Collophone February

The muses from last month:

The Shins, Oh, Inverted World;
Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues;
The Flatlanders, Wheels of Fortune;
Indigo Girls, Poseiden and the Bitter Bug;
The Hooblers, I Hate Folk Singers;
Tracy Chapman, Collection;
Kacey Anderson, The Reckoning;
Dave Mason, Alone Together;
Fred Eaglesmith, 50 Odd Dollars;
Arthur Dodge & the Horsefeathers, Nervous Habit;
Bob Dylan, Nashville Skyline.

Those are my long-tail recommendations for February. Not your usual fare, but all come highly recommended. Enjoy.

Now for all you pedants out there, I'm sure you are wondering about the title of this entry. You won't find that word in the dictionary. I made it up. Yes, I took the liberty and just made it up. That's how language works, if you want it to.

For those of you who may be compiling a dictionary: the collo- part is from "collection" and the -phone part is, well, obvious. Therefore, it is a collection of music that is listened to for a particular purpose, such as marking assignments, writing blogs, or watching sunrises/sets (depending on your inclination).

An example: say, you're marking papers and pacing yourself with some tunes. You'd like to let your students know what was moving you while you were marking, so you want to give them the list. Instead of entitling the list something like "This is the Music I was Listening to while Marking Your Papers", you could use something much more efficient like "Collophone: Assignment 1".

It's a labor-saver, I know. You're welcome.