She's Hot to Go

Asheville has the worst collection of radio stations I could imagine compiling so I rarely listen to it. I listen to NPR or my iPod. However I forget to charge my iPod all the time. It has only run out of juice once or twice since I don’t use it that much anymore (commute is half the time and falls during prime NPR hours). Now I have the stock stereo in my car; I never felt the need to update it and so I still rock a cassette player in my dash. Why would I need anything else?
Last night was one of those times that my iPod died and it was an off-hour where my least favorite NPR program is broadcast. It is for these moments that I still have cassettes floating around my car. Most are mix tapes from college that have withstood the test of time and better tastes. I blindly grabbed one and stuck it in and was immediately flooded with memory and comfort. It wasn’t one I made; it was a mix that my dad recorded in probably 1990 or 1991 that is comprised of Lyle Lovett’s first three albums taped from records. The tape has the scratchy and mildly tinny quality that distinguishes it; as if the imperfections make it more personable. I stole it years ago and have kept it because I have memories of listening to the same tape on childhood trips to Maine and Canada; it is something that is so concretely familiar. I have the CD versions of those albums but they don’t have the character of that mix tape.
Thanks for that, Lyle.