A Good Mix of Folk Music Brightens My Morning Commute!
So this morning I decided that today would be Folk Friday. I made the soundtrack for my morning commute a mix of songs from the tracks that are in the folk genre in my music library. Through the years folk music and musicians have been a big part of the music that I listen to. Music from people like Tom Paxton, Tom Rush, John Prine and Steve Goodman makes up a large portion of my music library.
I imagine that my music listening followed the pattern of many people. I listened to a ton of music during my high school and college years (1965-1977). Then in 1979 we had our first child (Nick) and for the next ten years or so my music library didn’t branch out very much. The folks I had listened to in the years before our children pretty much were the ones that I listened to during the 80s and 90s. Of course we did listen to a lot of music from Raffi, Sharon, Lois and Bram and Tom Chapin during those child-rearing years!
Two of the artist that I did add to my music library in the late 90s were John Gorka and Bill Morrissey.Then, in the mid 90s my two oldest Nick and Andrew started to listen to music and we made weekly trips to Tunes Used CDs. where I found a ton of music in the bargain bins. During that time I would avidly read Dirty Linen and No Depression constantly checking the ads and then looking for those albums at Tunes. Many of the albums that comprised this morning’s soundtrack came from those bargain bins. Here’s the soundtrack.
- “Lay Down This Weight” – Greg Greenway – Singing for the Landlord
- “Life is Hard” – Cliff Eberhard – Mona Lisa Cafe
- “Bearing Witness” – Carrie Newcomer – My Father’s Only Son
- “Singing the Spirit Home” – Eric Bogle – Live
- “Jesse Likes Birds” – Carrie Elkins – Call It My Garden
- “I’ve Been Waiting” – R.B. Morris – Zeke and the Wheel
- “Seize the Day” – Ellis Paul – Live
- “Before I Knew Your Name” – Mark Erelli – Compass and Companion
- “Miles Away” – Brooks Williams – Seven Sisters
- “Devil’s Full Moon” – Nathan Hamilton – Tuscola
I was introduced to the music of both Cliff Eberhard and Ellis Paul from the same album that introduced me to John Gorka and Bill Morrissey. Legacy: A Collection of New Folk Music With the exception of Carrie Elkins I believe that all of the other artist’s music was first found at Tunes .Brooks Williams, Carrie Newcomer, Ellis Paul and Mark Erelli have become four of my favorites, And while I have not listened to it in a long while Tuscola from Nathan Hamilton is a terrific album. Zeke and the Wheel is a really interesting album from a great songwriter.
The soundtrack was a good way to start out my Friday almost the end of a busy week. My weekend starts after tomorrow shift at Target!! Actually I think that Nathan Hamilton’s music can be more properly classified as Americana rather than folk, but I think all of the above can fall under the Americana umbrella!
So check any of the above out they are all worth a listen. Here’s Nathan Hamilton’s “Devil’s Full Moon”
