I grew up loving radio. A mystery voice came through this little box, sounding like someone who wanted to be my friend, and played music for me. You never knew what the next song was going to be, or even if you’d like it. Programs were different every night, every DJ shift. If you were sad, you could find songs to wallow in your misery, or cheer you up. You could be happy, or angry, or frustrated, or lonely – the radio would be there.

When I got to college, I found a job as a disc jockey and engineer at my campus radio station. Not quite as glorious as WLUP-FM, and I certainly didn’t sound like the DJs of my youth. As it turns out, most jocks have that great voice thanks to a couple packs of cigarettes a day…the more tar, and the less filter, the better.

But I had a great time anyway. I was thrilled just to imagine that someone, however small the audience, was out there listening to me and anticipating what I was going to play next. I even liked giving away two tickets to see the Violent Femmes to caller #12.

As a kid, the radio was there for me to enhance the emotions I was going through. Based on the number of songs about the radio & disc jockeys, a lot of people’s lives were similarly affected and inspired.

As a poker player, I don’t want my music to do the same thing. I play best at an emotional center. If I’m down, I don’t need to wallow in it, because I’ll just sit there and think the worst about every spot, and not be aggressive enough. I need to pick myself up. If I’m ready to punch a hole in the wall, I don’t need music to pump me even higher, because I’m likely to just uncontrollably spew off my chips with Q-high. I need to mellow out.

My music selection has to be at a complimentary wavelength.

The problem is, for most people, our home music libraries are fairly small (mine, as you can guess, isn’t). If you ask someone who their 20 favorite records or bands are, you’ll likely get about 75% or more in the same genre. This makes it difficult to be complimentary. If the heavy metal fan needs to get jacked up for a session, he’s got it covered with Megadeth, Lamb of God, Pantera and Avenged Sevenfold. What if he needs something slower, quieter, and less confrontational?

What you need is the right DJ, someone tuned to your emotional needs. On commercial radio today, most stations are highly segmented, even in the biggest markets. If you live in a small town, you’re stuck. I was driving through central Louisiana last week, and a quick scan of the FM dial found three Country stations, two Gospel and a Tejano. Not quite what I needed to pick me up and keep me focused for a long-haul highway cruise.

If you like having music playing during your sessions (as I do), and you don’t have satellite radio, you should seriously think about it. You may already have satellite radio and not know; both DirecTV and Dish Network offer music channels from Sirius/XM. There is something amongst the huge variety for almost anyone. Top 40 hits from each decade from the 1940s to the 2000s, a dozen rock stations, bunches of country, jazz, dance, classical. Whatever you need, it’s there.

The trick, as with good driving music, is to find something which can you listen to and enjoy without it being overly distracting. Your brainpower needs to be used for poker, not for diving deeply into the structure and meaning of complicated music. Much of my library stays on the shelf when I play cards, just because I don’t want to devote my focus to the intricacies of Stravinsky or Ornette Coleman or Frank Zappa.

If you’d like some recommendations from someone who used to make recommendations every Tuesday & Thursday, and even got people calling to thank him on rare occasion –

• Re-learn the classics. Some of the best pop and rock songs ever written have long since been relegated to the upper end of the AM dial, on “golden oldie” stations programmed for the World War II generation. I was stuck in traffic in Kansas City over the holidays, and stopped on a station because I hadn’t heard “Little Old Lady From Pasadena” by Jan & Dean in forever – I’ve liked that song since seeing the “Dead Man’s Curve” made-for-TV movie when I was a kid.

I ended up listening to that station for almost 90 minutes. I don’t think I knew another song very well, but I absolutely loved everything I heard. The simple concepts of melody and harmony really strike a nerve n a day-and-age when the majority of pop music is vocoded & Auto-Tuned to death (if they bother with a tune at all).

This is true not only of pop and rock, but country music as well. My wife grew up on bluegrass, Hank Williams Sr. (with whom her grandfather claimed to have run moonshine in West Virginia…but he claimed a lot of things), and George Jones. She has all kinds of agitated discussions with her “crossover country” friends who think the genre started with Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks.

• Try the instrumental form. I grew up with jazz around my house, so I’m used to the concept of thoughts and emotions being expressed without a lyric. Saxophonist Sonny Rollins, when asked about improvisation and picking what notes and phrases to play, said, “I just play the words.”

Unfortunately, attempts to press the envelope in jazz have left much of it being somewhat intimidating and unapproachable. Start with material that is straightforward, yet well executed and thoughtful (no Kenny G, no Dave Koz). The relative novice can’t go wrong starting with Pat Metheny, David Sanborn, Dave Grusin & Lee Ritenour, and Chick Corea. Visit the history of the genre with Louie Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, and Glenn Miller.

From there, introduce yourself to Mr. Miles Davis, who is probably my favorite artist to listen to when I’m playing cards, and pretty much most other times in my life.

• Let your hips move a little bit. I’m a really terrible dancer (as my wife will attest), but I like danceable music. If you need something to mellow you out, reggae has a tremendous groove, which can pass the hours at the table. Pretty much every has heard of Bob Marley, but I also recommend Jimmy Cliff, Toots & the Maytals, Black Uhuru, Burning Spear, and Yellowman.

If you need more of an aggressive pick-me-up, there is a wide variety of techno music out there. I would stay away from “trance” and some of the other rave music…the idea is to keep your brain active, not to listen to something designed to overwhelm it. But everything else can, and should, be fair game.

Obviously, the most important thing is to find something you like. But a good poker player is adaptable, to “like” various styles of play based on how they feel and what their opponents offer them. Give yourself a chance to like something new on the radio. You may surprise yourself.

So, until next time, keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars….

A “long-distance dedication” goes out to PocketFiver phipsi04, for suggesting this topic.

-grapsfan

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