...there's not much to be found here. There are a handful of thrift stores that still have vinyl (sometimes for as little as 25 cents), a corner at the Haney Place Mall Antique Fair (which, it happens, is closing down on Tuesday), and one old couple on the Lougheed Highway who sell records out of their costume/ dance shop, with a highly arbitrary filing system that suggests very little knowledge of the music they sell. It would be possible to look at every record for sale in downtown Maple Ridge within a three hour span, if you simply walked from location to location, as I have sometimes done. Begin at the Hospital Auxiliary thrift store on the south side of Dewdney between 222nd and 223rd; cross the street to check out the Cythera Thrift store in the old Haney Mall, near Liquidation World; walk east from there along the Dewdney to the Hospice Thrift store, around back of the insurance brokers at 224th and Dewdney; detour past Haney Place Mall (unless you're in town this weekend, in which case the Antique Fair will still be open); then hit Bibles for Missions thrift store, on the Lougheed Highway, between 224th and 225th. Once you're done, turn west and walk straight through the 224th intersection, where - a few stores past the Tim Horton's, you'll find the old couple's shop. If you continue to the Pitt Meadows side of town, around 207th, there's a Value Village, and around 202nd there's a Salvation Army. Unless I've missed something, you'll have thus seen every used record for sale in Maple Ridge. (Unless you come on Wednesday before 4pm, mind you, which is when St. Andrews church has their thrift sale).
Whether you'd find anything you wanted would be another matter. For every obscure gem you might find, you'll get your hands dusty and get a kink in your neck from flipping through a bazillion Mantovani, Bert Kampfert, Perry Como, Alfred Apaka, and Dionne Warwick albums; pickings are so slim that even finding a Reveen record is cause to smile. In the goin'-on-two-years since I've moved back here, doing the thrift store rounds out of sheer lack of there being anything else to do in Maple Ridge, I've netted only about half a dozen gems, like a Sidney Bechet anthology, a somewhat scratchy (but 100% free!) Esquivel, or an album of Spike Jones interpreting Hank Williams tunes. The good thing is about making a find in a town like this is that it will likely cost you 50 cents, which is the going rate for a slab of vinyl. (The highest prices, at said old couple's shop, are $2 each, or three for five dollars).
Today's pickings were a bit better than usual, as it happens. Devoting myself to a thorough poke through the Haney Place Mall netted me two Martin Denny albums, while the dance shop on the Lougheed netted me an old-school country-cum-rockabilly album by Spade Nielsen and the Gamblers, featuring a most appealing cover and what I father is their hit, "Pickle Squirts." (Sorry, folks, it's not on Youtube). I had been hoping to find some funk or blues or oldschool R&B - maybe the original version of the Supremes "My World Is Empty," would be fun to hear, since the Little Guitar Army cover it on their new CD; still, the rule is, take what you can find. And, I mean, how can I not want to hear a song called "Pickle Squirts?"
...there's not much to be found here. There are a handful of thrift stores that still have vinyl (sometimes for as little as 25 cents), a corner at the Haney Place Mall Antique Fair (which, it happens, is closing down on Tuesday), and one old couple on the Lougheed Highway who sell records out of their costume/ dance shop, with a highly arbitrary filing system that suggests very little knowledge of the music they sell. It would be possible to look at every record for sale in downtown Maple Ridge within a three hour span, if you simply walked from location to location, as I have sometimes done. Begin at the Hospital Auxiliary thrift store on the south side of Dewdney between 222nd and 223rd; cross the street to check out the Cythera Thrift store in the old Haney Mall, near Liquidation World; walk east from there along the Dewdney to the Hospice Thrift store, around back of the insurance brokers at 224th and Dewdney; detour past Haney Place Mall (unless you're in town this weekend, in which case the Antique Fair will still be open); then hit Bibles for Missions thrift store, on the Lougheed Highway, between 224th and 225th. Once you're done, turn west and walk straight through the 224th intersection, where - a few stores past the Tim Horton's, you'll find the old couple's shop. If you continue to the Pitt Meadows side of town, around 207th, there's a Value Village, and around 202nd there's a Salvation Army. Unless I've missed something, you'll have thus seen every used record for sale in Maple Ridge. (Unless you come on Wednesday before 4pm, mind you, which is when St. Andrews church has their thrift sale).
Whether you'd find anything you wanted would be another matter. For every obscure gem you might find, you'll get your hands dusty and get a kink in your neck from flipping through a bazillion Mantovani, Bert Kampfert, Perry Como, Alfred Apaka, and Dionne Warwick albums; pickings are so slim that even finding a Reveen record is cause to smile. In the goin'-on-two-years since I've moved back here, doing the thrift store rounds out of sheer lack of there being anything else to do in Maple Ridge, I've netted only about half a dozen gems, like a Sidney Bechet anthology, a somewhat scratchy (but 100% free!) Esquivel, or an album of Spike Jones interpreting Hank Williams tunes. The good thing is about making a find in a town like this is that it will likely cost you 50 cents, which is the going rate for a slab of vinyl. (The highest prices, at said old couple's shop, are $2 each, or three for five dollars).
Today's pickings were a bit better than usual, as it happens. Devoting myself to a thorough poke through the Haney Place Mall netted me two Martin Denny albums, while the dance shop on the Lougheed netted me an old-school country-cum-rockabilly album by Spade Nielsen and the Gamblers, featuring a most appealing cover and what I father is their hit, "Pickle Squirts." (Sorry, folks, it's not on Youtube). I had been hoping to find some funk or blues or oldschool R&B - maybe the original version of the Supremes "My World Is Empty," would be fun to hear, since the Little Guitar Army cover it on their new CD; still, the rule is, take what you can find. And, I mean, how can I not want to hear a song called "Pickle Squirts?"
5 comments:
Spade Nielsen and the Gamblers were from Langley, although I think Vic (formerly of the Viscounts) lived in Coquitlam or New West.
I thought you may enjoy this.
http://favorite45.blogspot.ca/2011/01/pickle-squirts.html
Spade Nielsen and the Gamblers were from Port Moody not Langley..They were featured in the country music hall of fame and did a tour of BC Canada and the USA for the next album. They were on a TV show called Town and Country.
The Pickle Squirts was in the top ten of the top 40 of cjjc country radio for a long time..Spade Nielsen was called the next Johnny cash because of the similarities in voice...Very funny song and fun band to watch and good dance band.Lots of comedy skits in show..
i have that lp. there's that go go song on the lp thats cool
Pickle squirts is my favorite song, I heard it many times growing up. Pat Babcock was a guitar player for the band originally from Ratner Saskatchewan, he grew up in 100 mile BC before moving to Nanaimo.
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