March 23, 2015

Road Diaries: Have Tunes, Will Travel

We all know a good tune can make all the difference. It's the soundtrack of your life! The United Nations recently unveiled "The World's Happiest Playlist" in celebration of International Day of Happiness, and in that spirit we wanted to ask touring artists what beats keep them rolling along as they navigate BC's roads and highways to visit schools around the province.

What's your favourite song to listen to while cruising down the highway to your next performance?

Comfort Ero of African Stages African Stages Association of BC, usually listens to Nigerian Gospel worship songs:

Those songs are very energetic and uplifting. They boost your energy level, your hopefulness and happiness immediately!

Kirsti Heath of Heath Tarlin Entertainment, can't contain her energy for long:

It's got to be a toss up between "On the Road Again" and "Life is a Highway!" OK, both of those choices are bare-faced lies - we love listening to anything with great bass riffs - if you sit in a van for long periods of time, at least you can do a little seat dancing!

Tina of The Kerplunks says her group perfers to keep it upbeat but lo-fi:

We almost never play the stereo in the van on road trips. Mostly because there's an amazing in-van ukulele jam happening! In fact, we often find ourselves writing new songs together while cruising down the road and waiting for and riding ferries. It sure makes for entertaining trips.

Will Stroet has a recent fave:

When the band and I are touring our favourite song to listen to in the car changes frequently, however, we definitely have a current favourite tune right now. Last November/December the band and I had a 2 week tour in Ontario and while we were in Toronto we had the incredible opportunity to see Stevie Wonder in concert performing the entire album "Songs in the Key of Life." The concert was one of the best I've ever been to, they played the entire record start to finish, with what must have been a 30 piece band, plus eight strings players from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Just incredible! After that show we spent much of the rest of the tour listening to that album, and one song in particular to get us pumped! That song is the 4th on the record. It's an instrumental track, featuring dueling guitars, called "Contusion." It's still a go to now as we drive to performances. Here's a link to the song performed live at a show on that same tour.

What's your go-to travelling tune?

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