Strange Music

03-03-2006 - 11:00 a.m.

I go through weird music phases.

About a year ago, it was Chinese Folk Music. Before that, Arabic Music. Before that, chants from Papua New Guinea. And I've had an enduring love for Negro Spirituals since singing "Go Tell It On the Mountain" in church as Christmastime.

I watched Harlan County USA a couple of weekends ago, and I think my new obsession will be Appalachian Folk Songs. To be honest, I've been into those for a long time-- since one side of my family is from the mountains of southeastern West Virgina, I think it's in my blood. My mom has stories of eating beans three times a day, fearing the sound of the coal mine's emergency sirens, and using a rickety outhouse as a kid. How things change in one generation. I can't wait until I can buy a vacation cabin there someday and voluntarily spend my days shelling beans and husking corn.

Song of the moment? "Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley".

Before - After