Theme Music

What would be a good theme song for this trip, was the question I was asking myself? Well, everyone knows the Erie Canal song. Who can forget Old Sal, and his fifteen miles on the Erie Canal. I'm sure I will know this one by heart before the end of the trip!

After a little searching, "When the Levee Breaks" by Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie, recorded in 1929, struck a cord. You can download this song free, or you can read the lyrics. The music not only reminded me of an old time blues song, but also a song you might hear floaitng down a lazy river. However, the lyrics rang eerily close the the events on the Gulf Coast last year, and recent rains here in New York as well.

Along those same lines, Dom sent me a great link to Bruce Springsteen's new album, "The Seeger Sessions". You can listen to the tune "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?" This song was written by Blind Alfred Reed and recorded a month after the crash of '29 that heralded the Great Depression. Springsteen has rewritten later verses that focus on the Katrina tragedy and sings, "There's bodies floatin' on Canal and the levees gone to Hell."

Perhaps too depressing for a vacation theme song, it does remind us that our fore fathers build this country with blood and sweat. This canal we are travelling on is an amazing engineering marvel, but only because of the hard back breaking work of the men of this country. Let us not forget our roots.