View Full Version : Road trip music
BeanJean
Jun-01-2021, 12:45pm
I’ll be driving alone for two long days. I’d like to listen to great mandolin music as the miles roll by. What are your favorite road trip albums? Any genre
bigskygirl
Jun-01-2021, 12:58pm
Not mandolin specific but I recently got the Jimmy Martin and Osborne Bros box sets and that is my plan for an upcoming road trip. Tone poems is a good album, Bluegrass Mando Extravaganza, David Grisman did an album with Tommy Emmanuel recently, and of course Bill Monroe, McReynolds Bros, Stanley Bros…so many. There is prob some really nice jazz from Don Steirnberg and Paul Glasse, Brian Oberlin and Evan Marshall are two monster players.
rickbella
Jun-01-2021, 1:07pm
Dave Apollon would take you there and back!
Ranald
Jun-01-2021, 1:10pm
Rags, Breakdowns, Stomps & Blues: Vintage Mandolin Music 1927-1946 (Document Records)
glissando
Jun-01-2021, 1:54pm
Depends where you're driving, but if it's two long days, I'm assuming you'll be passing through some rural terrain. I really enjoy Bill Frisell's album "Nashville" for trips like this. It does feature a mandolin, but I really like the playing of Bill Frisell on a very clean toned electric guitar. The album is sort of minimalist and has a lot of space and works really well on road trips.
Dave Hicks
Jun-01-2021, 2:12pm
Rags, Breakdowns, Stomps & Blues: Vintage Mandolin Music 1927-1946 (Document Records)
Early Mandolin Classics, Vol. 1 on Rounder (don't believe there was a vol. 2). This overlaps some with the Document anthology, but has another set of interesting stuff.
Jethro Burns Legacy, The Complete Final Sessions
D.H.
Bill McCall
Jun-01-2021, 2:41pm
I really got into Adam Steffey’s New Primitive on the way home from The Wenatchee festival a few years ago. The speeding ticket took the fun out of it:crying:
Kevin Winn
Jun-01-2021, 3:25pm
All three of Andrew Marlin's "solo" albums.
Chuck Leyda
Jun-01-2021, 3:32pm
How about:
https://theforeignlanders.bandcamp.com/album/put-all-your-troubles-away
and:
https://janandjon.bandcamp.com/album/janice-burns-jon-doran
Eric Platt
Jun-01-2021, 4:02pm
Dave Apollon - The Man With the Mandolin - ACD-27
Tiny Moore & Jethro Burns - Back to Back - ACD - 60
Bob Douglas - Just Tunes - House of Mercy Recordings MR041
The Mando Boys Live - Holstein Lust - Borderland Productions BLP02
Rags, Breakdowns Stomps & Blues
Those are my essentials. But I also listen to a lot of non-mandolin music while driving too.
A-board
Jun-01-2021, 4:26pm
Not mandolin specific, but some content:
Steam Powered Aeroplane - John Hartford
Tales from the Acoustic Planet, The Bluegrass Sessions, vol 2 - Bela Fleck and all star cast (Hartford, Douglas, Clements, Bush, Scruggs, Rice and more)
Breakdown - Old and in the Way
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lEWX7s5cdGdlEgOD82r1V5gZKC3Q l_IbA
Charles E.
Jun-01-2021, 8:59pm
Mike Marshall "Choro Fasoso".....
https://www.amazon.com/Mike-Marshall-Choro-Famoso/dp/B00022XEH2
It will put the drive in "Drive".
Mitch Stein
Jun-02-2021, 7:53am
Oft mentioned here:
David Grisman's double record "Home Is Where The Heart Is" (honorable mention to "Here Today")
Tony Rice: "Manzanita"
Bob Gnann
Jun-02-2021, 9:20am
Our vehicle, a newer Equinox, doesn't have a CD player. It does have a USB port for a thumb drive. One of my projects during the pandemic was to take a 32 GB thumb drive and down load a whole bunch of CDs. The media player allows you to select by genre. I like to set it to shuffle so it randomly selects the cut. Well over 600 tunes in Bluegrass genre plus more in Celtic and Jazz and even some older Country.
Back to the original question I listen to anything by Butch Baldassari often. An older recording that I just purchased (should have bought it long ago) is Jethro Burns' Swing Low Sweet Mandolin. A cool listen every time..
