Well-Tuned: Just One More Song for the Road Please

Detail of the factory installed AM/FM/8-track stereo audio unit in the instrument panel of a 1978 AMC Matador four-door sedan (made by American Motors Corporation). Also shown is the a tape cartridge in “play” position. It is the “Briefcase Full of Blues” cartridge, which was the debut album by The Blues Brothers, released late in 1978 by Atlantic Records. Also shown is the dashboard mounted cigarette lighter and canter air vents. Photo by CZmarlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Editor’s Note: We are thrilled to once again have a weekly music feature for Ordinary Times, and appreciate DW taking it up. He has written several great pieces involving music for OT before, and looking forward to his weekly Well-Tuned music feature.

Road songs. We all have them. Every genre of music has them. Back in the day we would create mixtapes, carefully crafted, spending hours just to find the right songs. It was just as important as mapping out your trip. This was no easy task. Gathering tapes and fast-forwarding through them to find the right song. Dubbing them to a fresh cassette tape. Trying to fit as much as you can on each side without wasting valuable tape time.

Of course, that process has changed over the years. Cassettes, then CD’s that were supposed to revolutionize how we listen to and record music to present day’s streaming services. Just like that road map you bought and highlighted your route on or the map you may have had your local AAA trip-tick for you, today’s technology has advanced to the point now that we are guided by satellites to our destinations through nav systems in our phones and vehicles.

Musically, we surrender to an algorithm that has been created by our listening habits to formulate a list of road songs. Letting a computer pick your road songs is as easy as it gets I suppose but I have not bought into that just yet.

As I have mentioned before I have what we like to call “The Library” that has just about everything I ever want to listen to in a lifetime contained in it. When I say it is what “we” like to call it, that is because The Library is a constantly evolving collaborative effort that began back in the days of Limewire and Ares.

I was discussing how I was able to find things I have not heard in years on these P2P sites to one of my truck driving friends. From that conversation The Library was created. As it turns out, he was in possession of a portable hard drive that his brother from California had loaned to him. On this drive was thousands of songs and full albums of hundreds of artists. My friend’s brother decided to add all his music digitally to this drive. He would then loan it to a friend to do the same, allowing the friend to upload their music to the drive while downloading what they want from it for themselves. This drive made it all the way across the country, growing, sharing songs with who knows how many friends of friends of friends until my friend got his hands on it. By that time, it had become what I nicknamed “McTunes” after my buddy whose last name was McMillion and the fact that it had so many songs packed into it.

I took what I wanted, added to it and gave it back to my friend. With McTunes now created, I did the same thing with my other music loving friends, loaned it out and watched McTunes grow and grow to the point I needed to upgrade my drive to hold it all. Sharing it was fun because I never knew what I would get back and it was also practical because each time it was shared it created another back up, a failsafe just in case any one of us would lose the data.

Jack, a friend of mine that I have known since high school back in West Virginia had a similar external hard drive. It was the addition of his collection to mine that created what is now known as “The Library.”

Things started out with burning CD’s, whole albums, mixes for all the different moods and things going on in life at the time. Then it was iPods. The ability to have access to thousands of songs on a device that I could fit in my pocket was life altering for me. Today it is the iPhone (or really any phone) and its ability to not only hold my hand-picked songs, but it also allows access to all the different streaming services out there, you know- the ones with the algorithms.

The process of creating that Road Song playlist became physically easier to accomplish. Just a few maneuvers on the laptop to pull it off but a problem soon developed for me when choosing the songs from The Library. It actually became borderline obsessive, running through all those albums, choosing a specific song then searching for the perfect match to it, which would require a perfect match to that song… I would jump on to grab ten or so songs for a quick ride on my mountain bike. Two hours and a hundred songs later (not just ten or so) I would have my list. Of course, it was dark by then and it was time for dinner, so the ride was out but damn did I have a killer playlist.

The next day would bring a new mood which would require either additions to the current list or an entirely new one. Wash, rinse, repeat. I had to get control of it so I could actually go for that ride and listen to it. Once I was able to learn to pick and go I would soon have enough playlists to cover just about anything; mood, activity, you name it. That includes quite a few Road Song lists.

My choices for what I consider are good road songs runs from jam that you crank up to get your blood pumping and your foot heavy on the gas, to the type good for sticking a curve on a West Virginia backroad that winds through the valley, to the songs that make you reflect on life or think back to a time in the past as you roll down the open road while caught up in the memories. Or just ones that just…groove.

Here’s a small list for your consideration. Like I said, everyone has their own road songs, and they have their reasons why. There are so many songs to pick from and my latest playlist is pretty much a complete one-eighty from what you might expect from me to unleash upon you. That is the beauty of creating a road song playlist, or any playlist for that matter. The freedom to listen to something new and out of your comfort zone, to expand your mind musically while you roll down that highway rather than listening to the tried and true. These picks are in no particular order just fifteen random songs out of thousands that I would like to share with you in hopes that you will find something cool, something new to you that makes you want to explore some of the artists a bit further and in turn, share it with someone else. Enjoy!

1. My Name Is Human by Highly Suspect
2. Call the Police by LCD Soundsystem
3. 107 degrees by Citizen Cope
4. Sound & Color by Alabama Shakes
5. Can’t Help Yourself by The Blackwater Fever
6. Shark Smile by Big Thief
7. Guilty by Gravity Kills
8. Fire by the Black Pumas
9. Hands of Time by Groove Armada
10. High by Sir Sly
11. Salt and the Sea The Lumineers
12. Mercy Now by Mary Gauthier
13. Trim by Underworld
14. Out In the Country by Natural Child
15. Left with a Gun by Skinshape

So dear reader, what are your “go-to” road songs? Have you heard any on my current list? I plan on delving into different types of playlists in future articles that are closer to my daily listening and tell the stories behind them.

Feel free to comment. Till next time…

E Pluribus Unum