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What’s in your iPod?

by Phil Houseal
June 23, 2010

There’s a game people play called “What’s on your iPod.” You simply reveal what bands and tunes you are listening to on your portable music players. Heck, Bob Dylan built an entire syndicated radio show around the concept.

So I thought I’d ask myself what’s on my iPod. I didn’t expect much, because I don’t listen to recorded music that often. That may seem hypocritical for a music writer, but frankly I am bored with much of today’s music, and I have always found it more interesting to create music.

First, I have to admit most of my 16 gigabytes are filled with Season 20 of The Simpsons. Hey - we don’t get TV, and that’s the one show I miss.

As for music, here goes, in no particular order...

Garland Hirschi's Cows
This is combination of sound snippets some professor recorded and spliced together. The bits include an Oklahoma farmer repeating “Let me tell you a Little Bit About My Cows” over the sounds of his cows mooing. “Well, I’ll tell ya... there’s a lot of different kinds of cows.” I’m not kidding. It’s sort of like “rancher rap.”

Chanticleer
Years ago I heard this men’s a cappella vocal group perform in Kerrville. Based in San Francisco, they are America’s answer to The King’s Singers. The album I have is Sound in Spirit, best described as classical chants. I find the music profoundly soothing, yet endlessly engaging.

April Smith and the Last Picture Show
My newest download, April Smith is a spunky, young, clever, caustic, literate singer/songwriter from Brooklyn with a distinct voice - both in quality and perspective. Her tunes are lilting; her wit is devastating:

If you’re just drop dead gorgeous, you can just drop dead.

A million men in their bright white jackets could never erase you from my mind

Oh how you’d run if you knew a single one of the terrible things that I’ve done

If I cannot have the real thing, I’ll gladly settle for your ghost

If you ever wonder if I’m dreaming of you, well... I’m not... so you can stop wondering.

That’s my kind of gal.

Sarah Jarosz
With a completely different approach to music, Sarah Jarosz is the sweet singer who made her debut right here in Fredericksburg at one of the first Roots music concerts when she was only 12 years old. The bluegrass band performing that evening plucked the mandolin-playing prodigy from the afternoon jam session and pulled her up on stage. In the intervening years, she learned guitar, banjo, and violin, released her first CD Song Up In Her Head and this year debuts on Austin City Limits, at the Grand Ole Opry, and in a movie.

Harry & the Hightones
This local band is a throwback to the swingin’ noir groups of the 1940s, with lots of jazz chords, harmony, and riffing. The appeal for me is Snuffy Jackson’s original tunes, including Hoochie Koochie Girls (That night a line was crossed for a little boy from Doss) and There’s a Juke Joint in Center Point (Just a double wide where I can hide, just a little bit of heaven out by Highway 27).

Other playlists: Inka Gold (Peruvian folk music), Peace Be To You (Russian hymns), and Maggie Montgomery (Bankersmith classical).

That’s it for the music. I also have The Sherlock Holmes Collection, Philosophy for Beginners, and Lectures in Linguistics. But I guess those last two don’t count since I’ve never listened to them.

I have no idea what this says about me. I instead challenge you to analyze what’s on your personal portable music conveyance device.