V/A - I Learned It All the Hard Way (2007)

I just wanted to give you a quick introduction before I start posting here.  My name is Matt and as I have read ZZYRUS in the past I have came across many records here that I never heard of but quickly became favorites as well as a good amount of records that I already own and love.  Hopefully you will find that my posts compliment the quality sounds already discussed here.  

This is probably my favorite tape that I have come across in the whole Mississippi Records tape series.  I have heard there are around twenty eight volumes out there.  This particular tape is titled "I Learned It All the Hard Way" and its a collection of early soul music.   If you are familiar with Mississippi records you know that everything they put out is amazing due to their dedication to rescuing of out of print and hard to find obscurities and hand assembled artwork.  I think the first time I heard of Mississippi Records was in an article where Jason Pierce of Spiritualized/Spacemen 3 was profiling several of their records that he considered his favorites out of their catalogue.  I even remember that the author of the article included a little scene from hanging out with Mr. Spaceman during their interview in which Pierce was playing the records and holding their sleeves in the air proclaiming his love for them.  Another thing that I especially like about the tape series is that all of the tracks are hand picked which to me seems like kind of a stark contrast to what Mississippi records has done in the past.  Usually I find their releases so interesting because they stay devoted to giving a true representation of the original record.  It almost feels like they give you a second chance to buy records in their original form that you might have missed. I know that in the past they have released compilations containing songs that might not have appeared on the same record like The Clean anthology and The True Story of Abner Jay but I feel like the tapes in this series give us a more intimate glimpse of the record collections and collectors behind Mississippi Records.  Some of the songs on this record might be familiar and some you have never heard before making it really fun to listen to anytime.  

V/A - I Learned It All the Hard Way