Music plays a big part in what I do. Before I was listen to the same handful of CD’s over and over during certain projects (Several of my stories have been written to Neko Case and The Old 97s) but I’ve started creating a more eclectic playlist for recent projects. These are the songs that brought it home for There Are Not Enough Midnights, my weird west – steampunk novella. A few fell off the list and few were added late, but these are the ones that survived until the end of the first draft.
Abney Park – Building Steam
Abney Park – Herr Drossemyer’s Doll
Abney Park – I’ve Been Wrong Before
Abney Park – Neobedouin
Abney Park – The Wrong Side
Abney Park – Victorian Vigilante
Amanda Seyfried – Little Red Riding Hood
Bad Religion – Sorrow (Acoustic)
Bad September – Check Steam Pressure
Bad September – Empire of Steam
Bad September – Oscar Wilde, Super Spy
Bad September – Tesla vs. Edison
Bad September – The Turk’s Song
Brandy Carlile – The Story
Cat Power – Lived in Bars
Chris Smithers – Train Home
Colin Meloy – Bandit Queen (Live)
Colin Meloy – Red Right Ankle (Live)
Corb Lund – Devil’s Best Dress
Cowboys Junkies – Miles From Our Homes
Cracker – Sunday Train
Drive By Truckers – The Day John Henry Died
Dwight Yokum – Floyd County
Ed Bruce – The Last Cowboy Song
Honey Honey – Little Toy Gun
Jim Croce – The Railroad Song
Joe Ely – Me and Billy the Kid
Johnny Cash – Don’t Take Your Guns to Town
Johnny Cash – Folsom Prison Blues
Johnny cash – Ghost Riders in the Sky
Johnny Cash – The Last Gunfighter Ballad
Johnny Rivers – Secret Agent Man
Jolie Holland – Mexico City
Josh Ritter – Next to the Last True Romantic
Kathleen Edwards – In State
Marty Robbins – Big Iron
Marty Robbins – Cool Water
Marty Robbins – Cottonwood Tree
Marty Robbins – Running Gun
Marty Robbins – The Hanging Tree
Marty Robbins – They’re Hanging Me Tonight
Marty Robbins – Utah Carol
Mindy Smith – Train Song
Neko Case – Behind the House
Neko Case – I Wish I Were the Moon
Neko Case – Knock Loud
Neko Case – Star Witness
Neko Case – Thrice All-American (Tacoma)
Old 97’s – Iron Road
Reckless Kelly – She Sang the Red River Valley
Richard Buckner – Town
Richard Thompson – Vincent Black Lightening 1952
Rosanne Cash – Long Black Veil
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals – Let it Ride
Sam Shaber – Eldorado
Son Volt – Afterglow 61
The B-52’s – Roam
The Bastard Fairies – Bad Moon Rising
The Cog is Dead – The Copper War
The Cog is Dead – The Iron Horseman
The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow
The Decemberists – Sons & Daughters
The Decemberists – Yankee Bayonet
The Hangdogs – Flatlands
The Hangdogs – The Gun Song
The Marshall Tucker Band – Fire on the Mountain
Two Gallants – Despite What You’ve Been Told
Wilco w/ Billy Bragg – California Stars
My new project has a current playlist, but right now it is over 200 songs long. It will probably end up closer to between 50 and 75 songs by the end.
So, what do you listen to when writing?