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My 5-year-old daughter has shown a recent interest in America.  She’s always had some sense of place, very early on behaving very patriotically to the city we live in, Milwaukie. Now that that sense of place has expanded, she will sometimes walk around the house chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A!”

Spurred on by a DVD set of old Schoolhouse Rock videos that I bought for her, she also likes to act quite knowledgeable about American history, and seemed interested in learning more.

She has an old iPod of mine, hooked up to speakers in her bedroom, which she listens to at bedtime, so I got the idea that — since we’ve brought her up listening to a wide variety of music with very little wimpy kid-targeted stuff in there — I would make her a playlist of songs that I felt were important to or had something to say about America.

Of course, the way I tend to autistically throw myself into projects like this, it quickly became clear that I had way too many good songs to choose from, so I began dividing them into themes, and eventually came up with 5 playlists ranging in length from 1.5 to 2.5 hours each:

1. American Origins: Songs from or set in the first two and half centuries of America
2. American Century: Songs covering the general narrative of 20th century America
3. American Change: Songs of American protest and progress
4. American Road: Songs about traveling through America or specific places therein
5. American Tunes: Songs that describe different feelings in, of or about America

I founda lot of stuff that new to me, rediscovered some old stuff I’ve overlooked, and got a fuller picture of what I love about America during the process, and, needless to say, I listen to these playlists more than my daughter does. I’m not totally settled on these lists, however (especially #4, which has weak spots and glaring holes, and songs that I will one day slap my forehead and wonder how I didn’t think of them in the first place), so if any one wants to comment new ideas or make fun of my taste in music, feel free.

I’ll include each list separately in subsequent posts.

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