SiriusXM's The Bridge Has A New Expanded Playlist With The Likes Of Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and More




SiriusXM's The Bridge bills itself as playing mellow rock and folk/rock from the 70s. Even though I mostly prefer SiriusXM's moderated music channels (with DJs), The Bridge was always one of their more listenable automated channels. It used to be that they played mostly soft rock singles from the 70s. It used to be that you couldn't listen too long or too often because you were bound to hear repeats.

I'm happy to report that sometime in the last six months or so lots of great tracks have been added to The Bridge, and not just singles but album tracks too. A Friday morning listen was quite enjoyable for over three hours with no songs repeated. There were repeat artists, such as Simon & Garfunkel, John Lennon, and Joni Mitchell. Having not listened to The Bridge for awhile, even the expected songs sounded good, songs like "Deacon Blues" by Steely Dan, "New Kid In Town" by the Eagles, and "Ventura Highway" by America.

More exciting were songs which one would not expect to hear on The Bridge, as well as numerous album tracks. They actually played "Forever Young" by Bob Dylan and "Guinevere" by Crosby, Stills, & Nash from their first album. It was great hearing "Rocky Raccoon" by the Beatles off the White Album. Then there was "Another Day" by Paul McCartney. How about that, mellow, deep tracks on The Bridge.

I'm going to share with you a few tracks that sounded especially good. In the 60s, The Classics IV had a hit with the song "Spooky". The lead singer for that group was Buddy Buie, recently deceased, and he went on in the 70s to form the Atlanta Rhythm Section. ARS recorded a phenomenal version of "Spooky" and I was delighted to hear it on The Bridge.



It was encouraging that when artists did repeat, the songs did not. The Simon & Garfunkel songs were "Homeward Bound" and "Mrs. Robinson". The two by Jackson Browne were a very nice surprise, "Running On Empty" and qualifying as another mellow deep track "These Days" from Jackson's For Everyman album. From Joni Mitchell we heard "Help Me" from her Court and Spark album. The other Joni song was "Chelsea Morning" from her second album Clouds. There was a single released by Judy Collins, but Joni's own version was an album track. Even though I've heard this hundreds of times before, it was good to listen again and hear new things that I had never noticed before, like lyrics such as "It came a-reeling up like Christmas bells, and rapping up like pipes and drums". Thank goodness no one has tried to turn this into a Christmas song. [SHHH...]



Even selections that would come as no surprise on The Bridge sounded good. "Your Smiling Face" by James Taylor for example, and "Whenever I Call You Friend" by Kenny Loggins and Stevie Nicks. But the one of these I most got a kick out of hearing was 1974's "Please Come To Boston" by Dave Loggins.




Comments

Sara said…
Yes. Yes. And Yes!
3/12/2016
Sara said…
Yes. Yes. and Yes!
3/12/2016
Charlie Ricci said…
I stopped listening to The BRidge awhile ago due to all of the repetitiveness. When I listened last week I noticed the change but I haven't tuned in again. Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out.
3/12/2016
Charlie Ricci said…
While listening to The Bridge this afternoon I heard a rarity, Poco's "I Can See Everything" sung by Timothy B. Schmit from their album Good Feeling To Know. Good stuff!
3/13/2016
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