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Thread: Road Music

  1. #1
    Highly Lonesome Marty Henrickson's Avatar
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    Default Road Music

    Yesterday, my family and I were on the way home from a short vacation in Gulf Shores. We stopped for lunch at a very popular restaurant in Foley, and I ate a bigger meal than I usually would before driving five hours. Within minutes after hitting the road for home, my wife was crashed out in the passenger seat and my two daughters were in the backseat watching their DVD player with headphones on. With no one to interact with to help keep me alert, I quickly changed out the instrumental mix CD for another mp3 CD I had with mostly vocal songs.

    The first full album on this disc was Chris Thile and Michael Daves' Sleep With One Eye Open, and it was the ideal choice to engage me on this trip. I'm not the biggest fan of Chris Thile (although this album has really grown on me in the last couple of years). But SWOEO's high-energy take on traditional brother duets, with its soaring harmonies and virtuosic instrumental work, really kept me fired up on what could have been a monotonous drive.

    What are some other good "road music" albums?
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  2. #2
    bon vivant jaycat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    I love the Delaney and Bonnie on tour with Eric Clapton record -- great for barreling down the highway.!
    "The paths of experimentation twist and turn through mountains of miscalculations, and often lose themselves in error and darkness!"
    --Leslie Daniel, "The Brain That Wouldn't Die."

    Some tunes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa1...SV2qtug/videos

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    Default Re: Road Music

    Rabbit in a Log is another from that album that really flies...love it, but have to watch my speed when it comes on, especially as Thile launches into the instrumental break later in the song...Skaggs version from Three Pickers is pretty awesome, too.

    Heatbreak #9 by Doyle and QS...that kickoff just fires me up...

    Sound of Madness, by Shinedown

    Pretender by Foo Fighters

    Pretty much anything by the Wiyos and Drive By Truckers, and I've kind of gotten into Five Finger Death Punch of late, too (they're heavy, but still musical).

    If I'm really tired I try to find some 80s or 90s music on the radio (pop/rock or country), because so many of those songs are connected to memories from middle school through college, and some of the 80s music is so bad that it's just fun to make fun of it...
    Chuck

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    Registered User aphillips's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    Both Steeldrivers albums! Awesome!
    Adam

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  5. #5
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    I have my MP3 loaded with something like 3500 vintage old time recordings or modern renditions of same, with a dose of early "classic" bluegrass and very early "classic" country music, or modern renditions of same.

    On long trips I put that thing on random and it carries me away, like the perfect radio station with no announcer interruptions or commercials.

    When I want more focused listening, I play randomly through a particular musician, Thile say, or Doc Bogs, or what ever, and see what comes up.

    Of the over 100 CDs in there, I have listened to only a handful all the way through. I deliberately avoid it if I can, so that I am delighted and surprised by what comes up next when playing random.

    On a long trip I will have the mp3 and also have the blugrass station and the classic country music station on the satellite radio, ready to go. I swtich between the three of them as I track on through country so wild even the banjo seems civilized.
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  6. #6
    Highly Lonesome Marty Henrickson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    Jeff, I use the random function with various thumb drives, my mp3 player, or mp3 discs almost any time I'm in my vehicle. I also have the option of streaming internet radio from my smartphone to my stereo via bluetooth. I really enjoy the different options that technology gives for listening to music. By the way, that's a really cool pic.

    Yesterday, I wanted to stick to mostly vocal music (because singing along tends to keep me awake!), without constantly hitting the "skip" button. This put me back in the now somewhat "old school" experience of listening to an album all the way through. You know, that used to be our only option, besides radio. Even though SWOEO does have some slower moments, like "Ookpik Waltz", these tunes seemed to simply provide a brief break between the high-energy songs.

    So, to clarify, what are some examples of entire albums of good road music?
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    Registered User Gerry Hastie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    Driving does present good opportunity to listen to an album the whole way through. From a mandolin perspective I really like Matt Flinner Trio's Music Du Jour with it's shifting moods and very clear, catchy melody lines. Holy Coming of the Storm by Cahalen & Eli is similar and has songs to sing along to.

    Bluegrass is always good - a recent "I'm gonna stick this album on favourite" is John Reischman & Jaybirds 'The Road West'. Classy, sonically varied and again has songs to sing with.

