i’m currently writing from a nice little condo in downtown kansas city (courtesy of airbnb). we’re (my family) currently in the middle of a week-long vacation that began by heading west on I-40 and we basically winged it from there. so far, we’ve spent a couple days in oklahoma city, a day in kansas city (we’ll be here for a few days) and then we’ll make a pit stop in branson on the way home. (to see a bit of our trip, you can check out #TheByrdsWingIt on instagram.)

as with every vacation or significant trip, i’ve put together a mix of songs that seem relevant. these aren’t necessarily artists from the states we’re visiting or songs that explicitly reference this area, but rather, they’re songs that, in some way or another, capture the spirit of the trip.

so without further ado, here’s the lineup for a midwest jaunt: songs for the open road:

1. arcade fire: the suburbs
2. the black crowes: welcome to the goodtimes
3. ray lamontagne: jolene
4. brandi carlile: closer to you
5. ben gibbard: something’s rattling (cowpoke)
6. bahamas: all the time
7. neko case: the pharaohs
8. jakob dylan: we don’t live here anymore
9. john mark mcmillan: borderland
10. needtobreathe: state i’m in
11. adam faucett: blood is blood
12. jenny lewis: big guns
13. rocco deluca: swing low
14. del amitri: driving with the brakes on
15. eddie vedder: hard sun
16. sheryl crow: redemption day
17. discover america: call it in the air
18. nickel creek: jealous of the moon
19. lord huron: until the night turns
20. caedmon’s call: 40 acres

get your download on, folks.

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