Yesterday an article appeared in my news feed from American /songwriter magazine 5 Folk Songs That Defined the American Experience.
The folk genre has always been a huge part of political music and patriotic songs alike. These five particular folk songs are beautifully intertwined with the American experience, and they are still so relevant decades after they were first released. Let’s take a look, shall we?….
So the other day I was watching an Instagram post from a young woman. She was listening to songs from her father’s album collection. He had see gently passed away.. Now whether or not that’s true or how long ago that was, I don’t know.Anyway. it started me thinking about all the new albums I’ve found at Goodwill and the Princeton Record Exchange over the last year and how I haven’t been listening to them!Then I read a post somewhere about collectors who rotate through their albums on a regular basis.
So, I had a 35 minute drive Monday morning to get to a dental appointment, to have a wisdom tooth extracted. It was a good time to listen to one of the three blues albums that have been in my music rotation. I chose I Hear Thunder from Tab Benoit. And I’m glad I did! The more I listen to the album the more I like it
So, as I’ve written previously over the last year, particularly from September to June I only ran sporadically.And I’ll tell you that the summer is not an easy time for this 73 year old to start over! Anyway the way that I am trying to restart my running is by both running and walking, Basically, I’ll run about a half mile and then walk a quarter mile and keep that switching going for about 30 minutes or more. It also turns out to be running until my heart rate gets up to about 140 bpm and then walking until it drops back to 110 bpm or lower.
So I started off Saturday morning by deciding I would listen to some music from each of the music genres I listen to most often. Sometimes it would be new music and sometimes music that,s been in my music library for a long time.And I actually picked an album that’s been in my library since the late 90s early 00s. Jack Williams’ 1997 release Across the Winterline. I bought the CD in the bargain bin at Tunes in Mount Laurel, NJ. I bought it at a time when my sons and I would go to Tunes almost every week. They were in their teens and I was getting back into buying music for me! Anyway I fell in love with Jack’s guitar playing and his songs about life in the south i’ve been a fan since then .
So over the last few years, I’ve drifted away from my musical roots. Between the 1975 and 2014 I listened to primarily music that falls broadly under the umbrella of Americana. I listened to Folk, Blues, bluegrass and Texas music. After about 2014, my musical listening shifted and I found myself listening to more Jazz and New Age with some Prog Rock thrown in the mix. It seemed every time I looked at the Roots Music Report Chart or New Releases Now, I never saw music from the Americana artists I listened to. The only Americana I continued to listen to regularly was Blues.
However, today’s Roots Music Folk Chart contained new albums from some of my favorites! So let’s what new Americana music I can put into my music rotation.
So the other day I wrote a out one of the two songs that have been in my music rotation this month, Albert Cummings‘ latest album Strong. The other album is Mike Zito‘s new album Life is Hard. Like Cummings Zito has been a favorite of mine for many years a now. I started listening to his music back around 2010 in when I heard his album Pearl. I think that his last two albums, 2021 Blues for the Southside Live and Life is Hard have been the best of his career.
