[Tonight I’ve got a couple of new songs for you and a couple of older ones.  It’s midnight, I’ve been on the road, driving the highway.  Just thinking about music, listening to it, holding the wheel.  Here are a few songs that have been driving my day.  Any songs been driving yours?]

I love driving at night in the summer.  I can feel the interstate stretching from here to the ocean.  The interstate has a rhythm.  You signal, you pass, one, two, you signal, you return, three, four.  Try counting the broken white lines in sixteens and thirty-twos.  The guardrail posts every eight beats.  The windows are rolled down with that sticky air that feels cool only because it’s moving at 70 mph.  Your light is the stereo, the instrumental panel, and on occassions the moon or the headlights of the car behind you.  Sometimes that when the songs sound the best. 

[After the break I’ve included a few songs heard and a few that would have fit in nicely, while taking a late night drive, heading east on I-64]

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Kaiser Cartel are a band I’ve just discovered.  I heard the song below for the first time this afternoon.  Paste CD Sampler #44.  A duo from Brooklyn, NY.  Courtney Cartel on vocals and guitar.  Benjamin Cartel on vocals, guitar, drums.  Both play xylophone.  Their new album is called March Forth.  This track caught my ear immediately.  It sounded even better tonight in the car.

Oh No by Kaiser Cartel

The film Dead Man stars Johnny Depp.  Directed by Jim Jarmusch.  Guest appearances by Crispin Glover, John Hurt, Gabriel Byrne, Iggy Pop, Billy Bob Thornton, and Robert Mitchum.  A brief appearance by Gibby Haynes.  The story of Nobody and William Blake.  One of my favorite films.  The biggest star not named is Neil Young’s guitar.

Dead Man Sountrack by Neil Young

Neil Young then leads me here.  When I was in radio I used to have a Friday night show from 8pm-2am (later it would be 9pm - 2am).  The show was called The Cellar.  The point is this, I had a listener from Vesuvius, Virginia who called almost every Friday night, generally after 11pm, once we’d found a groove.  Nine times out of ten he would request this song.  Ten times out of ten I would play it.

Buenos Tardes Amigo by Ween

I don’t own any records by Aimee Mann but I’m pretty sure I’ve got the Magnolia Motion Picture Soundtrack somewhere.  However, I generally pull that out for the Supertramp songs.  This is another song I heard for the first time tonight.  Remember seventy miles an hour with the windows down and dashboard lights?  It was the perfect venue.  Aimee’s new album is called @#%&*! Smilers.

Freeway by Aimee Mann

When I first discovered James Hunter a couple of years ago I was instantly hooked.  If you like old 50’s R&B and soul, he’s your guy in the 21C.  Van Morrison called him ”the best voice and the best-kept secret in British R&B and soul”.   He is a modern man from the past.  People Gonna Talk is the record that grabbed my ear.  His latest is called The Hard Way.  This video has two songs.  The first is a James Hunter original.  The second is an old R&B number, first recorded by The 5 Royales.

People Gonna Talk and Baby Don’t Do It by James Hunter

For what it’s worth that the end of the line.  If you have any favorite driving songs for a late night interstate run, don’t hesitate to let us know what they are.  Drive on.

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