Photo: By Bill Ebbesen (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
was just on the brink of releasing his first solo album as well as being a major moving part to the music-promoting machine that calls itself Third Man Records. I waited in a line (it was all very civilized) and ordered from a selection of vinyl records off a menu just as you would from an ice cream truck, paid the man some money, and stared, in enamored, embarrassingly-obvious fangirl-dom at a copy of 1999’s The White Stripes, their debut. It had four perfect edges and corners, it was red and white all over, and I knew a black flat disc awaited, like magic, on the inside.
The point of the Rolling Record Store, or RRS, was to bring vinyl to as many people as Third Man Records could – finding new generations to exploit the wonders of holding tangible evidence of music within their hands as well as bringing a new, unique experience to long-time record collectors. Third Man is still upholding this mission of not only encouraging the love of music but also the preservation of records in a world that is dominated by media players and libraries. The record company continues to keep the rock music community on its toes by pursuing ground-breaking marketing strategies, even going as far as to play a record in space.
And while both the digital and LP releases of Jack White Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016 may not top the out-of-
this-world release of a vinyl-playing space craft, White fans are getting increasingly anxious for September 9th all the same. Third Man has already given us a peek as to what to expect with teasers, such as the Racontuers’ “Carolina Drama” and the White Stripes’ “City Lights”. It’s refreshing for a rock star in a secure solo career to honor his past and play the songs he’s imaginably sick of, and he has quite the reservoir of material. With The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather, and two solo albums to choose from, there should be little issue in cultivating an acoustics record of wide variety. And while some of the tracks featured on this new release may not sound too different in their acoustic fashion from the original (“We’re Going to be Friends”), we are excited to hear some of the more heavy features undressed, such as “Machine Gun Silhouette” without its trilling piano, funky fiddle, and boisterous drums. The official track list of the record has been shared online, revealing a majority of White Stripes songs, two Raconteurs songs (“Carolina Drama” and “Top Yourself”), with the remainder of tracks from either Blunderbuss, Lazaretto, or promotional singles (“Love is the Truth”).
Third Man Records is celebrating the album’s release by offering an exclusive double LP in a lovely blue hue, a celebration of White’s color-theme as a solo artist.
Limited edition blue LP available at Third Man Records’ headquarters (Nashville & Detroit).
White’s illustrious career can only indicate an anthology spanning the lifetime’s of more than one band to be intriguingly eclectic and promising. From the rhythmic garage rock of The White Stripes to the bluegrass roots of the Raconteurs, the only thing that can truly be expected from White – and his label which has a love for vinyl that, quite literally, goes to the moon and back – is the unexpected.
