The VINYL CAFE Revisited

We May Not Be Big But We’re Small

Motto of the Vinyl Cafe record store

I know that I said in a post not too long ago something to the effect that life is just too short to read the same book twice. I hereby amend this. Upon reflection I have come to believe that maybe life is too short not to read the same book twice, sometimes. To spend some time with characters that have, over time, become so familiar they are like old friends, can be soul restoring. That is why one evening about two weeks ago I took Stuart McLean’s Home from the VINYL CAFE from my bookshelf and began reading it again. I finished it the following evening, and started in on VINYL CAFE UNPLUGGED. Over the next ten or twelve days I finished this book, Stories from the VINYL CAFE, Extreme VINYL CAFE, and Christmas at the VINYL CAFE.

For those unfamiliar with the Vinyl Cafe it was a Radio show written and hosted by Stuart McLean that aired on CBC Radio from 1994 to 2016. It was also syndicated to more than 80 U.S. public radio stations. It was a variety show with musical guests, essays and stories. Many of the shows were recorded live at venues all over Canada. It was always funny, often moving, unfailingly entertaining, and a part of my Sunday for many years.

The highlight of the show, for me at least and I am sure for many thousands of other listeners, were the Vinyl Cafe Stories. These stories, written by Stuart McLean, and read each week on his show, were about Dave, the hapless owner of a small, used record store in Toronto, called the Vinyl Cafe, his wife Morley, their kids Sam and Stephanie, extended family, friends, and neighbors. Over twenty five years these characters had become like close friends to me, as did Stuart, himself. Sadly, Stuart passed away February 15, 2017, at the age of 68, after a two year battle with melanoma.

Though the radio show is no more you can still hear Stuart McLean read his Vinyl Cafe stories on audio book, YouTube, Spotify, CBC Listen, and occasional CBC rebroadcasts. I often listen to him on CD, or on Spotify, when I am in my car, and it is great to hear his voice again, though I sometimes get a little overwhelmed with emotion when I remember that he is gone.

It is when reading his books, however, that I feel closest to him, and his now so familiar characters. When I am reading his stories it feels as if I am reading something he wrote just for me, like a letter that he sent me to tell me about things that are happening with our mutual friends. And though it is me reading it is his voice I hear in my head. Sometimes I even hear him laugh when I get to places that I remember made him laugh when he was reading the stories to a live audience. It’s like ‘oh yes, Stuart, I remember, you told me this story’. Reading these stories always makes me happy.

Which brings me back to where I started. It was a couple of weeks ago, after a particularly hard day, that I was looking for something to pick up my spirits a little and relax me before bed that I took Home From the Vinyl Cafe off my bookshelf. My intention was to read a familiar story about people “I know”. A quick read that I knew would make me smile. Two hours and several stories later I finally went to bed. Over the next two weeks I read the other four Vinyl Cafe books in my library, and I plan on reading Christmas at the Vinyl Cafe again this December (If you have never read the story Dave Cooks the Turkey, I highly recommend you do so for this Christmas, or, better yet, listen to Stuart McLean read it on youtube or Spotify) right after I read A Christmas Carol for the somewhere between thirty fifth an fortieth time.

So, to repeat my amendment, sometimes life is too short not to read the same book twice, or three times, or forty.

Cheers!

Stephen