New tricks

Welcome to 2020. A quick music post, since we sort of ended 2019 with music (the Warren Haynes song?). Now, the assumption is that 55-year-old guys like me are “stuck in the past” with regard to music. “Oh, Coach Pete only likes Classic Rock” is one of the easiest – and somewhat inaccurate – assumptions that I hear all the time in The Tent, while the team cues up their lifting playlist of very dubious and questionable taste. You all think I don’t like it because it’s new and current? No. I don’t like it because your music stinks! Holy crap, I’m becoming my father. Sure, I like me some classic rock at times. But much of my music taste is guided by the best radio station on the planet, Radio Woodstock 100.1. Yes, Radio Woodstock plays classic rock. But it’s more the exception rather than the rule. The classic rock is mixed in briefly among mostly new music, loosely defined in the “Americana” genre. And so it was that I found myself finding excuses to drive around yesterday afternoon, as Radio Woodstock replayed their Top 100 songs from 2019. These songs have been my soundtrack of the past 12 months, when I’m not listening to talk radio, NPR or podcasts. So while I’ll never change the dial when the Allman Brothers or Led Zeppelin is playing, I’m more likely to get excited these days listening to the Avett Brothers, the Black Pumas (what a great new group!), Jason Isbell, Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real, Jenny Lewis, CRB, or perhaps the funniest and catchiest song of the year, “Chevrolet Van” by a band called The Nude Party. Surprised? I thought so. As we enter a new decade, this old dog can learn some new music tricks.