California Coverfolk, Vol. 1: Here In California
(State Songs, City Songs, Street Songs and more!)
August 4th, 2010 — 12:58 pm
I’ve cheated a little here, penning this a few days in advance just in case something goes awry in our plans, scheduling it to post automatically so you could be here now. But in my mind, it’s Wednesday as I write this, legs up in the passenger seat for a short leg of the long drive from San Simeon to Monterey, where my wife’s relatives will be putting us up at a seaside conference center and resort that boasts such “authentic” rustic environs that it eschews TV and radio, and provides wi-fi solely in the lobby.
Through the windshield, the twisted cliffs part, offering the endless Pacific to our delighted eyes, and I am reminded of the last time I took this journey, untethered and struggling to stay carefree, with a newborn second child, no job and no home to go home to. Now I look at my wife frowning thoughtfully at the road, and at my children playing quietly in the seat behind me, and I smile, comfortable in the knowledge that this, too, shall pass, and it will ever be okay.
We’ve been in California since late Sunday night, flying into LAX in the wee hours, starting our vacation with two nights just North of Los Angeles, visiting my father’s relatives and settling in to the scorched-earth summer landscape; from there, we drove about three hours up the coast, stopping in Santa Barbara for lunch and a look-see, ending the night fireside in a campsite under the stars, thanks to the borrowed tent atop our borrowed station wagon. This morning, we took in Hearst Castle, mostly to serve the spousal preference for grandeur and solitude while the kids and I turned the one-time home to the stars into a playground and scavenger hunt site.
And our grand adventure is still just beginning. Over the next two weeks we’ll be slowly crawling up the coast, visiting old friends and family, never moving more than three or four hours a day, stopping in most cases for two nights at a time, the better to seep in the vastly different environments that comprise this gigantic state. From there, we’ll land in Eugene, OR, for a four-day stay with my brother-in-law and his wife, and fly out of Portland on our anniversary.
It’s my second trip to The Golden State, and our first attempt at a long multi-day driving vacation with the kids, but in the early stages, at least, we’re still happy windowgazing. Promises of giant redwood forests and cave explorations, museums and aquariums, and a day or two more of camping in the long gaps between major cities, help fill the miles, and though the everpresent trucks slow us down a bit on the coastal highway, it’s good to be anywhere, really, three weeks from the school year and under an open sky. Me, I’m looking forward to exploring the smalltowns and subdivisions which, to me, have always offered comfort and cultural epiphany: San Francisco’s Chinatown, Mendocino, Monterey; undiscovered walking villages, hidden oases in the midst of wine country. And since we’ve got plenty of time, it’s a good bet that our journey will bring a few unplanned surprises, too.
The carefree nature of our family vacation lends itself poorly to definitiveness, and anyway, there’s far too many songs of California – of the state itself, and its various locations both intimate and chaotic – to make any attempt at a comprehensive compendium here. Too, for reasons which will soon be apparent, I’m saving a few obvious choices for later in our journey, including the one you’re surely thinking of, and the song which appears in our title above. But here’s a few relatively recent favorites to keep the beat as we drive ever Northward.
- Jake Shimabukuro: Going To California (orig. Led Zeppelin)
(from the My Life EP, 2007)
- The Biscuit Boys: Coming Into Los Angeles (orig. Arlo Guthrie)
(from The Biscuit Boys, 2002)
- Nina Gordon: Straight Out Of Compton [NSFW] (orig. NWA)
(web release, 2004)
- Rose Cousins & Sean Staples: La Cienega Just Smiled (orig. Ryan Adams)
(live at Club Passim, November 2007; more Rose and Sean)
- Richard Shindell: Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) (orig. Woody Guthrie)
(from South of Delia, 2007)
- Bruce Springsteen: Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) (ibid.)
(from ‘Til We Outnumber ‘Em, 2000)
- Jeffrey Foucault: Lodi (orig. Creedence Clearwater Revival)
(from Stripping Cane, 2004)
- Kevin Davis: Grace Cathedral Hill (orig. The Decemberists)
(from The Jason Lamb Sessions, June 2006)
- The Points North: Come Back From San Francisco (orig. Magnetic Fields)
(web release, 2009)
- Kelly & Chris While: Talk To Me Of Mendocino (orig. Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
(from Chris & Kelly While, 2004)
- The Society of Poor Academics: California Song (orig. The Mountain Goats)
(from Du fortjener bedre enn Eivind Kirkeby, 2008)
- Libby Donovan: California Stars (orig. Wilco)
(unknown source, 2009)
- Tim O’Brien: California Blues (orig. Jimmie Rodgers)
(from Cornbread Nation, 2005)
- Gypsy Kings: Hotel California (orig. The Eagles)
(from The Big Lebowski Soundtrack, 1998)
- Mates of State: California (orig. Phantom Planet)
(from The OC Mix 6: Covering Our Tracks, 2006)
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