We’ve done many many long rides through the mountains for decades and everywhere USA ~ Canada with fresh water at the window, blue sky horizon, late night stars on the brink of things, and often with nothing but the air between driver and passenger. The look one to the other. This was all there on this ride, but not yet warm enough for windows open, we did a 12 hour sonic ride to say goodbye to a very long winter and hello to the brightness to new, young leaves hazing the hillsides all around. Springtime.
Left this morning driving out of the woods at 6 with a golden coated fox leaping right in front of our car. Far enough ahead to get a good look at the movement — something wild. Lovely lighting to its coat. Little did we know we would see this again in about 10 hours.
We'd be 12 hours on the highways and back roads all day in a rental car which would swoon as its own sonic ride. I'll list the songs and artists with us all the way north up the great quiet interstate of Vermont, one of the finest in the country but taken for granted by most Vermonters. Few finer and cutting the edge of tree line and rivers unless you are in Idaho or Wyoming. We've seen them there. Depending on the hour you can be alone on this highway of pasture hills and sweeping curves; in fact somewhere way north a sweeping curve glides us out of Vermont and right into the high brow of New Hampshire, western edge of the White Mountains, town names Bethel, Franconia, Bethlehem. Gas is $1.99. Bananas are 49 cents a pound. These are the biggest signs in downtown Bethlehem. Curiously it’s the poetry capital of New Hampshire — and long before I knew that, or really the reason why — it had me with its alpine architecture, stone churches and modest mansions, many abandoned or long up for sale, with wrap around to-die for verandahs or ship size cupolas somehow balancing atop old homes, scalloped in wonder finish carpentry and decked out with windows all around. Looking to mountains. The people who built these, lived here, all gone. The side streets ticky-tacked together with temporary vehicles and residents. Not much is talking one to the other. The trees on the street look lonesome. The ancient villas and arcadia imagination is just lasting because it was formed and realized and built by folks who loved this world and made it stick in granite and snow. A little girl walking from school looks lost in a desert. After this town with no cops to be seen, and a sign celebrating poetry, and the mountain yodel — the next town is cheap stuff, nothing but cops in cruisers, big trucks storming through. Every town in the mountains is hanging on to a slippery slope. And either crooked with justice, or just a last piece of benevolence pie. You gotta test it to see which one it is. Buy some gas and say hello. Try those bananas. Step into the library and be greeted, or stared at.
It was solid music while driving, and driving was the key. Around all the Presidentials, the highest (Mount Washington and Adams, I much like Jefferson, too) still deep ribbed with snow. The ravines look fierce. The cog rail is probably running and we should have probably hopped on and gone up but instead we hiked the boulder isolation and snow melt river rushing down from Ripley Falls. The rocks had just come out of snow.
Road kill: 1 raccoon, 1 groundhog, and what do you know: brother golden coated fox somewhere in the mountains. Same as the one this morning. Our flash in the pan. Two turkeys crossed, one at a time, wide berth interstate without mishap, all with the timing, wisdom and pace of old codgers. Last thing, one roadside porcupine, dead ‘asleep’, with its 30,000 quills.
In Gorham two women sit out in the sun on folding chairs in front of the open bay garage door of their service station. They don't look shocked any longer that they aren't doing business. The warm sun is richness and business for right about now. People up here get by on day by day, though some already have woodpiles ready for next winter. An old woman gives her long and narrow garden spot in the yard, just where the sun falls the best, a long hard stare. I wonder what that will do? I see she already has brush poles up for her peas and some trellis for raspberries and the bed has been turned. She could care less about the highway that hollers by. She was here first.
Just like the soft spots of the Canadian Rockies, or Yosemite, where we have peeked in at their villas for the wealthy, there is at least one grand hotel in the White Mountains. If done right you can slip in and slip out and pay for nothing and still stick your feet into their bubbling warm spa for ten minutes, watch your girl sway her hips against the cellar pinball machine and win bonus games, then pack your breakfast in and sit on rocking chairs just where Babe Ruth sat and enjoy your meal in the free as can be sunshine. Getting it good is just asking for enough.
