Colin’s Coffee's last day will be tomorrow; Sunday, August 20th. It’s been a great run and I have nothing but gratitude for the staff and customers who have made this place so special for the past 17 years. But since the times they are a changin’ I've got to change with ‘em. Or as a wise man once said, “Keep on rolling, you know you got to, got to, got to, roll with the changes.”
So when considering my next life move, I focused on one key question; and it wasn’t finding a job with a steady paycheck and solid benefits. Though I suppose that could be a nice change of pace. The question was: Am I capable of working somewhere where I cannot choose the music? I’m being serious. This is the sort of factor that is easy to forget but could have devastating consequences down the line. I decided this was reason alone to attempt to relocate Colin’s Coffee in some form or fashion. (Details to come)
With that thought in mind, here are the most played artists at Colin’s Coffee through the years. Regular business hours only, so we have to keep things at the coffee shop appropriate. Or, put another way, save Slayer for after hours. My rough math calculations estimate there have been over 62,000 hours of music played at Colin Coffee. Or 2,585 days if you prefer. Or just over 7 years of music. We started with CDs, moved into the amazing world of iPods, and then onto streaming. Below is an incomplete list of our most played artists since 2006.
The Kinks - Reasonable people can debate the merits of Beatles v Stones v Kinks v The Who. But when it comes to coffee shop music, The Kinks are the unquestioned champions. The depth and diversity of their catalog makes them the easy #1 of all time Colin’s Coffee spins. Ray and Dave might be getting older, but their music grows younger year by year.
Top coffee shop cuts: “Village Preservation Green Society,” “20th Century Man,” “Mirror of Love,” “Hot Potatoes.”
Dwight Yoakam - Every Dwight record gets played consistently every single week. Second all time played behind The Kinks
Top coffee shop cuts: “What Do You Know About Love,” “Blame the Vain,” “Things Change,” “Nothing.”
Chris Isaak - Chris has been getting steady play since the Brewster’s days and he is still in rotation on our old school iPod which we still use once and a while.
Top coffee shop cuts: “Speak of the Devil,” “Somebody’s Crying,” Heart Shaped World.
The Connells - Although this band was never known much in these parts, I have been a huge fan since Watershed opened for them at the Ohio Union in 1990. They have remained on the coffee iPod for decades and they always sound good with coffee brewing.
Top coffee shop cuts: “Stone Cold Yesterday,” “New Boy,” “Get a Gun,” One Simple Word.
Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, Essence and World Without Tears dominated the coffee shop charts in their time.
Top coffee shop cuts: “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,” “Metal Firecracker,” “Greenville,” “Essence,” “Fruits of My Labor.”
The Jayhawks - One of the best sounding bands ever (along with The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac) their records just sound pleasing to the coffee shop ear.
Top coffee shop cuts: “Save it for a Rainy Day” (played EVERY rainy day at the shop), “Over My Shoulder,” “Two Hearts,” Smile.
Bruce Springsteen - Three records in particular have dominated the coffee shop playlist; Tunnel of Love, The Rising, Seeger Sessions. With the last probably getting the most in-house airplay. What can I say? Sometimes a CD would stay the same for a week.
Top coffee shop cuts: “Tougher Than the Rest,” “Walk Like a Man,” “My City of Ruin,” “Jacob’s Ladder,” “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep No More.”
Tim Easton - The only local musician to make the cut, this hardcore troubadour has been a constant presence from Special 20 to this day.
Top coffee shop cuts: “Hey Rosine,” “Amor Azul,” “Killing Time,” “You Don’t Really Know Me.”
Bonus deep cuts: Burn Barrel - Reviled, featuring JP Olsen and with Tim and The Haynes Boys once got played for about a month straight.
Steve Earle - This man had the greatest three-album coffee shop run with I Feel Alright, El Corazon and my personal favorite, Transcendental Blues. Though we have tailed off on Steve in recent years, his career value puts him 3rd all time behind The Kinks and Dwight.
Nada Surf - Kings of the early morning. Opening in the dark.
Top coffee shop cuts: “Blizzard of 77,” “Inside of Love,” “What is Your Secret,” Your Legs Grow.”
Paranoid Lovesick - My boys from Cleveland always hit a sweet spot.
Top coffee shop cuts: “Orbit Baby,” “Feelin’,” “Alright to Drive.”
Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris and Daniel Lanois.
Teatro (Willie) and Wrecking Ball (Emmylou) were both produced by Daniel Lanois and both are all time coffee shop classics. In fact, they are just all time classics.
Top coffee shop cuts: “The Maker,” “My Own Peculiar Way,” “Where Will I Be.”
Elvis, Chuck and Buddy. Well, duh.
Top coffee shop cuts: Too many to choose.
Terry Anderson & The Olympic Ass Kickin’ Team - If we are playing Chuck, Terry & the OAK Team can’t be too far behind.
Top coffee shop cuts: “You Know Me,” “Lost Your Number,” “Sunday Dress.”
The War On Drugs- Kings of the depressing, dark cold early mornings in February when it’s hard to motivate and even harder to pay bills.
Top coffee shop cuts: “Eyes to the Wind,” “Thinking of a Place.”
Aqua Velvets - Surf guitar is always a solid go-to in a coffee shop environment. This band goes back to my boss and original Brewster’s Coffee owner Darren Webb. They still get played to this day. Especially around the holidays.
The Mavericks - Similar to The Jayhawks, just a great sounding band. Great background music as the espresso steamer and coffee grinders blow my eardrums out with noise. Another holdover from the Brewster’s days.
Top coffee shop cuts: “What a Crying Shame,” “Easy As It Seems,” “All Night Long.”
Alison Krauss and Robert Plant - Both together and separate they are the unquestioned first couple of Colin’s Coffee.
Willie Phoenix - We have his A&M release on our iPod. Tony has played “No Signs of Joanna” 40,000 times. Tony also plays Kat Edmondon religiously.
Thelonious Monk - I’m no jazzbo but I wish I was. That would make me cooler. However, when we need the occasional break from 4/4 time and songs about breakups and/or getting laid, I hit the Monk or anything on the Blue Note label. I know enough to know you can’t go wrong with that stuff.
Anything Mark Knopfler plays on is coffee shop gold.
Cheap Trick - My heroes from Rockford appear on this list not because customers enjoy it, but because as the boss, I force employees to listen to them and say “Isn’t this great?”
Top coffee shop cuts: “Taking Me Back,” “Mandocello,” “Way of the World.”
And yes, I do play some of my own things on occasion, but usually on request.
Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, CCR - For sunny Saturday mornings it’s easy to just crank up red meat rock ‘n’ roll.
Though we are still dedicated to the album format, we will occasionally surrender to a playlist, usually on Disco of Funky Friday. We also do search out some specific playlists depending on the weather and the day of the week/employee mood.
Playlists of note: Disco Hits, Funky Stevie Wonder, Lo-Fi Beats, Peter Tosh Radio, Reggae Kiss.
Anyway, spin that playlist on shuffle and it will be just like you worked at Colin’s Coffee for 17 years. Thanks for the memories. - Colin