Dear Doctor, I have taken a job on a farm and want a playlist that will get me cutting and cropping with aplomb.
When the Doctor was a little girl, her dream was to marry a farmer: no job too mucky, no hour too long, the wind and rain on cold cheeks, then the yeast buns and hot tea that follow. Alas, despite many a Young Farmer barn dance, this ambition was never fulfilled.
Still, we can all harvest a crop of musical gems to help us enjoy the more romantic side of country living without worrying our dainty city hands with hard labour. Start with Hard To Handle, by Tony Joe White, aka the Swamp Fox (there’s an unmissable new collection out on Rhino). Next, speed up with some banjo frailing by the Lonnigans Skiffle Group on Cow Belly Breakdown. Alas, Mama Don’t Allow No Easy Riders On A Farm, or at least according to this piano track by the udderly wonderful Cow Cow Davenport. But perhaps all these cows just ain’t cutting the butter. Are you in the moo’d for some Milk Cow Blues by influential slide guitarist Kokomo Arnold?
For something a little a little more recent, try an epic instrumental, Cowgirl Song by Chris Culgin, followed by a singalong to John Deere Tractor by the mighty Judds: “City boys ain’t the same.” That reminds me of a tip the Doctor learned in South Carolina: when you have a long tract of land to be mowed, treat yourself to a bespoke baseball hat that holds a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon and a straw that allows beer to flow from the can to your mouth. Now nothing need get in the way of your cropping.
Finally, go nuts with The Fields Are Blooming by Taraf De Haïdouks. Then find your tree and relax, real straw in mouth, with Frazey Ford’s soothing September Fields.
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