I selected a good handful of CDs from 100s of compilations I made over the years and let them fly as we flew. I jotted down some titles; others are a note to the musician(s) only...running out of paper to get every title down. It was a 12-hour sonic ride and this is why ~
Bob Dylan, "Blind Willie McTell"
Steve Earle, City of Immigrants
The Turtles, You Showed Me
Link Wray & The Wraymen, Walkin' with Link
Deon Jackson, Love Makes the World Go Round
The Byrds, So You Want to Be a Rock n' Roll Star
Rolling Stones, The Last Time
Van Morrison, Brown Eyed Girl
Madeline Bell, I'm gonna make you love me
Rising Sons, By and By (Poor Me)
Gene Clark, So You Say You Lost Your Baby
Kaleidoscope, Pulsating Dream
John Kay & the sparrows , Square Headed People
Spirit , I Got A Line On You
Moby Grape, 8:05
Ruby & the romantics, Our Day Will Come
Leonard Cohen, The Future
Jerry Butler, I dig you baby
Jeff Beck, Shapes Of Things
The Hollies, Sandy
The Troggs, Love is all around
Morphine
Eileen Jewell, Rich man's world
Steve Earle, Jericho Road
Swan Silvertones, "oh mary, don't you weep"
Mimi & Richard Farina, Pack up your sorrows
Sonic Youth, i'm not there
Van Morrison, my bucket's got a hole in it
Freddy Fender, noche de ronda
Willie Nelson, senor
Ali Farka Toure / toumani diabate
Nabiha Yazbeck, astahel
Angelique Kidjo, naima
Richie Havens, tombstone blues
Letterstick Band, yi-rrana
Radiohead, 15 step
Virginia Rosa, la vai alguem
Zulya, lullaby
Eliades Ochoa, tribute to the cuarteto patria
Milford Graves
Mimi & Richard Farina, bold marauder
Townes Van Zandt, "I'll be here in the morning"
Roy Harper, forever
Radiohead, reckoner'
Billie Holiday/organica remix, summertime
Jesse Winchester, Dangerous Fun
Muddy Waters, My Home Is In The Delta
Arthur Big Boy Crudup
Doc Watson & Merle Travis, Way Downtown
Mike Seeger & Bob Dylan
Rodney Crowell
John Lennon
Iris DeMent, I Don't Want To Get Adjusted
Michael Hurley
David Blue
Victor Jara, "manifesto"
Roy Orbison
Buck Owens
Jack Kerouac
The Spinners
Roland Kirk
Roy Rogers & Dale Evans
Perry Como
Martha Wainwright, "Faraway"
Djivan Gasparyan
Virginia Rodriques
Almeda Riddle
Rachid Taha
Lars Hollmer
Dolores Keane
Jackson C. Frank
Traffic
John Jackson
Ramblin Jack Elliot, South Coast
Ramblin Jack Elliot, If I Were A Carpenter
Tim Hardin
Bob Dylan, Boogie Woogie Country Girl
Anthony & the Johnsons, "Knockin on Heaven's Door"
Opal
John Barry
Henry Mancini
Ennio Morricone
Frank Hutchison
Gene Clark, Gypsy Rider
Mississippi John Hurt
Jim Ringer, Tramps & Hawkers
Nat King Cole
Cesaria Evora, recordai
Mario, "pireotissa"
Tortoise
Ween, "japanese cowboy"
Sleater-Kinney, what's mine is yours
Son House, country farm blues
Juke Boy Bonner, houston beat
Hank Williams
Mary McCaslin, "my love"
Moby, run on
Johnny Farmer, death letter"
Fanfare Ciocarlia (romania)
Billy Bragg/Wilco, "way over yonder in the minor key"
Gonda Manakovska (kosovo)
Van Morrison, what makes the irish heart beat
Agathonas Iakovidis
Gare du Nord, pablo's blues
Nabiha Yazbeck, astahel
Bap Kennedy, drunk on the blood of christ
Trad. music Auvergne, France
Theodosia Stinga
Rev. Gary Davis (anything)
Petshop Boys, vampires
Curtis Mayfield, super fly
Vashti Bunyan, window over the bay
Johnny Rivers, memphis
Maria de Barros
Rico Bell
Cat Stevens, if you want to sing out, sing out
Morrissey, pregnant for the last time
Glenn Campbell, "Witchita Lineman"
Tim Buckley
Joe Brown
Nick Drake, "Things behind..."
