All My CDs, pt. 96: When I Woke

When I Woke - Rusted Root

This is another of the several CDs I got from the bargain rack sound-unheard, with no knowledge of what lay within. I seem to remember putting it on that day and briefly enjoying it, but getting distracted and not picking it up again until now.

I wrote in my last review that I could stand to have more of “this kind of music” in my collection, and while Rusted Root is pretty far from Monica Richards in a lot of ways, I can’t help but see some infectious similarities. It’s a blessing that this album starts with Drum Trip, a rampage of drumming fit to induce flashbacks to six thousand years ago. Other songs incorporate elements of jazz, blues, latin rock and pop, but at its core this is drummy folky primal music that makes me want to throw a dance party around a bonfire.

At least one song, Send Me On My Way, is popular enough that I was able to instantly recognize it when it first came up; it’s been in several soundtracks so perhaps you have heard it as well. Its lilting flute and percussion and bubbly vocals seem to especially evoke the freedom of the open road, and all that jazz.

Other favorite tracks include Ecstasy, Food & Creative Love, and Back to the Earth. Hippy music, for sure; you can tell by the titles alone but every note pulses with that vibrant beat of barefoot, life-loving, art-mongering hippytude. I’m tempted to ditch the remainder of my review project, don a bandana, and head off to the mountains with this CD and a smudge bundle.

But only if the rest of you come with me.

Next: The Satyrs