12 Song Mix - Rainy Days

The next 12 Song Mix I'd like to present to you is inspired by the inauspicious storms that rolled across the country today.  I hope that everyone has settled in safely despite the dicey nature of today's acts of Mother Nature.

Forgive me for the overly sensitive commentary, but some songs just sound better against a background of raindrops on a window pane.  Many albums have suddenly clicked between the slides and scrapes of wiper blades.  The atmosphere described here is not limited strictly to depressing ballads or mournful piano pieces.  The mood of a raging monsoon or a violent wind ripping across the plain is just as frequently captured in popular music.  Really, the songs that hit home on rainy days could fill a thousand of these lists.

 

Therefore, we'll start with a few of the more obvious choices.  It wouldn't be the Bark without including some relatively obscure tracks as well.  All subtlety aside, spin some of these the next time a timelier and more innocuous storm comes through (hopefully on a day off from work); it can be therapeutic.

1. Neil Young - See The Sky About To Rain

2. Sun Kil Moon - Grey Ice Water (Modest Mouse cover)

3. Grateful Dead - Box Of Rain

4. Fleetwood Mac - Storms

5. Nada Surf - Are You Lightning

6. The Beatles - Rain

7. Whiskeytown - Sit And Listen To The Rain

8. Bob Dylan - Shelter From The Storm

9. Jonsi - Tornado

10. Simon & Garfunkel - Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall

11. Leonard Cohen - Famous Blue Raincoat

12. Led Zeppelin - The Rain Song

A Dogwood Bark Christmas

Before I dive into the annual year-end lists, I offer up a Christmas mix.  Here you'll find a mix of traditional and contemporary; religious and secular.  Some are classics you've heard a million times, and others are slightly more obscure.  Hopefully there's something here that helps you appreciate the silent majesty of a winter's morn, the clean cool chill of the holiday air, and an asshole in his bathrobe emptying a chemical toilet into my sewer.

1. Sufjan Stevens - Hey Guys! It's Christmastime!

2. The Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick

3. A Fine Frenzy - Christmastime Is Here

4. John Williams - O Holy Night (Home Alone Soundtrack)

5. Dean Martin - Silver Bells

6. The Chipmunks - The Chipmunk Song (Christmas, Don't Be Late)

7. Joni Mitchell - River

8. John Denver & The Muppets - The 12 Days Of Christmas

9. Mavis Staples - Christmas Vacation

10. She & Him - Baby It's Cold Outside

11. Sufjan Stevens - Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing

12. Frank Sinatra - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

12 Song Mix - July 4th

As I have spent the past month painstakingly planning a huge overblown fireworks show, I have also neglected my Dogwood duties.  In the meantime, countless topics have sprung to mind only to be filed away for later posts, for less strenuous times of year.

However, as I drove home this evening making conscious effort after conscious effort to remove myself from the mind-numbing work related details swimming around in my head, "America" by Simon & Garfunkel came on the shuffle and instantly did the trick.  That wonderful piece of musical genius launched me into the creation of this very mix.

Rather than load the reader down with traditional patriotic standards, I'd prefer to offer up some choices with some substance and some unique elements.  Songs for the lake, songs for the grill.  Songs for watching fireworks, and songs for after the fireworks.  Songs for cracking that first iced down holiday brew.  I like to think there's something here for everyone.  Enjoy the Fourth.

 1. Band Of Horses - The General Specific
Pants have got to go.  We're on an island on the Fourth of July, it looks like the tide is going home.

 2. Iron & Wine - Freedom Hangs Like Heaven
And night birds digging until dawn, freedom hangs like heaven over everyone.

 3. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers -
                                                                            American Girl
God it's so painful when something that's so close, is still so far out of reach.

 4. The Decemberists - July, July!
And we'll remember this when we are old and ancient, though the specifics might be vague.

 5. The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
And here's where we died that time last year, and where the angels and devils meet.

 6. Bruce Springsteen - Independence Day
At night they walk that dark and dusty highway all alone.

 7. Elliott Smith - Independence Day
Everybody knows you only live a day, but it's brilliant anyway.

 8. Wilco - Ashes Of American Flags
All my lies are only wishes.  I know I would die if I could come back new.

 9. American Football - Never Meant
Best friends, and better halves.

 10. Ryan Adams - Firecracker
Well everybody wants to go forever, I just wanna burn up hard and bright.

11. Bob Dylan - Chimes Of Freedom
Tolling for the wounded ones whose wounds cannot be nursed.  For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones and worse.  And for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe.


 12. Simon & Garfunkel - America
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, they've all gone to look for America.  All gone to look for America.

12 Song Mix - Classic Album Openers

If you were to put together a mix consisting of nothing but first tracks on classic albums, what would that look like?  To narrow things down, let's limit the song pool to albums released pre-1990 for this one.  As with most of my lists, I'll stick to one entry per artist.  In an effort to make a cohesive and enjoyable listening experience, mine would look something like this:

  1. The Who - Baba O'Riley

  2. The Beatles - Two Of Us

  3. The Clash - London Calling

  4. The Grateful Dead - Box Of Rain

  5. Pixies - Debaser

  6. Nick Drake - Pink Moon

  7. David Bowie - Changes

  8. Led Zeppelin - Good Times, Bad Times

  9. Neil Young - Tell Me Why

  10. The Zombies - Care Of Cell 44

  11. Sonic Youth - Teen Age Riot

  12. Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends Theme