Bettye LaVette, "down to zero"
Jimmy Driftwood, Tenn Stud.
Jimmy Driftwood, He had a long...
Guitar Slim, Quicksand
Bo Diddley
ZZ Top, "my head's in Mississippi"
The Waterboys, "on my way..."
Alison Krauss/Robert Plant, gone gone gone
Linda Thompson, "All I see"
Sarah Vaughan
Emmylou Harris, "All my tears"
Merle Haggard/Jimmie Rodgers
The Beatles, "I am the walrus"
Pop Staples
Beach Boys
Dion, "the wanderer"
Elvis, "Suspicion"
Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling..."
John Coltrane "Blue train"
John Lee Hooker: Live
Lightnin Hopkins
Jimi Hendrix
Greg Brown, "China"
Ravi Shankar
Woody Guthrie (anything)
Peterpaulmary, "500 miles"
Carson Arnold, "Morning Dance"
Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon "from spink to correctionville"
Eliades Ochou y el Cuarteto Patria
Barbara Lewis, "Baby, I'm yours"
Solomon Burke, "everybody needs somebody to love"
Don Covay, "seesaw"
Doug Sahm, "At the Crossroads"
Archie Bell & the Drells, "here I go again"
Clarence Carter, "slip away"
Donny Hathaway, "the ghetto"
Betty Wright, "clean up woman"
The Spinners, "i'll be around"
Ben E King, "supernatural thing part 1"
Andrea Echeverri, "baby blues"
Ana Moura, "as vezes"
John Prine,"hello in there"
Chris Issak, "Wicked Game"
B-52s, "rock lobster"
RL Burnside, "It's bad you know"
Berlin, "take my breath away"
Fats Domino
Kim Richey
The Romantics, "what I like about you"
Jefferson Airplane, "turn my life around"
Blondie, "heart of glass"
Iggy Pop
Fine Young Cannibals, "she drives me crazy"
Joshua
Judy Collins, "since you asked"
Dusty Springfield, "no easy way down"
Habib Koite
Donovan, "The Mountain"
Joe Cocker, Feelin’ Alright
Mama’s & the Papa’s, Twelve Thirty
Desmond Dekker, Fu Manchu
John Lennon
Ann-Margaret
Nina Simone
Neil Young
Jimmy Reed
Billie Holiday
Franco, "Celio"
Jesse Thomas
Love
Santana, Soul Sacrifice
Judy Henske
PJ Harvey, "The Mess We're In"
Spacemen, Come Down Easy
13th Floor Elevators
Duke Ellington, “Oclupaca”
John Fahey
The Carter Family, “John Hardy...”
Sandy Bull “Carmina Burana Fantasy”
Jerry Lee Lewis, Deep Elem Blues
Skip James, Hard Time Killin Floor Blues
Charlie Musselwhite, Christo Redemptor
The Pointer Sisters, Fairytale
Sun Ra
Mira Billotte, "as I went out one morning"
Catherine Ribeiro & Alpes
Lou Harrison "for Strings..."
Louis Armstrong
Thelonious Monk
Hole
The Doors, (let your children play)
The Supremes, come see about me
Bob Marley
Toots & the Maytals
Buddy Holly
Johnny Cash/June Carter
Johnny Cash, "Hurt"
Rodney Crowell
Dock Boggs
Roscoe Holcomb
The Delmore Bros., “I’m lonesome without you”
Gato Barbieri
Otis Spann, I got a feeling
Nirvana
Barred Owl (calls)
Canyon Wren (calls)
Hermit Thrush (calls)
Sam Cooke, a change is gonna come
James Brown (4 of his best):
it’s a man’s man’s world
(do the) mashed potato pt. 1
papa don’t take no mess pt. 1
king heroin
Shantel “Bucovina”
U2, New Year’s Day
U2, Desire
Los Lobos, "Mas y Mas"
HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK TO PETE SEEGER (MAY 3)
& ON-DECK YOGI BERRA (MAY 12)
& ON-DECK YOGI BERRA (MAY 12)
