Road Trip update #4: Milwaukee. Andy Noble
Day 12: Sunday, September 2nd. Milwaukee. Andy Noble.
Sunday was a long day, and it began with having to say goodbye to Lilly, whose joyful spirit and hard work had helped us get through the trip’s long and busy first leg. She was immediately missed.
On our drive from Chicago to Milwaukee, we were surrounded by motorcycles. Entire packs of them. We later learned that Harley Davidson was celebrating its 110th Anniversary.
We arrived at Andy Noble’s house mid-afternoon. Inside, the first thing we noticed was a neon sign that read “We Buy Records,” a relic from a store he once owned.
Andy is well-versed and we were quickly diving into discussions about different areas of music, about history and about a project he wants to do. He described the project as “soul field recordings,” where he would track down many of soul’s forgotten artists. Artists who released a 45 in the ’60s or ’70s but never launched full careers. He has met a lot of these artists in his years of record dealing.
He loves their music, but they only ever recorded a single or two, and he wants to record them now, in lo-fi, intimate settings. He looks at it as an adventure, and as an opportunity to archive an important and often-overlooked moment in history. And this window of opportunity will be open for only so long.
Andy has put a lot of focus on finding records from Milwaukee, a region that has never garnered the same level of attention as Detroit or Chicago.
After leaving Andy’s, we hit the road for Minneapolis. The day ended with a true Midwest sunset. Red, pink, orange.
Next stop: Minneapolis, MN
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