National Park Soundtrack Volume 2

More songs for America’s national parks!

Last week in The Riff, ya’ll seemed to enjoy this, so I’m going to keep doing them, probably until I’ve covered all the parks!

If you didn’t catch the first one here’s a link:

The gist of this series; is just selecting a song that fits the vibe of the given park.

Let’s get right into it!

This song is probably my favorite by Emily Scott Robinson. I love a good story and this one is great. It tells the tale of a young Shoshone woman sneaking her way into a camp of the white colonizers that took over the land. It is such a well-written story, and the imagery is so clearly visible in my head.

The instrumental of this song is just perfectly fits the lyrics as well. I would love to go blazing through the Teton Wilderness horseback to this fast-paced, swelling track.

If that line doesn’t give you chills, I don’t know what will.

Monument Valley is what I picture anytime I hear “the wild west.” There are plenty of great western songs to choose from, but my favorite has to be this Cash cover of this classic, written by Stan Jones. This song captivated me as kid who grew up watching westerns with my dad and paranormal shows with my mom.

“Ghost Riders In The Sky” describes the vision a cowboy has in the desert, of a sky full of ghostly cowboys, and their fiery steeds, driving a hellish herd of cattle. The chorus features Johnny Cash and a ghoulish choir belting the iconic; “yippie-yi-o, yippie-yi-yay.”

The backing track is as western as it gets. It’s full of guitar, trumpets, and drums. It keeps such an intense, dark sound throughout, and you can just feel the spirit of the west radiating from it.

This song is another one where I just want to go horseback riding, and blaze a trail through the park.

Kanye’s production on this song is just out of this world — pun intended. He mixes Toliver and Kid Cudi’s voices so well into this, and it just ends up making you feel like you’re floating.

Lyrically it’s fairly simple, but it doesn’t even matter because sonically it is superb. The electric guitar is the star instrument of the song, I just can’t gush enough about the mixing though. The echo effect on the vocals is what really sends this into such a dreamscape. You also have Kanye’s subdued delivery of some small lines towards the end which is just the cherry on top.

I want to go on a night ride through Arches and blast this song while contemplating the very meaning of existence.

On my last list I gave a cave-based national park a rock song. I think it just fits that genre; however this one is in Kentucky. The perfect song here, in my eyes, is “Turmoil & Tinfoil,” because it’s bluegrass — which fits Kentucky, but it’s arranged like a metal song due to Billy Strings’ rock influence.

The song is written in a minor key, which contradicts most old bluegrass, and coincides more with rock. The live performance I’m linking also has a lot of metal energy. There is a long, extended music break, and Billy Strings delivers one of the best acoustic guitar solos I’ve ever seen.

I can easily see this eerie song being echoed through the annals and corridors of this massive cave system. There is more to Mammoth Cave National Park than just the cave though, and the song can just as easily be played while driving through the park’s forest scenery.

I have no idea why, but before I ever even thought of doing one of these lists; I always pictured this song taking place in the Everglades. It could be that the Everglades are so remote that there would be “no particular place to go,” but whatever it is, this has just always been in my head.

It’s such a classic song, featuring Berry’s unique voice and style. The old 50s and 60s style guitar is all over this track, and just drips with nostalgia.

Even though there isn’t much driving to do in the majority of the Everglades, unless you have a boat; I just love the idea of it taking place there. I can just hear the frogs croaking while Berry struggles with his lovers stubborn seatbelt in the moonlit swamp.

Thanks for reading the second edition of this series! I hope you enjoyed my picks!

Let me know what you think about them in the comments, and as always; feel free to suggest another national park you’d like to see in the next one!

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