From the Shelf is a weekly web series exploring a personal record collection, one album at a time—blending storytelling, musical insight, and the enduring connection between listener and record.

From the Shelf is a weekly web series exploring a personal record collection, one album at a time—blending storytelling, musical insight, and the enduring connection between listener and record.

This week, I start From the Shelf with Jazz Winds from a New Direction by Hank Garland—a record that quietly opened up a different way of hearing the guitar for me. There’s something in its restraint, its tone, its sense of space that stayed. That’s why it’s on my shelf.

I found this record in a small book and record shop in Cascais, sometime in the mid-90s—one of those случай finds that end up staying for life. This week, I revisit The Happy Life of Pony by Pony Poindexter—a live record full of character, looseness, and that feeling of a band completely inside the moment. It’s messy in the right ways, full of risk, and totally alive. That’s why it’s on my shelf.