One weekend every month I like to go shopping for vinyl. I have to limit myself to just one weekend or else I might buy too much and before you know it I’d be broke. I’ve spent my last couple vinyl shopping days at thrift stores trying to save up some bucks for my Due North Audio activities. This month’s vinyl expedition to thrift stores I found some great albums in great condition and the best part of it was they were all only twenty-five cents each.

I’ve been trying to add more Jazz and Classical records to my vinyl collection so that was the main goal of the trip this month but I always keep my eye out for bluegrass records as well. Lucky for me, thrift stores are gold mines for all of these genres and here’s what I found:

Cole Porter: Delightful, Delicious, De-lovely

This was a no brainer pick. A three vinyl box full of artists like Billie Holliday, Dave Brubeck and Tony Bennett singing Porter classics. There are also a few songs recorded from the original broadway cast. I’m real happy with this find.

Berlioz’s Requiem

Berlioz is one of my favorite composers and at first Brynna found Symphonie Fantasique but there was no vinyl inside sadly. After that I found the next best thing, Berlioz’s Requiem which is deceivingly soft at times for the size of the orchestra but then gets huge. Its a great composition and sounds great on vinyl.

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Really we just had to have this because everyone should have this. I mean, its a classic.

Dvorak’s 9th Symphony (From the New World)

This is another one of my favorite symphonies and it made the disappointment from an empty Symphonie Fantastique sleeve a little less poignant. I absolutely love the 4th and 5th movements of this symphony. I hum along to the melody every time.

Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue

I didn’t have a copy of Rhapsody in Blue in my collection but I felt like if someone has a vinyl collection this should probably be in so I had to get it.

Arias and Art Songs

This was the risk pick of the bunch (at $0.25 it wasn’t that much of a risk though). I hadn’t heard of the musicians or any of the songs but the vinyl was still in the orginal plastic wrap so I decided that if I was going to pick one out that I hadn’t heard, this would have to be the one. It was a pretty good pick. I’d like if the recording quality was a little better but I have to listen to it a few more times before I make up my mind.

Grandpa Jones 16 Greatest Hits

This was one of my favorite finds from the weekend. I remember playing “Mountain Dew” on the banjo in a high school talent show. So I was ecstatic when I found this on vinyl.

I’m pretty proud of last week’s finds and I’m even more proud of the fact that I got it all for just $1.75. BOOM!