Black Friday shopping can be an ordeal — albeit one millions seem to love each year.
But the concurrent Record Store Day Black Friday is a party.
An offshoot of April’s Record Store Day, RSDBF unites independent shops around the world with a wealth of special, exclusive and limited edition titles — mostly on vinyl. Many of the stores host live performances, food, drink and other offerings to make the day more festive, and rest assured the cluster around the racks is as passionate as any other store out there.
Among this year’s special releases are Grammy Award-winning Michigan bluegrass star Billy Strings’ “California Sober” duet with Willie Nelson from the latter’s 90th birthday concerts during April at the Hollywood Bowl; it marks the first physical release of the performance — with their “Whiskey River” on the flip side — and the green vinyl edition is limited to 5,000 copies.
A couple of hard rock bands with Detroit roots also have RSDBF titles — Taproot’s latest, “Blue Sky Research,” and Tantric’s self-titled 2001 debut album, both on 1,100 vinyl copies.
Other releases include Olivia Rodrigo’s four “secret” songs from her latest album, “Guts,” on vinyl; previously unreleased live albums from Gram Parsons and Ahmad Jamal; rare and unreleased studio material from Joni Mitchell, Los Lobos and INXS; and boxed sets from War and Bo Diddley and War.
For a full list of titles and participating stores, visit recordstoreday.com.