ENYA
VETIVER
JORMA KAUKONEN
THE BOATING
BOATS AND MUSIC have always been inseparable.
Now, in the era of the digital cloud, it’s easier than
ever to match the perfect song to a good day on
the water. So, let’s take a musical journey — from
folk, to seafaring, to classic, to indie, to, well, wild!
Get ready to rock with our best boating playlists
RICHARD
THOMPSON
HEN I WAS 16 YEARS OLD and living
in the fo’c’sle of a 130-foot brigantine the
first time, I heard “Song for the North Star”
— one of many times my life was incon-
testably steered by a song. I knew nothing
then about Jorma Kaukonen, nothing about
his electric band Hot Tuna, or his previous membership in
Jefferson Airplane, nothing even about his Piedmont Blues
mentor, the Reverend Gary Davis. It was just that song, played
on a cheap cassette recorder, that crept inside me and told me
where to go. Eventually, the fellow who owned the tape went
his way and I went mine, and for the next several years every
chance I got to poke into a record store would see me digging
through the stacks, hoping to find it on an out-of-print album
called “Quah.”
That was in 1982, and it’s been a solid decade since I
even thought of “North Star.” But this morning I clicked on a
link, and in about three minutes and for less than $10, I down-
loaded that whole long-lost album. While there, I checked in
with a few other old friends. The song still stands up to the
raised expectations of all that waiting.
W
