Too late to help

[mrissa]

Most of your answers will probably be too late to influence my choice, but I would like to know anyway: if you were driving across Iowa today, what music would you listen to? What genre, what artists, what specific albums -- whatever. Twelve hours of driving through the middle of nowhere, spread out over a weekend. You don't have to either fill the time or limit yourself to that. I just want to know what you'd want in the CD player.

Comments

[baronlaw.livejournal.com]

Bruce Hornsby and the Range

[platypus]

I would pick the Dar Williams album with "Iowa" on it, because... well, I couldn't resist.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Ooh, oh, you're not too late. Thanks.

I love that song. I really, really love the early line about where she comes from, because it's where I come from, too: "And at night we walk into our houses and burn." Yeah.

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

Boiled in Lead, Oysterband, Cats Laughing, and ABBA Metal.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Alas, but we have no Oysterband on CD. I SAID, ALAS, BUT...oh, wait, I'm in charge of the budget. Never mind then.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Baroque and medieval music.

[sensational.livejournal.com]

I'd probably listen to what I have on my iPod Shuffle right now, which is The Magnetic Fields, Regina Spektor, Le Tigre, a little bit of Liz Phair and Led Zeppelin, and some random chick music (like the Andrews Sisters and Loretta Lynn). I might also add some Butchies, 'cause they're good driving music.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Which Liz Phair have you got on there, or just a mix?

[chance88088.livejournal.com]

Iggy Pop.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Arvo Part's Te Deum; The Lord of the Rings music: one, two, and three; Yes: Close to the Edge, Down by the River.

And have fun driving across Iowa.

Alas, you have probably already left.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Nope, markgritter is still destinkifying. He had to work this morning.

[sraun]

Peter Mayer (Scatterbrain) and Fred Small (Hot Frogs on the Loose). Classical music with lots of brass. Austin Lounge Lizards. Handel - Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. Tom Lehrer. The Threepenny Opera?

Audiobooks

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Specifically, Peter Beagle reading The Last Unicorn (http://www.conlanpress.com/html/audiobooks.html).

Re: Audiobooks

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I haven't read that. It's on my list, but I haven't yet.

markgritter doesn't like attempting to follow narrative while he's driving. I tried reading short stories to him when we were making longish drives several years ago, and he didn't enjoy it, so if I want narrative while we're in the car, I wait for my turn to be the passenger and read.

[thesaucernews.livejournal.com]

Anything so long as it's loud enough to drown out the call of He Who Walks Behind the Rows.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Shoeless Joe Jackson?

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

Tom Waits.

[pentacon.livejournal.com]

Lord of the Rings audio book.

[pameladean]

The last time I rode into Iowa, we had the Oyster Band's "Deep Dark Ocean". That worked well. When Raphael and I did road trips, we found Richard Thompson's "Mock Tudor" very satisfying. The best music for waking up a sleepy driver and racing into Minneapolis via 94 East, for us, has been the Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense." I never hear those songs without seeing stretches of 94 under the eerie glow of streetlights.

We also listen to Elvis Costello a lot, but that's a mix CD rather than individual albums.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Coming into Omaha is less a "waking up a sleepy driver" thing for us than a Counting Crows ritual. I don't do it every time -- didn't do it yesterday -- but they have a song called "Omaha" I really like to play just as we're hitting downtown.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Lone Justice, This World Is Not My Home (their cover of Dylan's "Go 'Way Little Boy" is a good driving song, or at least I found it so through eastern Virginia)

His Name Is Alive, Stars on ESP (includes multiple variations on "This World Is Not My Home," which is what got me interested in the Lone Justice version in the first place)

Springsteen (Best Of). Pierce Pettis, Everything Matters and Making Light of It. Dar Williams, Mortal City (for the reason mentioned above) and The Green World (for sing-alongability). Madonna and Cyndi Lauper (more singalonging, especially to "I Drove All Night. . .") and some madrigals and/or William Billings (still more singalonging).

Of course, when the BYM and I travel together, he's usually the one driving, so the CD player usually holds something trance-y and/or acoustic, and then he wonders why I fall asleep . . .

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Stevie Ray Vaughn
Johnny Cash
Eric Johnson

NPR

[cadithial.livejournal.com]

Anything metal and loud :) Iowa is boring driving.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Patrick O'Brian audiobooks, wherever you happen to be in the series. The sea of grass goes very nicely with the other kind. Though you mention elsethread that Mark doesn't like to drive to text, so maybe not.

Fred Small. _Anything Possible_, or that album whose name I'm forgetting, the one with "Scott and Jamie" and "At the Elbe." (Not _Jaguar_. I don't consider that suitable for driving.)

Richard Thompson, especially in the late 1980 and 1990s when he was really rocking. Some of the older work is wonderful, but you have to get through *Iowa* for goodness sake! (That's why I'm not recommending Stan Rogers for this. Too much risk of tears.) I have _Watching the Dark_, which sort of has a bit of everything...but I'd recommend grabbing _Amnesia_ and maybe _Old Kit Bag_ for a road trip.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Some good driving music:

REM, Automatic for the People
Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers
Wilco, Being There
Something by the Indigo Girls

(There's a different set of CDs for driving at night in cities. Some music just seems more urban than others.)

[drabheathen.livejournal.com]

Iron & Wine
The Decemberists
Elliott Smith (the albums Elliott Smith, Roman Candle)

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Johnny Cash live from Folsom Prison.

K.

[sculpin.livejournal.com]

Last time I drove across the middle of nowhere (eastern Montana's middle of nowhere) I listened to a lot of little country stations, all of which had "I'm a Honky-Tonk Superman" on heavy rotation. It was fun to find out what folks in Nowheresville MT were listening to. I am all for radio station serendipity.

Country music is travelling music for me now. So's folk music, after many trips around western Washington singing along to an old Weavers tape.

[ksumnersmith.livejournal.com]

Too late, I know, but: PAUL SIMON!! Paul Simon is great for long roadtrips -- Graceland, of course, but others too.

Otherwise? Hmm. I'd bring my Enter the Haggis, R.E.M (Automatic for the People is good for driving, and Monster), Jimmy Eat World and Sam Roberts.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I listened to Graceland in the car.

[ladysea.livejournal.com]

Nickleback, Evanescense, Barenaked Ladies, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Dido.

Oh...can't forget the Bear in the Big Blue House soundtrack. And the Buffy soundtrack. Both make the Spud happy...and I tend to travel with the kids. =P

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

This is probably not much help, but I'd probably listen to a few favorites like 'O Brother Where Art Thou' and Leonard Cohen, but mostly surf the radio-waves, and sometimes turn it all off and sing out loud -

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Surfing the radio waves in Iowa is...um. Risky at best. I found the radio play of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that way, but I also got "The Long December" six times in one drive.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Great Big Sea. Happy music for me.

And Richard Thompson, Springsteen, Melissa Etheridge and Fred Eaglesmith, all of whom sing about cars and driving quite a bit. And if it were me, Stan Rogers would be on heavy rotation because he always is.

On the other hand if Ted were driving it would be Metallica, Jimmy Buffett, and the Scorpions.