Friday, February 20, 2015

Today's Soundtrack

Spring is on the way!!!

I know, I know, it doesn't really feel like it yet, but really truly it is.


We got about 10 inches of snow on Monday, and I had to shovel the driveway because I had jury duty on Tuesday. I thought about taking the bus, but the idea of standing outside in sub-freezing weather for who knows how long waiting for a bus that may or may not be on schedule sounded um... less than appealing. So I drove, which meant that I shoveled.

BTW, in case you're curious, I did survive my brush with civic duty, and ended up spending the entire morning on Tuesday just waiting in the jury room - they never called my number. What a way to spend Mardi Gras though - cooped up with several hundred other grumpy people hoping against hope that our numbers wouldn't be called. Laissez les bon temps rouler, y'all... (she says with a thick southern twang and a hefty dose of irony.)


But I digress... My point was, that as I was shoveling, I noticed something distinctly different from my previous encounters with the white stuff this year. This was no light fluffy winter snow. This was the thick, wet, heavy, stick-to-the-shovel variety - and it's a sure harbinger that spring is on the way!!!

There will be plenty more snow to come... like, for example, the foot that's supposed to fall this weekend, but it's starting to feel like spring snow, and the spring part just makes it sooo much easier to take!

As if to prove my point, the sun came out and melted off enough of it that CatMan and I were able to get out for a nice (if a bit soggy) bike ride today!

The whole time we were riding I was just captivated by the river. Now, all of our rides take us along the South Platte for at least 5 miles or so, but today the river just felt different. It was full and flowing, and it was the first time in months that I didn't see any ice on the water. And all around was the trickling sound of melting snow as the little drops of water made their way back to join their companions.


Perhaps this is overly sentimental of me, but I just love rivers. I love the whole metaphor. Somehow, seeing all those little drops of water joining together and starting their long journey back to the ocean reminds me of the oneness of life.

As I rode along my head was filled with all sorts of river songs, so I figured maybe I'd give you a little taste of my internal soundtrack.

This first one is a Bill Staines song, and was a staple at just about every folkie sing-along that I attended in my many years running the music school. Somehow the "real" version doesn't quite fill me up the way that a room full of people harmonizing to it does. But the chorus is quite catchy.


That led me to another favorite by Tish Hinojosa. Tish is a wonderful "Tex Mex" singer songwriter from Austin. The first time I heard her was in the early 1990's when we booked her as an opening act for... Bill Staines (above). She completely stole the show, and this song embedded itself firmly into my psyche:


That, of course, led me to one of my all time favorite songs ever by Chuck Pyle (because... the way I first heard of Chuck was that Tish recorded one of his songs.) Anyhow, the tag line of this song goes "You can't push the river, the mighty river's just gonna flow." Don't know if any of you are familiar with the work of Fritz Perls and Gestalt therapy, but "Don't push the river, it will flow by itself" is sort of a catch phrase used in those schools.


The basic gist is that when it comes to personal awareness, you can't make things happen, you just have to let them happen. Anyhow, it's a meaningful concept for me, and combine that with the incomparable musical stylings of Chuck Pyle (who calls himself the "Zen Cowboy") and you have a recipe for a wonderful song:


And finally... for those of you in the upper midwest and northeast (and probably Canada too) who aren't quite feelin' it in terms of spring yet. I thought you might enjoy this little ditty by Pat Donohue. Pat is an amazing fingerstyle guitarist who used to live in Denver before he moved back to his hometown in Minnesota. You may have heard him on the Prairie Home Companion radio show. I totally love his ironic sense of humor and this is a fun twist on the traditional Mississippi Delta blues tune.


Anyhow, that was the soundtrack of my day. I doubt anyone will listen to all of them, but it sure made me happy humming these songs as I rode by the beautiful river.

So tell me, what are your favorite river songs?


18 comments :

  1. No doubt about it. My favorite song with a river mention is the Doobie Brother's Blackwater.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Old blackwater, keep on rollin', Mississippi moon won't you keep on shinin' on me... That's a great one!

