“Vapor Trails” Spotify Playlist
“Vapor Trails” is one of my earliest songs that I’ve kept in my repertoire. The first time I performed it was at The Cellar at Penn State back in 1990 or 1991 as part of a set that guitarist Mark Sylvester was performing (he let me get up for a number). I wrote it, I think, in the fall semester of my freshman year (1990), because I’m fairly certain I can recall sending taped recordings of it to some friends back home as early as my freshman year. The song, of course, is about chasing the unattainable and losing yourself in the process.
I’m still immensely proud of the song itself, and I do wish to do a good acoustic recording of it (I have an awesome acoustic take from 1992, with guitar by Kenny Levy, my roommate from the fall of that year, but it was done on a four-track and is fairly low quality in terms of the actual recording if not the performance). But I’d always wanted to get a full-band rock version, and now that version has finally arrived. Hopefully, so will all the other tunes on its parent album, ENDLESS STREET: A SPIRITUAL TRAVELOGUE.
The guitar on this recording is by Tom Briant. Julian Michalski gives us the bass line. Paul Galiszewski plays the drums. None of that should be a surprise. And the recording was pretty straightforward, so there’s not a lot to discuss in terms of the recording session.
The playlist includes tons of songs and artists that I was listening to heavily at the time, and a few that I caught on to later in college but felt a similar affinity towards.
PLAYLIST:
The Random Hubiak Band/Vapor Trails
Hothouse Flowers/Give It Up
Tom Cochrane/Life is a Highway
R.E.M./Haborcoat
Bruce Springsteen/Roll of the Dice
Del Amitri/Kiss This Thing Goodbye
Danielia Cotton/It’s Only Life
Bob Seger/Even Now
World Party/Put the Message in the Box
R.E.M./The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight
John Hiatt/Child of the Wild Blue Yonder
Bob Dylan/Tangled Up in Blue
Cold Weather Company/Old But True
’Til Tuesday/Coming Up Close
Mark Sylvester/Cathedral
Patty Larkin/Who Holds your Hand
Tracy Chapman/Crossroads
Söur Brothers/Better Days
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young/4 + 20
The Band and Joni Mitchell/Coyote
Neil Young and Crazy Horse/Thrasher
Counting Crows/Rain King
David Baerwald/The Best Inside You
Janis Ian/Miracle Row
Janis Ian/Maria
Rod Stewart/Maggie May
Indigo Girls/Closer to Fine
Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris/For a Dancer
Shawn Colvin/Round of Blues
R.E.M./Belong
Joni Mitchell/Cactus Tree