The best listening in anticipation of a big storm is not any rock and roll song. It’s The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne. It has some songs in it (“tiddly pom”), and it sets the tone for the depth of the season:
“Hallo, Eeyore,” said Christopher Robin, as he opened the door and came out. “How are you?”
“It’s snowing still,” said Eeyore gloomily.
“So it is.”
“And freezing.”
“Is it?”
“Yes,” said Eeyore. “However,” he said, brightening up a little, “we haven’t had an earthquake lately.”
“What’s the matter, Eeyore?”
…
“I don’t know how it is, Christopher Robin, but what with all this snow and one thing and another, not to mention icicles and such-like, it isn’t so Hot in my field about three o’clock in the morning as some people think it is. It isn’t Close, if you know what I mean—not so as to be uncomfortable. It isn’t Stuffy. In fact, Christopher Robin,” he went on in a loud whisper, “quite-between-ourselves-and-don’t-tell-anybody, it’s Cold.”
We cannot deny it either. Technical experts with the most education and technology at their disposal have narrowed down the snowfall prediction to somewhere between 2 and 26 inches. Amounts may vary, but there will be snow.
We have two options when it comes to our music selections for this week—combat or cooperation. Here we will lean into the cold and survey five tunes that merit a few spins precisely because they capture the depth of the mercury in the thermometer and emotions that can accompany these dark days.
A Long December
Counting Crows on the 1996 Album, Recovering the Satellites and the 1998 live album, Across a Wire (Live in New York)
The slow but swinging piano opening and quiet organ (accordion?) tone in the background open this cold winter classic. The title alone qualifies it for this list. Lead singer Adam Durtiz may have perfected the art of the mopey rock song. That could be a derogatory description, but he is on point here, leaning into the emotion of a song full of reflection, regret, and hope for something better. We don’t know the specifics, but there’s a lingering “smell of the hospital” and a hope that “you might come to California.” I’ve included the live version of this track as well. Duritz is also a master improviser, often toying with his melodies and harmonies, tweaking even their most famous tracks when played live. He alters the melody of the verses slightly here, particularly as the organ seeps in behind the lines, “I guess the winter makes you laugh a little slower, makes you talk a little lower about the things you could not show her.” In the end, this deeply melancholy song ends on a hopeful sentiment, “Maybe this year will be better than the last . . . It’s been so long since I’ve seen the ocean, I guess I should.”
January Hymn
The Decemberists on the 2011 Album, The King is Dead
Like “A Long December,” this one earns a spot on the list based on the name alone. It is a worthy song nonetheless—a quiet, sad, and pretty reflection on walking in a graveyard in winter. It’s full of the trademark Colin Meloy stunning wordplay:
On a Winter’s Sunday I go
To clear away the snow
And green the grass below . . .
Pale the winter days after dark
Wandering the gray memorial park
A fleeting beating of hearts.
As with many Decemberists songs, the end is never far from mind, their unofficial motto might be Memento Mori. In this one, though, we know he’s thinking about the cold too, and the time “when I could see her breath lead where she was going to.”
Northern Attitude
Noah Kahan on the 2024 Album Live at Fenway Park
The energy in this live track is a highlight. It’s right on the margin of too much crowd noise, but there is something great about hearing 35,000 backup singers when they’re doing a good job, and the crowd at Fenway is terrific. Noah Kahan’s not complaining about the cold but offering an excuse for being “not how you hoped” which all comes down to his “northern attitude” and being “raised out in the cold” . . . “on little light.” Its got soaring vocals, a catchy chorus, and he thanks his mom and dad at the end of the track (unfortunately right before dropping an expletive on his way into the next track).
Couldn’t Stand the Weather
Stevie Ray Vaughan on the 1984 Album, Couldn’t Stand the Weather
The blues has no better guitarist than Stevie Ray Vaughan (no relation to our esteemed News Editor, I believe). Sometimes just “Stevie” or “SRV” to his fans, he was a virtuoso with a life cut short by a helicopter accident at age 35. A master of his craft of kinetic-shuffle blues guitar playing, he’s known for scorching solos and sincere blues vocals.
Here in “Couldn’t Stand the Weather” we get a delicate introductory vamp before a snare drum snap and the foundational groove kicks in. Or does it? The first few passes through are suspended with a mysterious pause, an unpredictable gap each time until the guitar riff enters to hold it together. We hear a familiar blues lament of a relationship gone wrong, but heavier perhaps for the sense that this is a long held love that is lost: “All these years you and I have been together. I guess we just couldn’t stand the weather” and eventually warning that “It’s time to get ready for the storm.” This is blues through and through, but there’s plenty of exuberance—and surplus heat energy—in the solos on this track.
Nor Easter Snow
Bow Thayer on the 2006 Album, Spend it all (Featuring Levon Helm)
Bow Thayer’s catalog is evergreen even in winter. His early albums show up again and again in my listening rotation, but he has a particular grip on winter. Here in “Nor Easter Snow” an organ is front in center with a rollicking and stomping drum groove (laid down by The Band’s Levon Helm). The story takes center stage however.
You should have seen that Nor’Easter Snow
Could have put out the fire in hell below
We were just watching that wind come down
As it took the old timber frame to the ground
Oh Oh it got so cold
The hickory snapped and the birches bowed
Oh Oh the whole place froze
From Maine to Lake Ontario
The coming storm this weekend isn’t technically a Nor’Easter (it’s blowing in from the South and West), but nonetheless, this is a perfect track to crank up in your headphones while grabbing a shovel or heading out to run the snowblower into the gale.
Here’s a link to the list of these five tunes. Feel free to add suggestions in the comments.
Counting crows the band of my “ Salad Days”