Song 334: This week on the playlist you can hear Snow by Jesse Winchester, written by Robbie Robertson and Jesse Winchester. Growing up in the Northeast, I enjoyed winter just as much as the other seasons, and didn’t have a specific preference, but that started to change when I began my college stretch at N.U. I noticed during my first January in the Chicago area that I seemed to hear a lot of single digit and negative temps in the forecast, but it took a year or 2 for me to clearly understand that even though I hadn’t landed any further north than where I grew up, that portion of the upper midwest is significantly colder during the winter months than my hometown. Not long after I began at N.U., Jesse Winchester’s eponymous debut LP came along, and since I liked every cut I heard from it, at a certain point in the next year or 2, I picked up a copy. I hadn’t caught this particular tune before, but that first spin on the turntable, it got my attention, and that of at least one roommate. I had already experienced too much of the Chicago area’s winter weather, as had my roommate, and we both felt we would rather not be there when the snow starts getting deep. That four-letter word had become something of a curse, so as soon as I could do it, I left the midwest and headed to CA. I didn’t miss the snow, but circumstances would eventually compel me to return to it. The white stuff doesn’t seem as oppressive in my corner of the Northeast as it did in the Chicago area, but I have seen a lot more of it lately than I care to, so this track seems to perfectly express the feeling of the current moment. On a sad note, Jesse Winchester died in the spring of 2014, but he left behind a significant set of recordings, which I plan to draw more from for this list in the future, especially to make up for the fact that I hadn’t posted a JW cut prior to this one.
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