Recently, while having lunch with a friend, he told me he thought I was better at shopping record stores for vinyl and CDs than he was. He admitted that when he enters a store jammed full of stuff, he gets overwhelmed, doesn't know where to start and will often leave without buying something.

I understand this feeling. Even after 30+ years of shopping in stores for music, I still get overwhelmed and a little anxious, mostly at the thought there is something awesome hiding in the piles and I won't have the time or patience to find it.

This happened recently to me when I visited a local record store who was having a $1 blowout sale. They moved hundreds (thousands?) of vinyl records, CDs, cassettes and more into a room where everything was dollar, no matter what the original price sticker was.

At first, I thought, this is a waste of time and it's all junk and I should leave. I wasn't happy with having to try and reach past people to pick something up and folks were elbowing me to try and get a better position to look.

But then, I found one CD I thought looked interesting and set it aside. Suddenly, I knew that I was going to commit to buying at least one thing for $1 and thought well, I might as well keep looking to add to the little pile I just started.

Next thing I knew, it had been a couple of hours and I had 42 items to buy including vinyl, CDs and cassettes. If you'd like to see most of what I found, you can watch my new YouTube video here:

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I reminded my friend that digging for interesting and new music isn't just luck, it takes a lot of time and patience. I currently have that time back after launching our twin boys off to college. No more travel soccer means I can go digging and really take my time.

I also told him I wasn't very good at "digging" when I first started. I've bought so many records and CDs that turned out to be not so great (at least for me) and simply traded them back in or sold them online so I could experiment again.

But now, with a smartphone and ear buds, you can simply see an interesting album cover and quickly pull it up online to sample and see if it's something worth buying or not.

I did this recently when I stumbled on an interesting looking private press bluegrass album by Molly O'Day called12 Sacred Songs for just $3. I found a rip of the album on YouTube, listened to a few minutes and decided it would be worth the gamble to buy and it was:

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This is how I discover new music the most, by going to stores, flipping through the bins and listening to things that look interesting.

Last year, I posted a video about buying 50 records at $1 each at a sidewalk sale and found so much music that I'd never heard before:

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I won't keep all of those records, some were really not great (lol), but the experience of digging that day was what mattered the most.

So yes, sometimes digging and finding a great record is just luck. There's also a certain kismet to shopping for music if you go regularly. I'll think for a couple of weeks, "It would be interesting to find some west coast jazz records, something I rarely see here in Tennessee" and then the next time I'm out shopping, I'll stumble on a great record from Contemporary or Riverside instead of the usual Blue Note release I always see.

So it takes time, patience and a willing to forgive yourself for buying a record you didn't enjoy. That's the only want to truly know what you like, try a lot and narrow things down. Don't beat yourself up if you bring home a dud, it happens to everyone.

I have an exciting announcement coming next week, but for now, stay safe and warm!

Aaron