Autumn makes a fine time for a road trip. For your road trip you might choose classic a classic area to see fall colors such as the Great Smoky Mountains in the US, or make an autumn road trip to visit a fall festival such as Celtic Colours in Nova Scotia in Canada.
You could seek out lesser known places to see fall colors on an autumn road trip, too: Sheila gathered ideas for unexpected places to look for fall foliage , and I told you about state parks in West Virginia, s and autumn colors across Canada.
Maybe you are in the southern hemisphere so your autumn road trip is actually a spring one? You may be looking for colors of flowers rather than changing leaves. Liz offers ideas on doing that in Australia.
What does a good autumn road trip need, though? A soundtrack, a playlist, music to go along.
Here are six ideas for that autumn road trip soundtrack: music that will itself also offer you places and ideas to explore.
Rachel Hair and Ron Jappy come from Scotland. Rachel plays Scotland’s oldest instrument, the harp. The guitar, Ron’s instrument, is among the newest to join the sounds of Scotland’s traditional music.
On their album Elan, you’ll find original tunes from Rachel inspired by the Highlands where she grew up and her travels with her music, along with a music from traditional and contemporary sources. Rachel’s crisp playing and Ron’s steady attention to rhythm offer a lot to explore as you reflect on the changing landscapes of you autumn road trip — or your spring one.
Tish Hinojosa’s album Culture Swing offers songs you’ll want to sing along with as you travel your autumn road trip, even if you’ve never heard them before. I’ve introduced you to Hinojosa’s borderlands based music before. Borderlands as in southwestern US, that is.
On Culture Swing you’ll find love songs, road songs, an outstanding song about hope for social justice, and you’ll meet a vaquero, a drifter, a woman thinking about a lost love, a cowboy angel; many stories, some in English, others in Spanish, some which have both languages in the lyric.
I’ve dipped into Hinojosa’s back catalogue for Culture Swing; The Lonesome Chronicles from the Kathy Kallick Band is such a new recording you might have to wait a bit for it, though, as the full album comes out on 16 October. Update: it’s out and available now. Follow the link in the album’s title below to find out more.
Bluegrass is the band’s focus, a bluegrass that takes in and honors folk and old time traditions while the group creates their own contemporary take on the music.
On The Lonesome Chronicles you’ll find original songs from Grammy and bluegrass award winning singer, songwriter, and guitar player Kallick along with pieces written by band members. Annie Staninec is on fiddle, Greg Booth on dobro and banjo, Tom Bekeny on mandolin, and Cary Black plays acoustic bass. Band members are based across the western from San Francisco to Anchorage.
For the first half of the recording, the band explores the lonesome theme of the title directly, albeit from differing perspectives. Music in the second half has more indirect perspectives on that; through all the songs and tunes, there is a thread of hope, at time strong, at times more subtle. There are many songs you will want to learn and sing along with as your autumn road trip travels on.
The Show, from Gretchen Peters, offers a range of songs that will give you stories on which to reflect.
In the US Peters is best known as a songwriter. Martina McBride, Bonnie Raitt,The Neville Brothers, Faith Hill, and Etta James are among those who have recorded her songs. Peters is herself a fine singer and guitar player; though she’s based in Nashville, she is best known as a performer in the UK. That is where she recorded The Show, a 20 song collection drawn from three tour dates in 2019.
Some of the songs are from that greatest hits roster; others are less often heard gems. Peters is backed for some of the songs by her three piece road band. For others there is a string quartet of four top UK musicians led by Seonaid Aitken. Both ensembles serve to enhance the stories; all the songs make excellent stories to engage you on an autumn road trip.
As they worked on their album Fàs, mostly at distance during lockdown, the five members of the band Breabach found themselves drawn to ideas relating to the natural world, to growth, to the future.
Fàs means growing or flourishing in Scottish Gaelic; the members of Breabach, who are Calum MacCrimmon on Highland pipes, whistles, bouzouki, vocals; James Lindsay on double bass, Moog, vocals; Ewan Robertson, with acoustic and electric guitar,and song; Megan Henderson on fiddle and song, and Conal McDonagh, on Highland pipes, uilleann pipes, whistles, and vocals, are based in Scotland.
On Fàs you will find songs in English and Gaelic as well as tunes that invite you to reflect and perhaps join in song on these ideas and you explore your autumn road trip.
“Tunes inhabit our memories, and memories, in turn, are passed down alongside tunes. “ Laura Risk writes in the sleeve notes for her album Traverse.
It is Risk’s fiddle playing which leads and anchors the ten tracks on Traverse, some original tunes. others from traditional and contemporary composers. She is joined by Nicholas Williams on accordion and flute, Rachel Aucoin on piano, with percussive dance steps from Nic Gareiss and trumpet form Mathieu Jacques.
Risk, originally from California, is based in Montreal. Her background in performing the music of Scotland interests with her experience with Quebecois music; both turn up through the tunes on Traverse. Read Risk’s sleeve notes, too; good ideas about connection through music in a few short paragraphs.
You may not have heard of these musicians before, or perhaps you have. Either way, they will be good companions along your autumn road trips, whatever form those travels take and wherever they may take you.
Photograph of autumn road by Joe from Pixabay; photograph of Rachel Hair and Ron Jappy by Sam Hunt; photograph of The Kathy Kallick Band by Karen Walter; photograph of Highland road by Andrew Tryon
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