As my year in pandemic captivity ends, I’ve been listening to a lot of music lately. Being the eclectic kind of guy I am, I have to confess it hasn’t been all bluegrass.
I believe that listening to music is almost as important as working your chops in the ‘shed. Almost! however you absolutely have to have chops. But I digress.
If you are interested in playing a certain genre of music, let’s say bluegrass for instance (as eclectic as I claim to be, it remains one of my favorites,) I find listening to a group like Hot Rize gives me insights to the nuances of the genre. The vocal presses and runs, the phasing of the vocals and the instrumentation add textures that are very distinctive and pleasurable.
After my latest session of listening to Hot Rize. I found myself with an earworm. For those that don’t know, an earworm is a catchy or memorable piece of music that continuously plays in your mind…and won’t go away. For me it was the chorus of Colleen Malone, this time.
You might think that I’m making much of this up as I go along but earworms are actually a recognized condition or phenomenon by the American Psychological Association…scout’s honor. The APA has a more technical designation INMI which means (somehow) Involuntary Musical Imagery. Don’t ask me how they get INMI from the full phrase, I don’t know, I’m just reporting the facts.
As far as I can discern from my extensive research, INMI has nothing to do with hallucinations from tequila or (now legal) herbal medicines. This was an obvious concern for me as you might imagine but I’m going with the APA on this.
So I was ‘listening’ to Colleen Malone in my brain for about 4 or 5 days. Being it was only the beginning of the chorus, it was starting to drive me crazy. With my short attention span, I didn’t get to the part in my research where the APA tells you how to turn it off.
Since tequila wasn’t the cause, I thought I’d try to see if it was the cure but no luck. All I got was a hangover headache and Colleen Malone going on in my head. I may have overdone the tequila, I’m just throwing that out there.
After a few days, Colleen Malone went away but was replaced by “Is Anyone Going to San Antone?” by the Texas Tornados. You probably know or surmise that the Texas Tornados are not Bill’s kind of Bluegrass or anybody else’s for that matter. The phrase no part of nothing comes to mind.
I told you at the top I was listening to more than bluegrass. I now had this Tex Mex song stuck in my brain. This time with Flaco Jiménez’s accordion playing, and again, only the chorus. Normally, I would insert an accordion joke here but not with Flaco. He’s that good.
Anyhow, it seemed that I stumbled on the how do relieve my earworm problem. I need to replace it with a fresh one and that creates a new conundrum. What do I replace it with as it seems I have a proclivity for catching earworms but I’m pretty sure I’m not in control of the process. I think the earworms usually pick you.
My plan to replace Flaco is to listen to some straight-ahead bluegrass like the Stanley Brothers or the Johnson Mountain Boys and hope something sticks. If that doesn’t work, I’ll try some Gypsy Jazz with Django and Stephane. That’s been known to work in the past.
Even though, I know it doesn’t work, I’m liable to try the tequila method another time but this time much more carefully. Wish me luck.
I’ll catch you again. next month. Who knows what tune will be playing in my head then.
