Day 4: Shelter in Place...Really, only 4 days. Okay.

One app that I have enjoyed and relied upon during this 'thing' is Spotify. Several months ago, we chose to go with Spotify Premium. We had previously used Pandora which seemed heavily weighted toward Paul Simon...he seemed to pop up on my admittedly boomer artist lists.

I had used youtube but I did not pay for the premium services. The result were lots of ads, interestingly for Turkish Airlines.

Back then, I thought it was pretty hilarious because of the 'crisis' we were having with Iran. Remember that...January 3. The US drone attack killed Qasem Soleimani and I was afraid that we were going to have a broader war in the Middle East. WW3 was trending.

Here is one of the Turkish Airline ads.

"How Was Turkey?"  Spoiler: The answer is, "Turkey was Yes."

Well, no.

With the switch to Spotify came an increasingly Dylan focused nerdiness. This was fostered by my friends Larry I. and Chuck F. who are unabashed Beatle nerds. If they could sing, play, and read extensively about the Beatles (and their post Beatle careers), I could certainly dive into Dylan.

I did this by listening to Bob Dylan: Album by Album  a podcast by a charming English fellow (who, I followed on Twitter until I stopped following Twitter). Peggy and I attended the Bob Dylan songbag hosted by Jimmy Tomasello once a month at the Old Town School of Folk Music until, well you...

With Spotify came Dylan Playlists: Entry Level Dylan (by Ben Burrell, the English guy) and Dylan 2019 Tour, inspired by one of the Dylan songbags.

Yep...All going pretty swimmingly. Here was my Spotify Home Page on February 29

Three Dylan albums and the Daily Mixes. (Suggested playlist by the algorithm based on what you listen to.)

1. Bob himself
2. T Bone Burnett, reputed to be an influencer in Bob's Christian period (1979-1981 approx.)
3. Richie Havens (Here is Richie's charming story about All Along the Watchtower)
4. Doc Watson
5. Britney Haas, fiddler. Peggy and I share an account and she is taking fiddle lessons.
6. Ed Sheehan, don't know how he got there.

When the shit started getting serious around the country, I changed my listening patterns. Everything was either too on the nose..."Desolation Row" or "Not Dark Yet." Or too much a reminder of the music that our group, The Repeat Offenders, played at our only gig on November 2. And that the group has been social distanced. It all made me pretty sad.

Here is the Spotify Home Page of today, March 24.

The mixes tell a story...

1. Joni Mitchell, lots of heart ache

2. Tom Lehrer, heavily into comedy albums of the 60's and 70's. Newhart. Shelley Berman. Early George Carlin

3. T.Bone Burnett, not sure how he's hung in there

4. Errol Garner, piano jazz is comforting. Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal,

5. Oscar Peterson (see above)

Only 1 Dylan Album. I was listening  to "Visions of Johanna."

"We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it."

 I'm not really stranded. I have music. I have a partner, family and friends. 

But sometimes, goddamnit, I feel that way.