Old Dog Dave
Jun-02-2021, 10:16am
If you are interested in some purely mellow and feel-good music, which can work for good traveling, Mandolin Orange (now called Watchhouse) definitely works. I would start with the album "This Side of Jordan", which is personally my all-time favorite album (and that's saying something, considering I am 74 years old and remember listening to music in the early and mid '50s). Follow that up with the albums "Such Jubilee", "Blindfaller", "Tides of a Teardrop", and then their earlier ones such as "Quiet Little Room" and "Haste Make/Hard Hearted". Just so many great songs, and there is joy and wisdom and fun in their music. As for individual songs from those albums--so, so many good ones. I particularly love "Ships Sail Away", "Jump Mountain Blues", and "Waltz About Whiskey on Ice", but you just cannot go wrong with any of their music. I am excited to get their first album as Watchhouse. ...Old Dog Dave
Rob Roy
Jun-02-2021, 11:57am
Another vote for Mazanita, also David Grisman Quintet "Dawganova"
journeybear
Jun-02-2021, 1:25pm
Just got back from my first road trip in a while. I'd brought along some stuff, but didn't listen to any of it. I make plans along those lines, but rarely follow through. Long hours spent away from the usual entertainment options create an environment for mental exercises - running songs through my head, working out arrangements, ideas about instrumentation, harmonies, timing the length of songs, etc., etc.
But one thing I discovered, when I got tired enough to take a break but was too wired to catch a nap, one of the albums I'd brought with me did the trick really well: "Infrared Roses" by Grateful Dead. It's a collection of several space jams. They're actually pretty interesting, but since there's no steady beat and they're pretty abstract, they lead into Dreamland pretty easily. Just find the right volume level - loud enough that listening isn't a strain, but quiet enough that they don't catch your interest. Hey - this is a facet of a road trip you shouldn't overlook. :cool:
But one thing I discovered, when I got tired enough to take a break but was too wired to catch a nap, one of the albums I'd brought with me did the trick really well: "Infrared Roses" by Grateful Dead. It's a collection of several space jams. :
I once took a winter night "shortcut" through some backcountry roads in WV listening to that album (and the similar Twilight Zone album the dead recorded for the 80s remake). I was trying to cut out about 50 miles of what looked like backtracking from the middle of the Shenandoah valley to Snowshoe WV. The print out from mapquest told me to drive down almost all the way to roanoke before turning around and heading north again, so I decided that a AAA map and my own ingenuity could outsmart the computer.
4+ hours of switchbacks, one-lane roads, middle-of no where towns without cross streets, and seeing more deer in the roads than cars, I ended a pretty surreal drive that I still remember about 20 years later. Pretty sure the music was half of the weirdness but I'm also not entirely sure I wasn't in a Stephen King story for a few hours, because it really shouldn't have taken that long and there's no way that my impeccable sense of direction could be at fault.
--
Back to the original question, but I'd say Hot Rize's self-titled album is some good driving music, and I've yet to find a situation that isn't made better by Del McCoury Band. If you're into fiddle tunes and dawg music, I have a 5+ hour instrumental Spotify playlist of tunes that I've played/tried to learn/half forgotten that is one of my favorite back-roads driving playlists.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3b1iqX4EDrl6mTNjQE0RrW?si=9825a59dc97348f0
journeybear
Jun-02-2021, 3:05pm
It does indeed sound like you slipped into the Twilight Zone ...
doc holiday
Jun-07-2021, 2:09pm
All of the CDs by Joe K. Walsh, & John Reischman
Although it's by no means new "Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza"
If you're headed south....anything by Paul Glasse
Chris W.
Jun-08-2021, 10:14am
How about Road Trip by John Reischman and John Miller
https://youtu.be/9kgBms3CaAM
Paul Merlo
Jun-10-2021, 10:08pm
One From the Vault - Grateful Dead
I try not to listen to too much stuff that gets my mandolin fingers twitching.
So my tracklist is all mixed up with reggae, straight ahead Scottish ceilidh bands, Greek music, obscure soul, sensitive singer-songwriter etc.
Lately albums , mostly non-vocal, from the latter part of Dr John's recording career are favourites for driving or working.
Duke Elegant
In a Sentimental Mood
Mercernary
Dr John plays Mac Rebennack
Skat dat de dat
etc
But there are many great piano licks and melodies in there that would transfer to mandolin, so the twitching starts again ...
tmsweeney
Jun-11-2021, 6:43am
I agree if you can do MP3 you can load days worth of music, it just depends do you want energetic singing that keeps you motivated, or do you want background that colors the trip ? maybe both
lot of great suggestions up here, its all a matter of taste.
For me I like a good set of instrumentals, but mixing in songs helps break up the monotony
Peter Ostroushko & Dean McGraw - The Duo already has this setup but its only an hour of music
Dagger Gordon
Jun-11-2021, 8:06am
I try not to listen to too much stuff that gets my mandolin fingers twitching.
So my tracklist is all mixed up with reggae, straight ahead Scottish ceilidh bands, Greek music, obscure soul, sensitive singer-songwriter etc.
Lately albums , mostly non-vocal, from the latter part of Dr John's recording career are favourites for driving or working.
