writin' tunes

It's important to have music playing when I write papers. Otherwise the silence combined with my sometimes tediously slow writing might be enough to drive me mad. However, I have to be careful with the music I play. It can't be too loud and crazy, and I don't want to have the urge so sing along, because that could be distracting. Other than instrumental or opera, I currently only have about three albums that do the trick.

The first is Darryl Purpose's A Crooked Line. I've been writing history papers to this since college. It includes a song about Rutherford Hayes, which is enough to put it at the top of my list.



Next is Eric Bachmann's To the Races. I heard him last year on some NPR show and immediately ordered his CD.



Finally, there is Kris Delmhorst's Strange Conversations. She took famous poems and made them songs. My favorite is the song "Sea Fever," based on John Masefield's poem. In fact, this is the CD that just helped me write a book review ten minutes ago.