The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere Playlist, Vol. 3
Here’s the third installment of The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere Playlist, a baker’s dozen of fishing-, river-, and/or water-related tracks for your next angling road trip.
If you missed them, click here for Volume 1 and click here for Volume 2.
And, here’s the running playlist on Spotify and on YouTube. Cheers!
“Change” by Big Thief
This one is quiet and slow and contemplative; good for an early-morning, in-the-dark drive to the river. I also often think of this song when I’m fishing somewhere and am considering whether or not I should change flies.
“I’m No Stranger to the Rain” by Keith Whitley
When I lived in Washington and was making every- or every-other weekend runs out to the coast for winter steelhead, I’d play this song in an exercise of embracing the weather out there.
“Empower Me” by Tahuna Breaks
When Lucas and I were in the Golden Bay area of the South Island of New Zealand, we stumbled into an incredible brewery and bar one night and they just so happened to be having live music. Tahuna Breaks played and my final memory of the night is being in the back of the room and seeing a hundred-or-so wild kiwis all grooving and moving to the music, limbs, and dreadlocks all going every which-way! Their two albums became regulars for the rest of our trip.
“Paint the Town Beige” by Robert Earl Keen
As I’ve said before, it ain’t a playlist if it don’t have REK. This one’s one the quiet side but good for those of us who are perhaps over-the-hill but still act (from time to time) like we aren’t. “Down along the river, past the swimmin’ hole, you can find your peace of mind with just a fishin’ pole.”
“Eugene” by Greg Brown
It’s no secret that Greg is an angler and that he toured just about every corner of the country for decades. This song, based on the town in which we live, is a relatively new discovery to me and naturally rings true.
“Trod On” by Clinton Fearon
I’ve been on a big reggae kick over the past year or more and have been jamming on Clinton Fearon for much of it. I dig this particular song for a variety of reasons, one of which is that is sometimes sounds like he’s saying, “trout on.”
“Calico Creek” by Stephen Wilson Jr.
Wilson Jr.’s new album is the latest album-on-repeat for me and it all started with this song, about his home water.
“Where the Cash At” by Lil Wayne & Others
This one goes back a ways, to my time guiding at the 4UR Ranch in Colorado with Drew, Les, and AJ. We’d blast this one on our way to the river on our day off and again upon return to the ranch. We had big dreams of doing a version of our own entitled “Where the Fish At” but we’ll just say that it’s still in the works.
“Sea Stories” by Sturgill Simpson
This one resonates for the obvious reason but also for the fact that Sturgill sings about a handful of places that I visited in Japan while traveling around for work and fishing some years back.
“Cicadas” by Ken Pomeroy
Whenever I hear the word ‘cicada,’ I think of hiking and fishing in New Zealand. I also recently saw some really cool and LOUD videos of buzzing cicadas in the southeast US.
“Catch the Wind” by Drivin’ N’ Cryin’
This is another one from my time on the ranch, introduced to me by the infamous Boone Walker. This one was on heavy repeat on our day-off-fishing trips.
“Dry River” by James McMurtry
If it’s about a river and is by a Texas-country troubadour singer-songwriter, I’ll probably like it a lot.
“Verde River” by Kassi Valazza
Stacey and I did some hiking and sitting along the Verde River in Arizona a couple winters ago and I couldn’t get this song out of my head. A canoe and a bass rod would’ve been welcomed.
