An Introduction By Way Of A Lesson

Hello everybody, I'm Eriq Nelson

For seven years I worked at the Tower Records here in Richmond VA and I loved damn near every minute of it. It paid my bills (kind of) and it introduced me to some incredible people (very true!). More than anything, it broadened my mind to an unspeakable variety of music. For the area I grew up in, the decaying working class suburbs of Richmond, I had a pretty catholic taste in music. Ani Difranco, Rancid and Tool were my favorite bands coming out of high school and I knew jazz. I thought I knew jazz. I thought I had a broad taste in music. Wow, was I wrong.

Well, I wasn't totally wrong. For the time and place I had been, I was a pretty broad minded dude. The fact that I had a woman singer in my CD collection was pretty outlandish. The first weeks at Tower proved to me how narrow my tastes really were. I met people with knowledge and experience in music so far beyond.......

Read the rest of this post on my blog: The Temple of the Forbidden Beat.

I'll be moving to Portland this year, either late August or early September and I can't wait to get there. The strength of Portland's music scene has a lot to do with my moving, being a music nerd and musician myself but there's a lot more about Portland that's dragging me across the country. Currently I reside in Richmond, VA and have recently begun opining about music in our monthly culture mag, RVA Magazine. I look forward to getting to know you all, and I'll see you in the fall.