Perfect iPod Morning

An iPod on Shuffle can be a wonderful thing. Driving to work today, this is the random selection that Shuffle gave me:

The New Pornographers - My Shepherd
Rosanne Cash - Sea of Heartbreak (with Bruce Springsteen)
The Carter Family - Worried Man Blues
Levon Helm - Heaven's Pearls
Jacob Dylan - War is Kind

I almost suspect that my iPod has been getting communications from Siri on you iPhone, but I have an older iPhone without Siri.  The reasons for these thoughts of karmic interconnection are:

1. I am going to see Neko Case of the New Pornographers in July at Ramshead Live.
2. I am going to see Rosanne Cash on Friday night.
3. I would probably listen, at least once, to Bruce sing the phone book (if he could still find one); he would make it interesting.
4. I recently had a conversation with Arty Hill about the Carter Family and recent book about them.
5. Levon Helm - what else is there to say.  RIP Levon.
6. Jacob Dylan - kind of the 7 degrees of Kevin Bacon thing:  Levon Helm was the drummer in the Band; the Band backed Bob Dylan; Bob Dylan is Jacok Dylan's father.

Of course this is not karma at all.  I love this music, so my iPod is overflowing with it.  The odds are I am going to hear something that I like (or I would take the music off my iPod) and that my musical tastes have some commonality that unites them (somehow).  (The last premise may be a bit of a stretch -- my musical interests stretch in different directions.  Yesterday, for example I was listening on Spotify to Ry Cooder, Ali Farka Toure, and Jonny Greenwood's "From Here On Out" and "Bodysong" and on the way home (via Matthews Pizza) my iPod gave me:

Arty Hill - Montgomery On My Mind (Pie for Breakfast version)
Exene Cervenka - The Willow Tree
Majestic Silver Strings - Why Baby Why (featuring Marc Ribot)
Bob Dylan - Ballad for A Friend (Whitman Demos)
Animal Collective - Brother Sport
Exene Cervenka - Sound of Coming Down
Dave Matthews & Time Reynolds - Two Step (Live at Luther College)

So, maybe my iPod knows what I want to hear?

Folk City 100 Most Essential Folk Songs

Folk Alley has compiled a list of its 100 most essential folk songs as reported at today at NPR. I took a quick look, and would probably revise this some. Unless I missed something the Carter Family (or members there of) show only once at 61 with [Can??] the Circle Be Unbroken (always thought this was Will the Circle Be Unbroken). This is an extreme oversight. Woody Guthrie, Seeger and Weavers and Bill Monroe and a few others are there, but mostly Dylan and post Dylan. And, I believe these are performances of songs, as Goodnight Irene was not written by the Weavers, but by Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter). Suggest getting Shared Vision tribute to Guthrie/Ledbetter or any of the three Will the Circle Be Unbroken anthologies by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

June 23, 2009

A reader commented off line:

I am pretty weak on folk (which is not to suggest I am strong in other areas), so my views would not be worth much.

Whether the Band and the Byrds qualify as folk singers, I would have some doubt; and Barry McGuire, “Eve of Destruction,” is not too folkish to me – but what do I know?

My response:

That was my reaction. Will have to check out Folk Alley, as I think they have strayed down other streets.

If you are interested, a great folk resource is Roger McGuinn's (of the Byrds) Folk Den at: http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/mcguinn/index.html

and his related podcast, through which he is trying to keep true folk music alive by recording and releasing by podcast versions of traditional folk songs. The podcast is free at iTunes as McGuinn's Folk Den. He releases one new song a month. At iTunes there are links to other folk podcasts, including a Folk Alley podcast that I was unaware of.