Dusty Roads and Old New York

I like all kinds of music, and working here at Capitol lets me indulge many different passions. For example, today, during a break between customers, I picked out one of our song collections and played through one of Irving Berln's early "ethnic" songs. In them, he really captures the flavor of New York's lower east side at the turn of the century. Not at all politically correct, these songs are a far cry from White Christmas! But they are all clever and tuneful and really deserve to be better known.

Often I come home from an orchestra rehearsal, my head full of Dvorak or Brahms, and tune in my favorite country station. The songs are just as worthy as Berlin's. City boy that I am, I love hearing Tim McGraw or Trace Adkins sing about bars and trucks and fishing holes. I grew up right here in Seattle, far from any barnyard or dusty road, but listening to them I still feel nostalgic for a youth I never even had.

Good music can do that for you. It can create a whole world that you step into and leave your regular life behind. This morning I wandered into old New York and saw pushcarts rolling past brownstone apartments as people yelled to eachother out the windows. Tonight I may drive my
dusty old pickup truck to my favorite fishing hole. And sit a spell.

But first I should check my e-mail.

Ron B