Fates Stop The Spinning

 By Tom Speed

Hey there. You know, I spend a lot of time listening to music —evaluating it, processing it, thinking about it, comparing it to other music. Then I write stuff about it. Sometimes it can get to be overwhelming when the backlog starts to pile up. It starts to feel more like a job, which it is, kinda. But it’s so much better when it doesn’t feel that way and you can enjoy it and it feels like an adventure where you’re seeking out hidden treasure. When you find it you can hold it high over your head and say ‘behold!” and hope people look at it before they flip the page to a cologne ad or click through to play some data-mining game that’s going to eat away at the rest of their afternoon. 

(Yes, I know, poor Tom has to listen to music and get paid (albeit not very much) to tell people what he thinks about it. Wah. Sorry.)

But from time to time when the projects pile up, it’s hard to find the joy and without the joy it’s hard to find the truth. Just the other day, I was behind schedule on album reviews of Valerie June and Belle Adair. I was scheduled to interview Shannon McNally that afternoon for a story due the next day. I still hadnn’t transcribed my interviews with Tyler Keith and Eric Easley from Blitzen Trapper. I needed to schedule interviews with the North Mississippi Allstars, Derek Trucks and Anders Osborne all in the next week. But before that I needed to listen to those albums like 10 more times. 

And I was still trying to wrap my head around this massive 6 CD, DVD, Book and a 78-RPM Woody Guthrie box set. Trying to think critically about all of this stuff and find time to put it into words can be dizzying, especially when the above stories are for a half-dozen different publications, each with their own editors and deadlines and needs. It feels like spinning plates sometimes. If you stop, they’ll all fall down.

So when I go for my morning walk, what the hell do I put on my iPod? How do I keep the plates from dropping? Or is it possible, somehow, to just make them stop. Freeze time. Turns out there is. I found a way and it was an ancient one. I called on the Fates.

I summoned her in the form of the “random” function on the iPod. People have long marveled at the seemingly non-random nature of this function. Sometimes it seems like the little machine is choosing songs just for your mood. Or that, “wow, today this iPod really likes the Rolling Stones!”  The truth is, making order out of chaos is the way we make our reality. So when we see the little connective tissue appear in random events, we’re just making it orderly so that we can understand it on some elemental level.

So I called on the Fates to calm my mind and pause those plates for a half hour or so, so I could just enjoy my walk. It was, after all, a beautiful morning in Oxford, Mississippi and I needed the next 30-45 minutes to enjoy it and not think about my to-do list.

I called on them, and this is what they bestowed:

1.     Robert Earl Keen —  “Floppy Shoes”

One of the great things about the random feature is that songs pop up that you might never pull from the shelf otherwise. This is a great freewheeling tune from REK that has a funky groove and is loaded with an energy for abandoning one’s responsibilities and hitting the open road with a tie-dyed tee shirt and a pair of flip-flops. Maybe Fate did pick this one out just for me.

2.     Richard Cheese – “Pour Some Sugar On Me”

I saw this guy at SXSW one year and bought a bunch of his albums. It’s shtick. He does lounge versions of well-known hits, and the funniest ones are the ones that provide the most juxtaposition. So when he golden-throats the “I’m hot, sticky, sweet” line I’m laughing and swinging and rocking at the same time. And it reminds me of my wife who is resolute in her unabashed love for Def Leppard. So Fate has me smiling at this point.

3.     The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience --- “Say Won’t You Be Mine”

I’m a big fan of most forms of Dawg Music, but I never listened to this album much when it came out. It was just one of those that fell through the cracks. It’s no secret Grisman is a hell of a player, and the group he put together for this record has some great, classic bluegrass harmonies on this song.

4.     Tinsley Ellis– “Freddy’s Midnight Dream”

I recently interviewed Tinsley for Living Blues about his most recent record, the instrumental Get It! Loved talking to him about it. It’s a great record. The Freddy here references King not Krueger. Glad that this popped up instead of something from the to-do list.

5.     Arcade Fire–  “Ocean of Noise”

A brooding and moody change of pace from their Neon Bible record that kind of got me fired up to hear their new one.

6.     Backyard Tire Fire—“Don’t Know What To Do”

This is/was a fantastic band from Illinois (or was it Indiana?) led by Ed Anderson, who writes, sings, plays guitar and piano and everything else. I love everything they’ve put out and never understood why folks like this don’t get more recognition that the far less talented folks who do. Currently, Ed is on tour with Johnny Hickman from Cracker. Check him out if he comes around.

7.     Something I can’t remember.

I think it was a reggae tune. Seriously, I just spaced out there for a while and I had remembered everything until then. When I realized I was missing something, I tried to hit the “back” button on my iPod but hit the wrong thing and

8.     Gov’t Mule— “Broke Down on the Brazos”

      Another example of getting lost in the digital realm, I downloaded this concert recording from a New Orleans show this year, and had never listened to it. Not once. Got distracted and just forgot about it. This is the problem with digital music. It’s not on your shelf. You don’t see it. You can put something in your iTunes and it’s all too easy to forget it. Thanks Fates. That rocked.