      Delete
    2. Oh, I forgot that one--I couldn't think of any river songs, but I do like that one!

      Um, we are having record-breaking bitterly cold weather, so I'm NOT feeling the springtime love. Kids off school AGAIN today due to the frigid temps. I'm more in cabin fever mode ... although for once the lake effect snow machine is turned off at the moment and we are seeing some sun ... but glad you are hopeful for a milder season--keep encouraging me!

      Delete
    3. OK... um... only 16 days until daylight savings time... only a month until the spring equinox... Hang in there! :-)

      Delete
  2. I honestly can't think of any right now, but it's early. :)

    Hooray for spring though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I bet it's not quite the same feeling down there in the desert though - since spring inevitably leads to summer... :-)

      Delete
  3. I always remember my dad singing "Ol Man River" as a child. That's my favourite.

    I am on Canada's East Coast. Not feeling too springlike at the moment. Probably 8 feet of snow down in the last 3 weeks. Snow banks 2 stories high. Still . . . daylight savings begins in a couple of weeks so . . . goo for that! More time to look out at all that snow!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Holy Moly! When I lived in Norway we had snow totals like that - it was like once a flake fell it stayed on the ground until spring. Do they plow the snow there or pack it down. In Norway the mostly packed it down because there would be no place to put it all if you tried to remove it!

      Can't wait for daylight savings time to begin...

      Delete
    2. They plow it . . . eventually. The plows only go out once the visibility is clear and, with our horrific winds, that can be several days. We were snowed in for 3 days and still only have a single lane open because there is nowhere to put it. Makes for interesting driving. Snowbanks in town are 2 storeys high. We live in the country so it just blows until it hits a barn or something.

      Delete
    3. Sounds like the kind of place where you'd want to either stay inside or learn to cross country ski!

      Delete
  4. GOOD for that I meant. Not goo . . .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! Well yanno... wet snow could be a bit like goo if you think about it! :-)

      Delete
  5. This is a fun post - I really like river songs. I like all of the ones already mentioned and here are some more that I like: Moon River (Breakfast at Tiffany's), The Ballad of Easy Rider (the Byrds), Take Me To the River (Al Green) and Green River (Creedence Clearwater Revival). Also enjoyed listening to the ones you posted especially Pat Donohue. Got to see him live once at the Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival and he was so good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those are all great songs! Actually, the only one I'd heard before was Moon River - which sorta surprises me since I love all of those artists. Pat is great fun in concert is't he? I love all of the parodies & funny stuff.

      Delete
  6. Off hand, the only river song I can think of right now is an oldie - Let the River Run by Carly Simon. And speaking of snow and spring, yesterday I realized what helps me get through these coldest days of winter. The fact that the days are starting to get longer! I was making dinner and realized it should already be dark - but it wasn't. Hallelujah for longer days - and the coming spring!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's another song I hadn't heard before - though I do like Carly Simon. And I'm totally with you in terms of the days getting longer. It makes such a HUGE difference, doesn't it?

      Delete
  7. I hope you are right. My lovely forecast for today was changed and we got hit by another storm instead. I never thought about how the snow could be heavier right before spring. It really doesn't hold true along the lakes as you could get heavy snow any time but our snow here is heavier in the last few weeks and no longer living by Lake Erie I'm going to go with this as a sign of spring for this area.

    As for my favorite river songs, Blackwater and Sitting by the Dock of the Bay are my two favorites. Your selections were great and new to me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooooo... Sittin' by the dock of the bay wastin' time! That's a good one.

      Our spring-like weather has given way to a return of winter, with snow expected every few days for the next week or two. But it's still nice that there's more light. It just makes everything easier to take.

      Delete

I welcome your thoughts so please leave me a comment and I promise I will respond.

On older posts I've had to enable comment moderation to prevent spammers, so don't worry if your comment doesn't show up right away - unless you're just commenting for the sake of embedding a link, in which case I really wish you wouldn't waste your time or mine because I'll just delete it.

Thanks, and have a fabulous day!