Favorite moment with music in your car.

Around 10:00 am on a beautiful day in the summer of 2011 on one of our 4 swings out west to national parks, driving through Wyoming with no one in sight and no cell service, I find a radio station who plays Old Cheyenne by Ian Tyson. I'm not a fan of country music, but I immediately recognize how good this song is. If you've never heard it, I highly recommend it because it might just make you want to be a cowboy or maybe not if you hear what happened to Charlie.

Mid 90's in a black 94 T-Bird, I pulled the worst OEM poor excuse for a stereo out of the dash, and began a custom install. In the dash went an Alpine cd player, 5 1/4 ADS separates in the front doors, 5 1/4 Audax co-axes in the rear side panels, and two Seas 10" woofers in a sealed box in the trunk. The amp was an ADS 630x driving four channels up front, and two channels bridged driving the subs. With all that work, the midrange was mud. I went back to the selling dealer, and he swapped out the Alpine for another of the same. The mud remained. The $500 Mitsubishi was no better. Then I listened to a Pioneer Premier CD player, AHHHHHHH! The rest is history! 

We did a trip to Memphis and Graceland a few years back and the music on the way got us primed. In addition to the album Graceland, John Fogerty’s “Blue Moon Swamp” got our Hot Rod Hearts racing.

Way back in college, during a summer geology field course in Montana, The B52s and Bob Markey’s Rastaman Vibration cranking in the school van  was background music for some great times out in the wilderness.

I got my driver license @ the beginning of 1971.

Aside from 8 track tapes of "A space in Time", Almond Brother's @ the Fillmore, Johnny Winter,  Santana, Procal Harem et cetera I have fond memories of listening to Beaker Street late @ night while returning from concerts in neighboring cities, states and Canada.

I recall receiving it clearly as far North as 100 miles into Canada during a major rain storm (ended up staying there after attending a concert in St. Paul, MN. as opposed to a grueling drive back to Des Moines).

The people we were staying with (met them @ the concert) said that they had never picked the station up near their home before.

Think is was the same station (maybe not) but I also recall "the night tripper" along with a repeated segment of trippy music - though not certain if it was Dr. John.

DeKay

Sorry, not in a car, not even involving a stereo.  But I'm posting anyway.

My remember-forever moment came at a live listening experience. The Saratoga Performing Arts Center hosted the Philadelphia Orchestra every summer when I was younger and one season, Ormandy scheduled a concert with the group Oregon.

I still remember the band playing "Distant Hills" on stage with the Philadelphians. A beautiful rendition of a composition so well suited for orchestration. And the stunning, open-air acoustics of the SPAC amphitheater also certainly played a part in the quality of the experience.

But my personal key moment came toward the end, as the piece was slowly building to a climax, when a solo trumpet unexpectedly assumed the main melodic line. It’s impossible for a forum posting to truly convey the emotion impact of that moment -- the perfect phrasing and timbre, the expressiveness of the arrangement -- sorry. I still get carried away. I still mourn the fact that these shows were not, to my knowledge, recorded.

Today, even after 35 years, whenever I play Oregon’s "Distant Hills" album on my stupidly expensive stereo, I’m always reminded of that sublime moment. The studio recording is beautiful enough, especially when reproduced on a high-end system. But nothing will ever equal that live experience.