A COSMIC and Earthly History of Recorded Music - according to Mississippi Records - tours to Stroud on Monday, September 29.

This once in a blue moon showcase features a brand new live film/talk/slide show presentation by Eric Isaacson (Mississippi Records label boss and store owner) plus live music from three acts, all of whom have released records on the Mississippi Record label.

Eric’s store and label grew out of his missionary zeal to push certain music, art, D.I.Y business models and alternative ways of distribution on anyone who might be interested.

His store is in Oregon, in the United States, and mainly stocks new and old vinyl LPs and singles.

It has its own in-house record label, which has released reissues, on vinyl, of music by noteworthy artists, as well as a series of compilations of gospel, blues, and international music from the pre-war era to the present.

Many of the releases— particularly the compilations—share a distinct design aesthetic, featuring home-made looking collages and hand written text, all rendered by Eric’s own fair hand.

“Records and tapes still feel like totemic power objects to me,” he said.

“They're like magic portals to another world.”

Eric is a wonderful, playful and sincere guide through the highs and lows of music history, with a keen eye on the marvellous outsider types.

Joining Eric for the evening are three musicians with strong ties to the label: Marisa Anderson, Lori, and Dragging An Ox Through Water. They will all be performing.

Dragging An Ox Through Water play songs rooted in folk and country traditions, though ruptured, complicated, and complimented with broken textures of feedback, drones, tape hiss, and homemade oscillators.

Marisa Anderson is a composer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, inspired by Delta blues, West African guitar, country and western radio from the 60′s and 70′s, gospel, noise, rhythms, cycles, mortality, and praise.

Lori Goldston is a classically trained and rigorously de-trained cellist. She toured with Nirvana from 1993–1994 and appears on their live album MTV Unplugged in New York. She co-founded Black Cat Orchestra and has received commissions to do live scores for several silent films.

Mississippi Records on tour is at the Brunel Goods Shed, Stroud, on Monday, September 29 at 7pm. Tickets are available on the door, or in advance from Trading Post, 26 Kendrick Street, Stroud.