Josh Rosenthal--The Record Store of the Mind

“Don’t leave your records in the sun.” That is the inscription Josh Rosenthal, author of the self-published new book, The Record Store of the Mind, wrote in my book at a recent author event at Carmichael’s. Rosenthal is the founder and producer of Tompkins Square record label which celebrated its 10- year anniversary in 2015. He started by saying that his 11 year-old daughter, Hazel, designed the cover of the book, which by the way I think is quite good. Rosenthal then read from chapter 12 which is about musician, Smoke Dawson. While somewhat entertaining, I didn’t know who Smoke Dawson was. After he read the chapter, he said thank you and left the podium without taking any questions. I found this disappointing because I wanted to know his life story and how he came to start a record label.

Following Rosenthal, was a short concert by Louisville instrumental guitarist, Nathan Salsburg, who recorded an album on Rosenthal’s label entitled Avos. I enjoyed Salsburg’s original songs and he was entertaining as he explained the inspiration behind each song. The best part of the event was when in the middle of a song, a 3 year-old boy came out of nowhere and sat in the front row directly in front of Salsburg. He swayed back and forth and made Salsburg and the audience smile. Shortly after he loudly said, “I gotta go” and stood up and left. Again getting a laugh from the crowd.

I have since read Rosenthal’s book, and although it is entertaining at times it is also confusing. I felt like it needed a better outline and organizational structure, and a bit of editing. Most of the chapters are dedicated to particular musicians, all of whom I had never heard of (except for Eric Clapton.) Other chapters, about Rosenthal’s life and love of music, are randomly interspersed with the musician chapters. I enjoyed the chapters about his life more than those of the musicians, however at times it felt like Rosenthal was bragging about the famous people he met throughout his career. In the back of the book, he lists all the ticket stubs he has saved over the years, old time LP’s in his record collection, and the names of the artists he has signed. The list of ticket stubs was neither chronological nor alphabetical, but according to him, written in the order that he pulled the items out of a box.

As a casual music listener, this book was not that interesting, but it would probably be well-received by a serious music fan.

                                                          Rating: 2 out of 5 high fives