1. Cold As Ice – Foreigner
2. Some Nights – Fun
3. No Sunlight – Death Cab for Cutie
4. Who We Are – from Hunger Games – Imagine Dragons
5. Long, Long Way From Home – Foreigner
6. One Day More – Les Mis
7. Balthazar, Impresario – Frank Turner
8. Bixby Canyon Bridge – Death Cab for Cutie
9. Half-Truism – Offspring
10. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida – Iron Butterfly
11. Agony – from Into the Woods
12. Wanted Dead or Alive – Bon Jovi
13. Bad Moon Rising – Credence Clearwater Revival
14. Hey You – Bachman Turner OverDrive
15. Night Moves – Bob Seger
16. The Blood of Cu Chulainn (instrumental)
17. Eye of the Tiger – Survivor
18. Dumbledore’s Army – WROCK music – Andrew Blake
19. You Get What You Give – New Radicals
20. The Gambler – KennyRogers

Typically when I talk about my musical tastes, I describe it as either twenty years old or twenty minutes. There is no in between. In looking at this list, I can see that my Supernatural soundtrack has taken over a bit – that is mostly the classic rock that you see here. I’ve also noticed that when I say ‘twenty years old’ at this point, I mean thirty since I’m talking about the 80s synth pop and second British invasion plus alternative.

I still listen to alternative. In fact, it’s the only thing I listen to on the car radio. My sister or my husband will tell me about a new song they think I’ll like, and I have to disappoint them by saying that I’ve been listening to that on my radio station for almost a year, sometimes more. See Flogging Molly, Frank Turner, Fun, Death Cab for Cutie, Adele, and Mumford and Sons.

It looks like at least four genres up there. Or more. Let’s see: country, wrock, classic rock, rock, alternative, top 40, Broadway soundtrack.

I like to sing in the car. The music up loud, the windows open, singing the wrong words. It is so freeing!

I’ve often said that the only musical instrument I play is the car radio. However, when I was in middle school, I could play bits on the piano: Stairway to Heaven including one chord, the theme from All in the Family, Do Re Me from A Sound of Music. I could also play bits of Color My World on the guitar, but that’s it. My fingers are too small for guitar playing.

I tried to take violin in elementary school. I was okay, but my pinky wouldn’t reach across, and I couldn’t make. I still have a very small pinky.

In college I took Folk Music in America and part of the class was assembling a lap dulcimer and learning how to play it. I could play Go Tell Aunt Rhody and Simple Gifts (my favorite) in my sleep. My friend taught us Smoke on the Water. Each note had a number, so after a time I could play anything albeit slowly. It’s made out of cardboard and it’s twenty-seven years old, but I still have it and it still works. I can even tune it since it’s tuned to itself. I could never read music, but I’m learning a bit from the church’s hymnal. You can teach an old dog new tricks.

This is a recent picture of it. My daughter took it to school during music week.

Every time I think I have no interest in music, one of these memes comes along to remind me that I really do like music and sometimes I need to remember that.