Off Center Records

Burr Oak, Kansas

Peggy Jewett looks me straight in the eye like my question came from a crazy person. “Where did I come up with the name? Hello… my address is Burr Oak Kansas.”
“And”, I reply? 
“And Burr Oak is just a little east of Lebanon.”
(The sound of chirping crickets comes from my side of the room.)
“And Lebanon Kansas is the geographic center of the continental U.S. Hence Burr Oak is, off center.”
“Ah, Okay”, I respond.
“But hells bells, I don’t really work out of this address anyway”, she confides. “You caught me on one of my rare, “no travel” days. This town has less than 300 people. No rocker’s gonna’ come here to record. I’m a mobile specialist. I follow them. I catch ‘em live, livin’ and breathin’ while they’re out on tour. You wouldn’t believe the sounds I’ve captured on the road.”
“For instance?” I ask.
“I’ve got the sound made when Iggy Pop separated his shoulder at the R.O.A.R. festival in Columbus, Ohio. He misjudged a major stage dive. It was not pretty. But I got it on tape. All in a day’s work.”


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