All road trips need a soundtrack. And because this one is so long, there’s been a lot of music involved.
One of my favorites:
1. Mumford and Sons’ new album, Wilder Mind. I’ll always remember hearing it for the first time: driving through the pitch darkness of Southwestern Colorado/ Southeastern Arizona, the music’s heated, pumping energy keeping Marc and I awake as we tried to make it the last four hours to Flagstaff. Passing by the Four Corners at midnight. Kids asleep in the back. So different from their other albums, which I also loved. Charged and wild and fabulous. Full of emotion: angst and anger, love and celebration. The blackness of the night aided our listening – sound and stars and a two-lane road were all that competed for our attention. I could hear the intricate rhythms, the crackle of Marcus Mumford’s voice, the feeling busting out of the lyrics. It was musical magic.
Some people don’t like the change in style that Mumford and Sons has played with on this album. But I like both the old and new. If they were lesser artists, I might wish they stayed with what they knew best, but clearly they do everything well. So I say let them be, and enjoy what they create.
We’ve listened to the album again and again at other moments: along the Pacific, among the vineyards of Napa Valley, through the redwoods on our way to Eureka (again at night – again amazing), but the first time was something set apart.
This trip will equal that album in my mind forever.
*My kids listened to Pop N Fun 1 and 2 as we drove through the redwoods, so they will equate the beauty of those majestic, ancient trees with the Mexican Hat Dance and Who Let the Dogs Out. Awesome.