Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Earlier, coming out of the library, final progress reports in hand, I swatted a bamboozled fly into a muddy snowbank, stepped over a stillcold bee huddled on the drying concrete. Outside the house the maple trees drip their sweet thin tap tap tapped lifeblood steadily into tincovered buckets. Inside, my daughter coils by a cracked-open window, breathing in the breeze.

Tonight I dodge meltwater puddles up the dim lamplit campus walk, key into the deserted classroom building, fumble for lightswitches in a dark staircase. The basement radio booth is pristine, freshly cleaned by kids working off a future term's workjob by full-timing it for break.

In the morning, or maybe after lunch, more kids will come to the trees by our door, empty buckets into buckets. It will rain. The dog will jump up on the windowsill, and growl at them through the open window.

Signs of impending Spring ooze everywhere on this quiet campus, and the silence is no exception. It's Spring Break, after all. The prep school dorms are deserted, and most teachers, having finished their own grading, are off for sunnier climes.

But not me. The kids are gone, but the music goes on.

Some longer songs in there tonight -- I usually go for short and diverse, but with the kids gone I can be reasonably sure that the average listener has a longer attention span. Included the iPod shuffle posted earlier today, though not in the same order, because I wanted to hear 'em all again, and share with the universe. Decided, too, to read poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins, a poet picked out of the air for a 30 minute English teaching demo this coming Thursday -- a choice based entirely on a half-remembered love affair with the God-enamored brit in a college lit course fifteen years ago -- and now I need all the practice I can get.

Anyway. As always, playlist follows. Hope weblisteners enjoyed the show -- those who missed it should bookmark this link and remember to come back next Monday from ten to midnight EST for another stellar edition of...

Tributary 3/7/05

Skavoovie and the Epitones -- Fat Soul
Trish Murphy -- These Boots Are Made For Walking
Crowded House -- Chocolate Cake
Maroon 5 -- This Love (Kanye West Remix)
Guster -- Barrel Of A Gun
Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks -- My Cello
Phish -- Back On The Train

Poem: God's Grandeur

Los Lobos -- Bertha
Patty Griffin -- Love Throws A Line
The Afghan Whigs -- Can't Get Enough Of Your Love (Baby)
Kathleen Edwards -- One More Song The Radio Won't Like
Barenaked Ladies -- The King Of Bedside Manner
Sheryl Crow w/ Stevie Nicks -- Strong Enough

Poem: The Starlight Night

John Mayer -- Message In A Bottle
Juliana Hatfield -- Spin The Bottle
Evan Dando -- The Ballad Of El Goodo
Peter Mulvey -- Oliver's Army
Dan Zanes and Friends -- Wonderwheel
Paul Simon -- She Moves On
California Guitar Trio -- The Marsh

Poem: Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord

Alison Brown Quartet -- Mambo Banjo
Stevie Wonder -- Too High
Gillian Welch -- Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor
John Gorka -- Branching Out
Bruce Cockburn -- Going To The Country
Phish -- All Things Reconsidered
Nick Drake -- Pink Moon
Rufus Wainwright -- My Funny Valentine

You've been listening to Tributary, your ten to midnight Monday night show here on WNMH. Music, madness, and the best of Spring sent from the Connecticut River Valley foothills of the Green Mountains through the datastream -- and, finally, crammed in your ears -- every week without fail.