Cloudy Day Shuffle

We haven't done an iPod playlist in quite a while, and for some reason, gray, wintry days always put me in the mood to curl up with a book and some tunes, so I'll hit shuffle on my machine and throw out the first five songs that come up...

1. Floating - The Lowlands. "I'll be swaying in the wind just like a suspension bridge, so glad to be hangin' out with the sky." Lyrics don't come much sunnier than that, do they? This Philadelphia-based bluegrass band (I know that sounds odd, but Philly actually has a massive folk music scene) doesn't tour a lot anymore, but I love their sound, and their energy. One thing that always endears a musician of any genre to me is when s/he looks and sounds like s/he's having a blast on stage. It's something rock and folk musicians are great at, but a majority of classical musicians could do a lot better with.

2. Barfly Blues - Martin Zellar & the Hardways. And just like that, the sunshine is gone like a thief in the night, courtesy of Minnesota's own Martin Zellar. I wasn't around the Cities in the days when the Gear Daddies ruled the clubs, but Zellar's solo stuff is right up my alley. Dark and brooding with just a hint of optimism forever peeking through, he also personifies a kind of music that, growing up on the oh-so-hip East Coast, I had assumed was dead forever - good, honest, straight-ahead blue-collar rock 'n roll. As it turns out, all those bands just moved to Minneapolis, and judging from the recent national success of groups like The Hold Steady, the genre seems to be making a comeback. Good news for me...

3. Golden Slumbers - The Beatles. Ohhhhhhhh. God, I love this song. And this whole album. Has there ever been a better front-to-back effort than Abbey Road? The way the B-side is basically one continuous song, the hilariously inappropriate lyrics of Maxwell's Silver Hammer, the sweet opening hook of Here Comes the Sun, and that perfect little 20-second bonus cut at the end: "Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl / someday I'm gonna make her mine..." Whenever I hear from a fellow classical musician that he doesn't bother to listen to any other genres, because they just aren't interesting or intellectual enough, my first response is always to strap him down to whatever's available, and start up Abbey Road.

4. I'm Talking - Doomtree. Okay, I know from experience that whenever I start talking or writing about hip-hop to a classical music audience, I'm fighting a losing battle. Most of you are already rolling your eyes into next week. But on the heels of last week's FutureClassics concert, I am dead serious when I say that this Twin Cities-based hip-hop collective is doing things every bit as innovative as the composers on that bill. In fact, this particular track begins with a sample that I swear comes from a Pierre Boulez piece that I can't quite identify, before exploding into some of the most rhythmically original and well-conceived lyrical bursts you'll hear anywhere. "I came, I saw, I played Contra / You sang the song / we saved the saga turned opera / The world is off-beat / but the beat don't stop me / It goes on the backbeat / Born to the concrete / Watch me / keep walking."

5. Tenderness on the Block - Shawn Colvin. Just a sweet, sad, simple song to round out this playlist. Before she made it on MTV in the late '90s with Sunny Came Home, Colvin was a fixture on the folk circuit, covering everyone from John Prine to Sting, and penning some truly beautiful tunes of her own as well. I believe this song was originally by Warren Zevon. It's not particularly profound music, but it's guaranteed to put you in a better mood than you were in before it came on.