Growing up in the vinyl record and cassette tape years had a huge influence on my current musical outlook. That is not to say I am stuck in the past listening to only classic rock n’ roll, but it has definitely played a big part in making me who I am today. Sure, there are some talented emerging artists making music these days, but I first want to talk about what got us to where we are now in rock.

Listening to The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Cars, Z.Z. Top, Police, Fleetwood Mac, Talking Heads, Ramones… especially The Ramones. Come on, man. Definitive NYC punk music right there. Whether it was rock, punk, art rock, progressive, whatever… if there was a guitar, drums (and keyboards usually) I was hooked. And talk about a soundtrack to your life! I would like to take a moment and thank FM radio for offering all this classic rock. 99.7 FM WRFX The Fox out of Charlotte, NC has been around since the 1980s and has stayed true to their classic rock album oriented format. 95.7 FM WXRC The Ride and 92.3 FM WKRR Rock 92 are also great classic rock radio stations worth checking out. If it wasn’t for these kind of radio stations – I wouldn’t have known which album to grab at the record store to find that “got to have” song.

So when I was getting out of work at my first job at the grocery store just down the road from my parent’s house, there was Heart on the radio blasting out “Magic Man”. Driving to high school in the morning, I remember hearing Peter Frampton play his talking guitar or Mick Jagger singing about someone named “Jumpin Jack Flash”. Awesome. The other kids in high school would all be playing the new Dr. Dre Chronic album or Hootie and the Blowfish and here I was still rocking out to Led Zeppelin. Was it any surprise I drove a 1983 Camaro? I guess not.

I would like to add that my gunmetal blue Camaro got me to the record store on more than one occasion to find these great artists on vinyl, cassette and CD. When I first heard Mark Knopfler play that intro guitar riff in “Money For Nothing”, I went out to buy the album that day.

I know this music will also live on digitally as mp3 formats and wave files in computer servers around the world and that is fine since it is keeping the music alive. But searching for a song online doesn’t compare to driving to your local record store and flipping through the albums and checking out the wild artwork and photography by countless artists. Not to mention you will probably stumble across several totally unrelated artists while you are at the store – from the music playing over the store’s loudspeakers to the countless posters and albums surrounding you. So long live the rock and long live the record store – the few remaining – who are keeping it alive.