[Fot] Driving Music

[Joe Guinan]

Good traveling music is a must for those long trips to the far reaches.  You
can only listen to talk radio for "X" hours before you want to buy a machine
gun and go postal on someone.  I don't know what "X" is... yet.  I did WAY
too much driving around while selling hearses and limousines, having driven
those beasts in 44 of the states.  I don't know how to suggest music when I
really don't know ANYTHING about the listener except that he/she likes
Triumphs.  However, one thing I've started to do is to burn my own custom
CD's of various artists works and some "thematic" CD's.

I have collections made up from the following (alphabetically listed by
first name); Alison Krauss and Union Station, The Allman Brothers, Brooks
and Dunn, Jimmy Buffett, three different Bruce Springsteens (early, middle
and later), Chris Isaak, Dar Williams, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, John
Hiatt, John Prine, Led Zeppelin, Lyle Lovett, Melissa Etheridge, Moody
Blues, Neil Young, Norah Jones, Richard Thompson, Rickie Lee Jones, Steve
Earle, The Who, Todd Rundgren, Tom Waits, and Townes Van Zandt.  More are in
the making, but I listen to them several times and re-arrange the order and
throw some out that just don't fit, or add some in, etc.  So I end up with a
bunch of songs that fit together and have a natural flow of some sort.  One
trouble with these collections is with dynamic range and recorded volume.
You have to run them through some sort of program that equalizes the tracks
or you end up having to adjust the volume for each track.

I'm a fan of lyrics that make sense and make me think or feel, hence some of
the entries in that list.  I'm a fan of "raging geetars" too, so my taste
tends to run that direction.  Any good fretwork in almost any genre can be
fun to listen to.  My new favorite guitarist is Richard Thompson, even
though he has a song about one of those cars that carries the (ahem...) Stop
Sign of Shame on it with "MGB-GT".  If you're going to buy an album, maybe
"Action Packed" from 2001?

Themed collections I have are Cadillac Songs, Driving Songs, Joe Songs, Rain
Songs, Revolution Songs, and Town Songs.  Each of these has about twenty
different songs that are somehow related.  This gives me some variety in a
fun package.  I have about 150 songs with Cadillac either in the title or
mentioned somewhere in the lyrics.  Odd, but strangely listenable at times.

And when music doesn't seem to work, I can throw on some "Word Jazz" by Ken
Nordine.  I have to be in a really odd mood for that, but sometimes it just
fits how the day is going...

One other recommendation is "Books on Tape" (but get them on CDs).  NOTHING
passes a 16 hour driving day better than a couple really good books that you
haven't read or that you just love.  Some truck stops have good selections,
and some even let you trade in used ones.  Shut them off when you come to a
town or have to watch for a different highway to take, as you can get
engrossed in the story and wake up 50 miles past where you needed to turn
off.  Been there, done that.

I'd be happy to contribute some burned CD's to your collection if our tastes
match up anywhere.  Tell me where to send 'em.  I'm gonna start looking for
my Steely Dan stuff again, then download some Nightfly and see if it "gets
me"...

Joe Guinan
Fremont, NE