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LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 5.16 93 christopherwelshdesigns.com christopherwelshdesigns.com | 502.873.6002 C l a s s i c d e s i g n s , f o r m o d e r n l i f e . girlsrocklouisville.org "I derive a lot of inspiration from all this stuff," My Morning Jacket drummer Patrick Hallahan says. "This stuff" is his vinyl collection, in his record room off the kitchen in his home where Cherokee and Seneca parks overlap. A shelving unit with 40 cubbies holds — actually, how many records does Hallahan own? "Oh, good lord, this isn't even all of them," he says. "I've gotta stop; it's getting to be too much." He estimates he has 5,000 78s. Is there a certain album he's still searching for? "Goddamn, you're gonna ask that question? I don't know where to start." Hallahan, who's in his late 30s, has been collecting for the past 15 years or so. There's Roberta Flack's First Take, an original Wizard of Oz Decca recording, and Duke Ellington's "In A Sentimental Mood," which for years was the song that played as MMJ walked onstage. Hallahan uses Belafonte at Carnegie Hall as a litmus test. "Whenever I get a new needle or a new turntable or a new component, I always play that album because it's the frst stereo recording. It just sounds so good, and I know what it sounds like through good speakers," he says. He bought his PSB tower speakers from Courier-Journal music writer Jeffrey Lee Puckett. His "rare art piece" turntable is a Dual 1219. On a shelf is a photograph of a three- year-old Hallahan sitting on a training toilet, using two paint cans as drums. "Still my method of sitting. Truly the throne," he says, laughing. "I taught myself how to play the kit by playing along with stuff on the side of the bed." His grandmother Joni Brohm, a jazz singer who was in a Louisville lounge act, recognized his innate musical ability. "Just the coolest grandmother," he says. "I learned music by sitting in her basement listening to tons and tons of records." She bought him "Elvira" by the Oak Ridge Boys after he and some friends performed the song in a frst- grade talent show. Actually, she gave him many of the records in his collection, which is still a mess of crates and cardboard boxes after moving in about a year ago and immediately leaving on tour. "It's the bane of my wife's existence," Hallahan says, "but part of the reason I'm reluctant to organize is I never know what I'm going to fnd." — Josh Moss My Morning Jacket will play Iroquois Amphitheater May 12 and 13.