    Beyond mandolin world I do like Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, Cabbage Alley by The Meters or 1984 by Van Halen as drirving favourites.
    GerryHastie

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    Registered User Charley wild's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    Quote Originally Posted by jaycat View Post
    I love the Delaney and Bonnie on tour with Eric Clapton record -- great for barreling down the highway.!
    One of my favorites too! I also like anything by Stevie Ray. "I'm in the Wrong Business" by A. C. Reed is always fun, any early Country Gentlemen album, "Foggy Mountain Banjo" and sometimes only some early John Fahey will do.

  9. #9
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    I have never tried singing along as a method of avoiding sleep. That could be useful.

    When I hear an instrumental, I kind of go through it with my left hand, just kind of thinking my way through it, and that tends to keep me awake. Though I also suspect it makes me a distracted driver.

    I don't drive for more than an hour without my trusty thermos of coffee. That thermos and I have done many (many) miles together. A familiar sight on my dining room table (staging area) would be my mandolin, my thermos, my mp3, and the keys, all lines up.

    Music and driving.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

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  10. #10

    Default Re: Road Music

    I Dream a Highway - Gillian Welch

    not an entire album...but a good 1/4 hour
    Last edited by catmandu2; Jul-17-2012 at 5:49pm.

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    Default Re: Road Music

    It is my collection of Country Gentlemen CD`s that I listen to...When driving to Florida every year I listen to all of my cassettes and CD`s and if a song comes up that I don`t want to hear at the time I fast forward to the next one....It`s just hard to find bluegrass music when traveling.....

    Willie

  12. #12
    Registered User AnneFlies's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    Janis Joplin, Johnny Cash, Phantom of the Opera, Beatles (esp. White Album), Gordon Highlanders, Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza, Moody Blues (esp. Days of Future Passed), Bua, Hair, Jimmy Buffet, Kevin Burke, Irish Pirate Ballads.

    I like these because they're either loud (bagpipes), or I can sing along. Either way, keeps me awake and makes the miles pass quickly.

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  13. #13
    Highly Lonesome Marty Henrickson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    Quote Originally Posted by catmandu2 View Post
    I Dream a Highway - Gillian Welch

    not an entire album...but a good 1/4 hour
    YES! We finally agree on something! Mark this day on your calendar! (just kidding, I'm sure that the catman and I have agreed on SOMETHING....)

    But yeah, I love "I Dream A Highway", though it may be a bit too dreamy for how tired I was on the drive yesterday. The mp3 disc I put in yesterday was filled with mostly Gillian Welch albums, besides some Thile & Daves and Doc Watson. Time (The Revelator) is a GREAT road album.
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  14. #14
    Highly Lonesome Marty Henrickson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    Quote Originally Posted by JeffD View Post
    I have never tried singing along as a method of avoiding sleep. That could be useful.

    When I hear an instrumental, I kind of go through it with my left hand, just kind of thinking my way through it, and that tends to keep me awake. Though I also suspect it makes me a distracted driver.

    I don't drive for more than an hour without my trusty thermos of coffee. That thermos and I have done many (many) miles together. A familiar sight on my dining room table (staging area) would be my mandolin, my thermos, my mp3, and the keys, all lines up.

    Music and driving.
    Jeff, singing can be a big help for me in keeping awake, especially when there are some interesting harmonies or difficult passages. I love instrumentals, and I will sometimes "air guitar" and "air mandolin", but it's easier for me to stay focused when singing.

