consuming and writing about new music. Here are his personal Dirty Dozen: the 12 records that made his heart the happiest in 2024.

Sunswept (Sunswept Records). Review by Christopher Long.

Devil Songs and Other Such Nonsense . Review by Christopher Long.

A laundromat provides refuge and family to the lost souls of small town Texas.

A playlist by Phil Bailey that takes a wrong turn into the funny and un-PC (even for the ’60s-‘70s) pastures of classic country music

Plastic Bouquet (New West Records). Review by James Mann.

The Loneliness in Me (Mal Records). Review by Christopher Long.

You Don’t Know Me (Southpaw Musical Productions). Review by Christopher Long.

Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3 (Aimless Records). Review by James Mann.

A few our editor saved from falling thru the cracks of 2017.

Forever and Then Some (Third Man Records). Review by Jen Cray.

To the Top (Plowboy Records). Review by Christopher Long.

Leslie Tom. Review by Carl F Gauze.

South Texas Suite (Six Shooter Records, Inc.). Review by James Mann.

Somewhere Else (Bloodshot Records). Review by James Mann.

Holly Grove. Review by James Mann.

I Like to Keep Myself in Pain (Anti). Review by James Mann.