a music swap!

It's that time again!  Time for a music swap update. This round is dedicated to the tunes of summer and has seen many differing anthems circling through the post.

Summer is about getting up early and staying out late. It’s popsicles and ice cream and watermelon and cookouts in the park or the mountains. It’s road trips and beach trips and no trips at all but just being lazy, laying on the grass in the backyard working on your tan or reading a great book or counting the stars. It’s about first loves and fireworks and feeling like a kid again. And of course, it’s about music.

When I was little my mom wouldn’t let me listen to modern music. At home it was classical, jazz, a few records that made it through from my dad’s high school days and the MoTab. As for the radio I grew up in Salt Lake and we had a local station, KUTR, that played mostly church music. A gospel station for the Mormon set. I was subjected to Janice Kapp Perry and Michael McLean, Saturday’s Warrior and other cheesy ‘uplifting’ tunes (I’ll Build You a Rainbow, anyone? Anyone?!) But finally after some serious familial coercion (god bless you, Aunt Julia!) I was allowed to listen to the Oldies station. Back then ‘oldies’ meant 50s and 60s and I was in heaven. My days were now punctuated with The Beatles, Elvis, Motown standards, Simon and Garfunkel, and my first ‘fan girl’ favorite, The Monkees. These hits became the soundtrack of my life and the basis for many a ridiculously choreographed dance in the backyard sprinklers.

Fast forward a few years to my first real relationship. I’d just graduated from high school and had college on the horizon and the world at my doorstep when in walked a guy who was inexplicably enamored of me. He was sweet and although I wasn’t all that interested in him I was flattered and loved the idea of him. He was a few years older than I was, prepping for med school and, wait for it, was in a band! Yours truly, a perpetually music-stunted individual spent hours that summer watching him jam on his guitar (and I admit it, possibly crushing on his best friend, the drummer) and listening to a wide and varied selection of music that would have made my mother cringe. He even took me to my first two concerts; Sarah MacLachlan in a huge arena and Richard Marx out under the stars. (Outdoor concerts will always be my faves!)

College brought the introduction of country music and resurgence of the hits of the 80s and I’ve slowly been inundated by alternative and indie music as the years have gone by. I’m still a beat or two behind the musical times and still have a thing for drummers (and pianists, and trumpeters, and banjo players, and bag pipers!) but music of all kinds has remained a constant. I doubt there will be any songs here that are new to anyone, but perhaps that’s for the best. Maybe they’ll work their summer magic and transport you back in time to a happy memory of your own, if only for three short minutes!  (I've linked a few but you might have to just do a little work yourself and check out the others.)

1. Summertime ~Oscar Peterson

2. June Hymn ~The Decemberists

3. The Morning Sun ~Gashcat

4. Summer in the City ~The Lovin’ Spoonful

5. Pleasant Valley Sunday ~The Monkees

6. Summer Breeze ~Jason Mraz

7. I Will Live on Islands ~Josh Rouse

8. Hot Fun in the Summertime ~Sly and the Family Stone

9. Roam ~The B-52s

10. Ice Cream ~Sarah MacLachlan

11. Endless Summer Nights ~Richard Marx

12. Aint Goin’ Down… ~Garth Brooks

13. America the Beautiful ~Martin Sexton

You can go here and here to see two of the other playlists that were waiting for me when I got back from my trip. And there are two others on their way.  What are some of your favorite songs of summer?