Duke Elegant
In a Sentimental Mood
Mercernary
Dr John plays Mac Rebennack
Skat dat de dat
etc
But there are many great piano licks and melodies in there that would transfer to mandolin, so the twitching starts again ...
Dr John Plays Mac Rebennack was one of the first CDs I got (moving out of my cassette period). I'm also with you on the reggae and Greek fronts (actually Cretan music in my case).
Nowadays I tend to travel in silence, although we had a road trip with son Neil a couple of years ago and enjoyed listening to his playlist. It's quite nice to hear new things from someone else's perspective.
I don't tend to listen to that much mandolin music in general, but I've always enjoyed David Surette's music. Just as good on mando as guitar, and also cittern.
Eric Oliver
Jun-11-2021, 9:14am
Heading West across South Dakota and Wyo-Montana I found "Gallop Across Georgia" a surprising fit. Go figure.
Michael Wolf
Jun-11-2021, 9:32am
Tim O´Brien: "The Crossing" and "Two Journeys".
Markku Lepistö: "Silta"
Listened to them on a roadtrip through Norway, very nice! :)
Dave Hicks
Jun-11-2021, 10:51am
I always like to bring along The Who Live at Leeds, and Levon Helm's Electric Dirt. (Some mando in the latter.)
D.H.
EvanElk
Jun-11-2021, 12:55pm
Plus one on the recommendation for Andrew Marlin's solo albums - particularly Fable & Fire. I'd add any of the albums that Cahalen Morrison and Eli West did together - some really fine mandolin playing by both those guys
lowtone2
Jun-13-2021, 2:11pm
https://youtu.be/o-iX5JsuF2U
Simon DS
Jun-13-2021, 2:55pm
The Doors, Riders on the Storm.
1977. Three friends, we drove up to The Lake District on a road trip in an old Toyota, and switched on the windscreen wipers 5 minutes after leaving home. Torrential rain.
The wipers were on for the whole trip, a week, but it was great because the wipers were adjustable and moved from side to side like a metronome in time with the music.
And you know how it’s fun when it’s hot and sunny, to open all the windows and tap your hands on the top of the roof in time with the music?
Well after three days of being flooded out, camping in the rain, everything was wet so we would open all the windows and do the same thing.
In the rain, laughing like crazy people.
Ri...ders...on the...storm... da...da...da...da
lowtone2
Jun-13-2021, 5:51pm
I try not to listen to too much stuff that gets my mandolin fingers twitching.
So my tracklist is all mixed up with reggae, straight ahead Scottish ceilidh bands, Greek music, obscure soul, sensitive singer-songwriter etc.
Lately albums , mostly non-vocal, from the latter part of Dr John's recording career are favourites for driving or working.
Duke Elegant
In a Sentimental Mood
Mercernary
Dr John plays Mac Rebennack
Skat dat de dat
etc
But there are many great piano licks and melodies in there that would transfer to mandolin, so the twitching starts again ...
I'm a big fan of Mac and NO R&B in general. There's also a bunch of Dr John as sideman on other records. One in particular, Hank Crawford's Midnight Ramble.
If you ever decide to combine your Dr John and mandolin itch urges, and if you don't know already, the first Dr John album is full of mandolin. Gris Gris.
Which brings to mind another road trip album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfUIggYLSGs
This is not really the Roomful album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzX0v1aXAtI
Timbofood
Jun-13-2021, 6:38pm
I have a B.B. King sized thumb drive which has something like 1700 cuts on it from classical mandolin through B.B., Clapton, Prine, Mr. Monroe, and pretty much all points of the compass, roughly seven hours which I set on “random” it gets me to the cottage (6 hours) or Pittsburgh (6.5 to my sisters house) with little fuss. Heck there’s “Parliament Funkadelic and U.Utah Phillips and Barry White on there too, eclectic? Yeah, maybe.
I have been known to listed to “Special Consensus’ “Everything’s All Right” disc three or four times in a row though.
Greg’s such a great guy!
Freya7733
Jul-21-2021, 2:02am
I prefer reggae-style music. I am a Spotify user, and Spotify will recommend songs based on user preferences. Listening to your favorite music while driving alone is a wonderful thing. If you are also a big fan of Spotify, it is recommended that you use TunesKit Spotify Music Converter to download Spotify songs, so that you can also enjoy wonderful music while driving.
OK so here is something you can do. I only learned this a couple of years ago.
In my 2014 Jeep, I can bluetooth directly to the vehicle speakers from my iPhone. So I get on to the Mandolin Cafe on the cell phone from Safari (the iPhone internet thingie). Then I just go to the Mandolin Cafe MP3 library just like I do from my lap top computer. The mando-tunes go through to my car speakers and I am in heaven.