The Summer

I think of the songs that say “Summer” to me:  The Latin Playboys, ” Lagoon”. Spacious, guitars, effects, a wash of sounds, driving in small towns with open space- central Wisconsin or Iowa.. This song speaks to me on deep levels- a sound /memory connection, hazy, dreamlike, and wholesome at the same time.

It is father’s day today: I could be fishing:had a funny breakfast with my family, then a satisfying rehearsal with Peter and Andrew.

I finally return to the blog.  I have been finishing the school year, ( with my other life) and unable to do much more than that.

The spring has been reluctant: how many last snows of April?  While I love rain, it has been Seattle-like, and even it has been too much for my garden. Fishing has been strange at best

While the sun is out finally, and beaming, a cool and sunny day with high, puffy clouds-The   weather which signals to me the first days of summer.    This is the essential  June day, the kind which I remember as the first day of summer of my youth.

I remember these days, not as romantic but as a boy of the north; the real first days of summer; the first day out of school summer, summer of the North, where summer is a scarce commodity, fleeting, already on the wane when calendar summer comes along.

Another song which comes up is ” The Summer”   by Yo la Tengo./ It is a singable, memorable tune which I listened to a lot when my wife and I met.  In fact, the whole CD, ” Fakebook” has that early summer feeling…

I also Like that Bon Iver guy.. that album ” For Emily…”  These are songs I can hear as I drive back from trout fishing, needing something memorable to sing with as the sun is setting.

This is all slightly ironic: as a guy who plays mostly piano now, who invents over structures, I know in my heart of hearts I will not be able to do this kind of sound… i don’t think.  I only mess around with guitar. I know a dozen fine  guitarists who play circles around me.  I  have never been able to to sustain interest   in studio dabblings/overdubberings.

As we age, I think we are attracted to things that we are not as well as by what we are.    What other songs ring true to me?   the Eddie Veddar Ukulele songs.  I was never really into the Pearl Jam ( I am not against them, just never really checked them out) but  Mr Veddar’s voice rings true with the ukulele.

Also, I love Gustavo Santaolalla- he wrote the music for the movie ” the motorcycle diaries”.

So , these songs, along with Jonathan Richmond, the Tom tom club, are some plants growing in the garden of what I called summer music memories.