Sock Free Hideaway

BEATS OF LOVE 

134. Gypsy Soul by Tommy Bolin

AFTER A brutal stretch, I needed to hear some warm, mellow, soothing grooves. This always makes me nostalgic as I reflect on my own golden era.

I successfully resisted the internet until 2007, fully aware it would supercharge my record-collecting obsession. Then, the Open University bought me a computer. Soon after, Psychemagik, Moonboots, and Lexx dropped a series of mind-blowing mixes. Before long, communities like Aficionado, Melting Point, Red Light Records, and Is It Balearic? emerged, unleashing a flood of game changing slow burners.

Pretty sure this slow burning fire was a Melting Point post. This great record I'd hitherto avoided as Deep Purple crossed that line. That line where my eclectic taste morphed into musical snobbery. That line that I now realise chalked out my own musical ignorance. I now let no stone go unturned when lending my ear, coz Bolin plays his acoustic with an understated drama that makes this flickeringly beautiful winter warmer so damned memorable. It was actually a toss up between this and the mighty Alexis, an earlier tune he wrote which is also brilliant, but the hot flamenco lead outro break sort of won it. 

Yeah, it has been a brutal stretch where I've had to compromise to stay in employment. Thank God I have this warm, mellow and soothing tune playing on the stereo.