music to my ears

Yesterday a small disaster struck.

I strolled into our living room with a hankering to "spin some vinyl" on our old record player. (That's right, the kind that plays the old vinyl discs... it's a sizable chunk of furniture that I obstinately insisted on hauling across the country, much to my wife's chagrin...)

I picked out the record I was itching to hear... an Imperials album from the early 70s... "(Don't You Worry) He's On His Way" has the greatest of grooves...

And the turntable didn't work.

After a bit of coaxing, twisting, tugging, and gentle encouragement... the whole turntable mechanism pretty much came off in my hands...

Now what? Who repairs these things? Besides, I'd need to rent a truck to haul it away for someone to look at...

What is to become of the collection of records preserved from my childhood (Funky Favorites, The Kingston Trio, Music Machine, Buddy Holly... my dad wouldn't let me take the Elvis, Simon and Garfunkel, and Kris Kristofferson albums), and painstakingly supplemented by thrift-store acquisitions ever since (old time fiddle tunes, John Denver, Raffi, and John Michael Talbot albums galore... not to mention Nat King Cole and an old Rick Neufeld album featuring a certain Burton Cummings on piano, flute, and backing vocals)...?

In any case, while I deal with this crisis, I've been hearing a common refrain as I prepare for my upcoming March tour in the US: "...nobody here knows your name, but some of them know your songs..."

Ahhh... that, at least, is music to my ears...