I know I’ve been calling these live ukulele sessions “spontaneous” since I started doing them a few months ago, but this one really lives up to the title because I didn’t plan the date I would do it, didn’t practice any of the songs until an hour before I went live, and certainly didn’t tell anyone in advance that I’d be playing today!
Except my husband, to whom I said an hour ago, “I think I’m going to do a Kerouac themed ukulele live!” and he… just quietly absorbed my enthusiasm, like he always does.
So this is a short set dedicated to Jack Kerouac, my favorite writer, on his birthday — and to James Taylor, whose birthday it is as well.
The three songs in this set are:
10,000 Maniacs, “Hey Jack Kerouac”
Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar, “California Zephyr”
James Taylor, “Fire and Rain”
There are so, SO many more songs that mention Kerouac, but we’d be here all night if I tried to cover all of them! And I mentioned a few other things in the live:
Here’s the documentary One Fast Move or I’m Gone, which Ben and Jay’s album was created to accompany:
And if you’re curious about the Great Northern Railway, here’s a little history courtesy of the Glacier National Park website.
If you have any song suggestions you’d like to challenge me with, or a theme you want to throw out there, let me know.
