Spontaneously wet, with musical notes

Tuesday, warm, wet, and (by extension) humid.  Today's weather looks much like yesterday's felt.  On my walks to and from campus it was unpleasantly humid. Too muggy-warm to want much by way of clothing and too wet to go without a coat and cap.  At times it wasn't so much raining as spontaneously wetting, with the water quietly exploding out of the muggy air and forming on anything that slid through it.  According to Cliff Mass' Weather Blog from yesterday, the humidity was "extraordinary" for our part of the world with dew points in the mid to upper 60's.  He goes on to describe the highly unusual atmospheric conditions that lead to the most humid day so far this year.

I stopped for coffee this morning, and the corner kiosk was moving a bit slowly for the fairly small line of cars it was handling, so the playlist stretched out quite a bit longer than usual.  A very mixed and interesting playlist today, as a result.  A couple of musical notes:

Largo was a 1998 project album from The Band built around a theme of Dvorak's New World Symphony. It was a collaboration with the Hooters and featured a diverse artist list: Taj Mahal, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Joan Osborne, The Chieftains, Carole King, Cyndi Lauper, David Forman, and Willie Nile. Mostly rock Americana with heavy shades of Appalachian folk, Irish reels, hard blues, and classical. There is no way to really classify this album, but it is so worth checking out if you have not heard it before.  [Note to self: it would be interesting to see what Pandora pulls together by way of a radio channel based on this album!]

Perla Betalla's duet (with Bill Gable) rendition of Leonard Cohen's Dance Me to the End of Love is absolutely perfect.  The opening instrumental strains remind me of the theme music from the Thames of London World at War documentary from the 70's (if you have never seen this 26-hour series on WW II you have missed the most compelling and insightful documentary on war that has ever been made, captured on film at a time when many of the key players from all sides of the war could be interviewed first hand), haunting and sad. With beautiful instrumental work and Perla's softly powerful voice, the tune has a magically compelling hook to it.

Good stuff, I say.

• Robert Walter: Scores of Spores
• Two Siberians: Lake Baikal
• Jean-Yves Thibaudet: Lucky to Be Me
• Largo: Chieftains Largo - Reprise
• Bruce Cockburn: See You Tomorrow
• Train: All American Girl
• Jay Nash: Wayfarer
• Perla Batalla: Dance Me to the End of Love (feat. Bill Gable)