    It was too hot for coffee yesterday, but the sold Mountain Dew was close at hand!
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    Registered User Justus True Waldron's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    To me bluegrass and driving have always gone hand in hand - I first remember hearing it as a kid when my dad would play it driving up to go camping in the Adirondacks. Later on it was driving to festivals, then for a couple years driving the coast in a combination of cars, vans and RVs while I dated a fiddle player. Turns out that even though I work a steady job now I can't seem to stop driving - I've counted 20kmi in the last 6 months between my car and my motorcycle. I listen to a lot more than bluegrass, and jazz is a particular favorite of mine, but when it comes to the really late night red eye drives I always tend to go with something fast and upbeat. SWOEO has gotten a lot of use of course (and I think there is a video somewhere of me driving a car full of friends at 3 in the morning after a festival singing in 3 part falseto harmony to Rabbit in a Log)... but there are plenty of others on my list of good road tunes. Some of my favorite instrumental albums of late are these ones featuring scott vestal and a bunch of the original guys from mountain heart - I think called Bluegrass 1995 and Bluegrass 2000. I also enjoy The Dreadful Snakes (Bela and Jerry's warm up band from the 80's!), Steep Canyon Rangers, Blue Highway, and The Gibson Brothers... and plenty of others, particularly those that sound like legitimate gritty bluegrass. From a musical standpoint and I can appreciate and enjoy the super clean modern stuff, but when it comes to driving I seem to need real gritty hard driving bluegrass!
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    Default Re: Road Music

    Anything by John Prine.

  17. #17

    Default Re: Road Music

    Quote Originally Posted by Marty Henrickson View Post
    YES! We finally agree on something! Mark this day on your calendar! (just kidding, I'm sure that the catman and I have agreed on SOMETHING....)
    Allow me to make another recommendation you might find disagreeable:

    Depending upon where you're driving--I enjoy listening to Glen Velez's "Seven Heaven" or Steve Roach's "Kiva" particularly while traveling through the desert SW

  18. #18
    Always learning something Mo Soar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    Last long trip it was: James McMurtry, Small Faces, RS - Exile on Main Street, Slaid Cleaves, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Keb Mo, Gillian Welch, Tone Poems I and II. I can't just put the ipod on shuffle because there is also classical and Italian opera that the spouse is NOT fond of.
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  19. #19
    Highly Lonesome Marty Henrickson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    Quote Originally Posted by catmandu2 View Post
    Allow me to make another recommendation you might find disagreeable:

    Depending upon where you're driving--I enjoy listening to Glen Velez's "Seven Heaven" or Steve Roach's "Kiva" particularly while traveling through the desert SW
    I will check those out, cat.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mo Soar
    Last long trip it was: James McMurtry, Small Faces, RS - Exile on Main Street, Slaid Cleaves, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Keb Mo, Gillian Welch, Tone Poems I and II. I can't just put the ipod on shuffle because there is also classical and Italian opera that the spouse is NOT fond of.
    Mo, you should be able to at least shuffle all albums within a genre, if it's anything like my daughters' 3rd-gen ipod Touch. On my android phone, I have the choice of random play within my entire collection, one specific playlist, one specific artist, or one specific album.

    Here are a few more good "road" albums:
    Gillian Welch - Soul Journey, The Harrow & The Harvest
    Grateful Dead - American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, Aoxomoxoa, and Blues for Allah
    Larry Keel & Natural Bridge - Backwoods
    Keller & The Keels - Grass
    Tony Rice - Guitar and Manzanita
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    Gallagher Doc Watson

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  20. #20
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    Quote Originally Posted by George R. Lane View Post
    Anything by John Prine.
    Woo hoo!!
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  21. #21
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    Default Re: Road Music

    Old and in the way.

  22. #22

    Default Re: Road Music

    Hard Driving (Bluegrass) Album: Bluegrass Smash Hits, vol. 1 / Mashville Brigade. Check it out. It can get the dead who were not even fans of bluegrass to stomp their feet in time.
    I saw Homer & Jethro once. This mandolin therapy isn't helping me get over it.

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  23. #23

    Default Re: Road Music

    This reminds me of the time, a few years ago when Welch's Soul Journey came out. On a 5,6 hour drive to a few gigs in southern Alberta, that CD was playing the whole trip. I guess that makes it a road record, for me at least.

  24. #24
    hillbilly lion tamer Wilbur James's Avatar
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    Default Re: Road Music

    I like a combination of John Hartfords fiddle albums, Mike Comptons endevours, Gillian Welch, can't get enough of David Rawlings playing, Bill Monroe and lots of hard diving old time bands!
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  26. #25

    Default Re: Road Music

    Quote Originally Posted by Wilbur James View Post
    I like a combination of John Hartfords fiddle albums, Mike Comptons endevours, Gillian Welch, can't get enough of David Rawlings playing, Bill Monroe and lots of hard diving old time bands!
    Well, I'd certainly be up for a road trip with you!

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