Ipods

I love record shops, and looking for obscure tunes. I remember back in college, it was a real treat scavenging the Recordsmith in Richmond, the places on Limestone in Lexington, or the Money Tree in Owensboro. There is something about hearing a song, and hunting the album/CD down.

Every time I pass an Apple store in a mall, I think, "that's the last nail in the coffin for the record shop." Actually, the last nail may have been hammered in long before.

I love CDs. I love holding a CD, I love owning the relic. I like vinyl too, but it is bulky, and it can distort. Setting and listening to an old album is a treat, but my favorite way to listen to music is loudly, in a car, as I drive down the road.

I have a ton of mix CDs. Seriously, I probably have a hundred. Before I take a trip, I like to put a CD together of songs about a place. Or, maybe not even songs specifically about the place, but songs that make me think of the location.

No doubt, John Prine was thinking about Kentucky when he wrote one of the greatest songs ever. There are a lot of other songs that were not written about Kentucky that I personally associate with the state though, mostly for personal reasons.

I will always associate Bob Seger's song, "Night Moves" with Berea, because I woke up there one night during a thunderstorm, with my radio on, almost during the "sound of thunder" part of the song.

Texas songwriter Darden Smith makes me think of Owensboro. My buddy Brent introduced me to Darden's music, and we would drive around listening to him.

Jackson Browne's, "That Girl Could Sing" seemed to always come on late at night on the classic rock station when I was working in fast food in Owensboro. That association will always be there in my mind too.

Most students that went to Berea in the 90s remember Curnutte and Maher playing there a few times. We loved them. The first time I ever went out with my future wife we saw that great duo.

I have a lot of CDs I have bought from indy folk performers at coffee shops. When I listen to those CDs I think about the song, the artist, and the venue.

I could go on and on.

This Christmas, I started getting interested in the whole Ipod thing. Reluctantly, I bought one. I must say now that I am converted.

A recent road trip around the state proved a great time to give mine a good "on the road" work out.

There were some songs I had been hunting down for years. Sometimes I find myself driving through a small town, listening to the local college station. I catch a catchy unfamiliar song on one of these stations. I quickly try to jot down a few lyrics, so I can google them later.

Before, I may have gone to the record store to find the CD containing that song, plus others. I might have to pay $5 or more for a used CD, or $15 plus for a new one.

Now, I can download a song, pretty much any song, for a dollar and some change. A buck.

I spent about $30 downloading songs the other night. I had a list of about 35 songs I had jotted down here or there. About 3 of them just didn't sound as good when I went back to listen to them again. Only a very obscure 2 were unavailable.

I will have to research some of the artists more thoroughly later, since I am judging them on 1 song so far, but I am judging them favorably.

I think about how exciting it was finding the Sundays CD in the CD shop. I bought it for their hit, "Here's Where the Story Ends". By golly, every song on that CD is a winner! I experienced similar excitement with the Innocence Mission, John Hiatt, and others.

Recently, I have experienced that same excitement with Amy Macdonald. I bought her CD while driving through Jackson TN. I listened to the album as I drove around the second greatest state, and now I will associate them together.

It would have been wrong if I had just downloaded the hit songs from the artists I just mentioned.

I think about the more common flip side of this too though. I have bought many more coasters with barely 1 good song on them.