In My Rearview Mirror...

After accepting a job in Las Vegas several weeks ago, it has been difficult preparing for a life 1,800 miles away from everything I’ve ever known. The past weeks have brought me the warped clarity and sentiment that’s usually reserved for the effects of flooding my brain with two bottles of cheap white wine. I tried to make sense of this new chapter in my life, and sought refuge from the goodbyes, by constructing a playlist for my drive out to Vegas that would reflect my frame of mind. Audible life, as I’ve been known to say.

Studies show that a person’s sense of smell brings fourth the strongest memories, but I disagree. For me, music is a portal, inviting fleeing memories from another lifetime to sit on the front porch of my mind for the duration of a song. People listen to music because they connect to it on some level. Sometimes it’s the melody or the rhythm, sometimes it’s the lyrics, but for me, the music I love is frequently due to the people or moments that the music begs me to recall. I find a lot of music enjoyable, but until I can attach a memory to magnify the song’s effect, it cannot begin to compare to the songs laced with recollections of the people and places that have shaped my life. So, as I pieced this compilation together, it truly has been a labor of love… if not a complete and utter distraction from everything I should have been doing.

There is no easy way to break up a playlist for two days of driving cross-country with an American Dingo dog as your co-pilot, so I decided to break it up geographically. Between playlists, as there is no way I have the time to plan a full 26 hours of music, I will most likely call friends, curse radio commercials or listen to my favorite albums. A lot of the typical “roadtrip anthems” have made it onto my list, because hell- I need something to keep me in the left lane, nervously testing my radar detector’s competence.