Sony Classical recently released a series of Drive Time CDs, including one for Route 66. Here’s a description of the album:
ROUTE 66. It’s the all-American drive — America’s Main Street, the “mother road” of Easy Rider. Route 66 stretches some 2,400 miles across the vastness of the American West, from Chicago to California. For generations, it was the “way west” for family vacations and serious road trips, where the ride through a timeless, fabulous landscape was punctuated by motels, diners and the exuberant, retro world of mid-century travel. Drive Time – Route 66 is pure Americana, from the evocative “Sunrise” of Ferde Grofe”s Grand Canyon Suite and the heartland sound of Aaron Copland to the macho swagger of classic film themes from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, High Noon and The Magnificent Seven. This is “big sky” music, sprawling and freewheeling, that also highlights the stark beauty and unmistakable feel of the American West.
Here is the track listing:
4. Hoe-Down from Rodeo (Four Dance Episodes)
5. Cattle (I Ride An Old Paint) from The Plow that Broke the Plains
6. Morning on the Ranch from The Red Pony Film Suite for Orchestra
7. Overture from The Alamo
8. Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (Titles) from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
9. The Old Chisholm Trail from Horizon
10. The Ecstasy of Gold from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
11. Introduction: The Open Prairie from Billy the Kid
12. On the Trail from Grand Canyon Suite
13. Fanfare for the Common Man (Version of Symphony No. 3, Fourth Movement)
14. Theme from Route 66
15. Happy Trails
The series also has CDs inspired by the Pacific Coast Highway, Blue Ridge Parkway and the Autobahn.
Call me skeptical, but I can’t imagine a Route 66 adventure without a more populist soundtrack, like Buck Owens, Woody Guthrie, Beach Boys, Bob Wills, Stax-Volt soul, Red Dirt Rangers, to name a few.