High school. While my friends were getting ready for prom, I was B-lining it to a farm pond in Southern Maryland to get after largemouth bass. There’s a good chance I could guess what music I was listening to that night. Likewise, on all of those trips from D.C. to West Virginia to wet wade for smallmouth, it was with certainty that most trips included some Springsteen, James Taylor, Strangefolk, and the recently released, Live at Red Rocks album from the Dave Matthews Band that was my introduction to the jam band genre of music that I am now almost your stereotypical junkie for.

College. While everyone was recovering from the night before and the night before that, I was often wide awake and tearing through mountain roads on the way to some of the finest Colorado trout rivers. The soundtrack: Phish’s Farmhouse album (which was my step two to jam band obsession), Jupiter Coyote’s double live album, The Samples, Springsteen, and a range of other artists.

Now that I am getting ready to head back to my old Colorado stomping grounds, I’ve noticed I’m listening to a lot of live music from Phish’s Farmhouse, including, Piper, Sand, Dirt, Sleep, and other tunes that frequently accompanied me on my Rocky Mountain journeys. And with that in mind, it occurred to me that after a road trip to Montana a few years ago in which I had Widespread Panic’s Panic in the Streets on repeat, many mountain fly fishing road trips now include that album on full blast at some point along the way.

It’s interesting that throughout periods in one’s life, those eras connect to certain music. And then when similar experiences are revisited, the music comes back with it. Looking forward to Colorado next week … and Farmhouse.