Random Shuffle: Deana Carter, Robert Hunter, Neil Young, Wilco

I'm putting my music collection on shuffle and talking about what comes up.  I'm less interested in a critical analysis of these songs than I am in discussing my emotional connection to them.  When I hear these songs stories come to mind, not reviews.

"We Danced Anyway" - Deana Carter
From the album Did I Shave My Legs For This?
Click here to listen to MP3.

The Brewsters have moved. Again. It seems like my wife and I are constantly on the move. This time we actually hope to stay put. For a little while, at least. So we're pulling out boxes that have been in storage for nearly three years. There are things we have missed. Things we wonder why we kept. Things we had completely forgotten about. It is a bit like Christmas, except the gifts are not wrapped in pretty paper, and most things are more worn for the ware than sparkly and new.

Digging through my music collection has been especially fun. There are few surprises in the CD boxes as pretty much everything I have on a hard file I have in my iTunes. What has been deliciously wonderful has been finding the various mix-tapes and mix-CDs I've made over the years.

I miss mix-tapes. There was something really special about those two sided pieces of 90 minute plastic. Mix-CDs were never the same, and MP3 mixes simply don't do it for me at all. But the tapes, those were something to remember.

Most of the mixes that we still have were made for my wife at some point or another. "We Danced Anyway" is from the second tape I ever made her. It was before we were dating even. She was living in Montreal and I was in Joplin, Missouri. We were e-mailing regularly, becoming fine friends and wondering what might come next.

Of course this called for a tape. Maybe two. The first tape I ever made her was a mix-CD for Valentine's Day. I knew she was a bit lonely up there in the freezing north and I thought a friendly love mix might be appreciated. Of course it was a typical Mat Brewster love mix full of cheating songs, break up songs and the occasional sweet, romantic ones.

For the next tape I knew I couldn't push my luck. We were getting pretty close, friendly like, but romance was a long ways off. I had to stay clear of stating any real intentions of mine, and so I choose songs that I simply really liked. The first tape was mostly acoustic. Mostly upbeat. It was full of Dylan and Lyle and John Prine. The second was a harder rocking number full of everything I liked that wasn't acoustic, or country. The first tape was really, really good. The second, not so much.

Article Author: Mat Brewster

Mat Brewster is a periodic ex-pat wondering if he'll ever find a home. You can find him musing on pop culture, and obsessing over concert bootlegs at The Midnight Cafe.

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