DC and I were driving in the car the other day and listening to selections from my CD collection. I popped in the Brothers Four (I would say they rock, but they aren’t rock music) and started listening. We listen through the first song on this greatest hits CD which is Greenfields (I hear they are gone now) to no comment. I sing along since I like it so much. Then we get to Yellow Bird (where the banjo becomes more prominent) and suddenly DC proclaims that I he doesn’t like it and that I am listening to hillbilly music. Most of the other songs on that particular CD are more along the lines of the “hillbilly” songs but with some nice 2-4 part harmonies. 
(The Green Leaves of Summer is great too. They must have some type of affliction…hehehhhehe… that causes them to name songs with colours in them.) I make sure to skip over Froggy Went a Courtin’ (I heard he did ride, uh huh) since I like the Doc Watson version a little better.
DC keeps telling me that the presence of a banjo in any type of music automatically delegates it to hillbillydom and isn’t anything that he likes to listen to. So shortly thereafter, I pop in the Squirrel Nut Zippers first album and it starts off with some semi-swing banjo riffs. Pretty cool I think to myself. (I only consider them semi-swing because though they are talented and play in a swing style they aren’t as good as the swing bands from the earlier part of the century.) Anyway, I ask him, “how do you like this hillbilly music?” I laugh.
After the Good Enough For Grandad song is over I pop in a nice Doc Watson CD. (I love Doc Watson.) The CD features Doc playing mostly guitar/banjo types of songs with his folky twang and bluegrass style. Personally, I think Doc Watson is significantly more hillbilly than the Brothers Four (they seem more refined with all the harmony) but since DC first listened to Doc Watson (thanks to me) he actually likes him and doesn’t lump him into the hillbilly category. We listen to it and I make sure to skip over Froggy Went a Courtin’. (I also heard he got swallowed up by a big snake.) Eventhough I like this version better I wasn’t in the mood to hear that one.
We keep travelling through my travel version of my musical collection listening to some Dowland, Campion, Byrds (I love them too), Janes Addiction (the first CD up to Been Caught Stealing), Gordon Lightfoot (just a few songs since he doesn’t know enough chords to make it sound like he plays in different keys but his songs still have a nice storytelling quality. I tend to like his songs better when they are covered by other bands), and some time during that ride we get up to Ed’s Redeeming Qualities. Now there is a band that is truly awesome. The particular CD (It’s All Good News) consists basically of the trio with a few other musicians thrown in on various songs. The trio is a guitarist/violinist, a baritone ukelele player (hey there Uke Ike, you would probably like them), and a drummer/clarinet player. DC thinks they are goofy but likes them. We listen to Blood Bank Man. (He knows the blood technician’s name. Every time we walk by him he always says the same thing, “You’re Laurie his my arm. Hi. Hi.”) Most of their music has a literary quality to it since the ukelel and guitar/violin player have some type of master’s degree each in literature. I think Dan (the ukelele player) majored in fiction and currently writes for some newspaper in San Francisco doing restaurant reviews. Anyway, we listen to it and have a pretty good time.
At the very end of the drive I put in Spanky and Our Gang (Spanky later took Mama Cass’s (sp?) place in the Mama’s and the Papa’s). Yesterday’s Rain (falls again and again) is particularly nice. They are a band that really plays a lot with harmony with several nice parts moving all around. One of the guys I think is a real hottie. (Someone find a link and post pictures with all the band mates and you will be my new friend forever, I couldn’t find any sites that had pictures.) They really were an interesting band that satisfy me with their harmony singing and rock orchestra accompaniements.
I would have listened to the Descendants or the Misfits also but DC really doesn’t like them at all. He puts them lower than the Brothers Four. I suppose that the gay stereotype is to listen to all that crappy trance/dance music out there. I am so not into that if you couldn’t tell by the music choices. DC is more into top 40 music and I am anti-top 40. I want music that has talent, speaks to me as an individual rather than the mass appeal of dumbed down music, hi Opal, and has qualities that will make them last rather than being the bubble gum that is almost all pop.
It seems like the drive was a lot longer than it really was since there were a lot of different CDs that we listened to. It was more CD hopping. Listening to a few songs here and there until we had a listened to a wide range of different music. DC said he could never buy me music since I listen to such an eclectic set. Oh well.
HUGS!
Sqrl
