I have just started playing a dulcimer so I can sit on the porch and pick out my own folk tunes with a pipe in my mouth. Good times! I'm not very good, but that isn't what matters to me... Is what I say to myself.
If I'm am listening to something while smoking a pipe it is normally a youtube pipe smoking video or podcast. If it was music, it would be jazz, preferably non-vocal, or classical.
I listen mostly to instrumental jazz and big band when enjoying a pipe. Henry Mancini, Dave Brubeck, Billy Vaughn, Kenny Ball and Bert Kaemfert to name a few. Pete Fountain is mighty good pipe music as well.
To the folks who mentioned Jazz...yah. I am in that august group. When I work, I stream about five of the 15 or so Pandora stations I've programmed...some very eclectic, some needle-sharp focused. All are jazz-based. From Big Band Jazz through Smooth and Contemporary. Doesn't matter...
I usually prefer silence/nature, but when I want music my go to albums are Miles Davis' Kind of Blue or Bill Evans' You Must Believe In Spring. Bob Dylan is pretty good too, thought provoking tunes. I occasionally put on some Gregorian chant when I'm in a contemplative mood.
It's the holiday season and relatively cold for SE Louisiana so I've been sitting in the garage for the past week or so smoking so of the seasonal tobacco and listening to classic and traditional Christmas music.
As long as the music is good and the tobacco is good. I'm not too particular. I don't have to be smoking a particular blend while listening to a certain style of music. Enjoying pipe and good music simultaneously just marries well.
As my screen name might suggest, blues is my go to music. It's great for relaxing with a pipe. Also, @PappyJoe, thank you for suggesting The Roadhouse podcast. I'll definitely be giving that a listen. I have noticed that a lot of you guys like folk or easygoing music to accompany your smoke and I have to agree. Bob Dylan, Jim Croce, Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, or Crosby, Stills, & Nash are good choices for me. Soul music works too.
And now...for this month...Music of the season...including Trans-Siberian Orchestra (rock/traditional, Salsoul Orchestra (disco/TSOP), Mannheim Steamroller (eclectic), a couple of surf-bands, heavy metal and, of course, jazz covers.
You haven't LIVED until you hear either the disco version or heavy metal versions of Little Drummer Boy...which, IMHO, is one of the most blighted songs EVER to be written...
I switch based on time of day and weather. My mornings are always prince albert with the Casey Kasem countdown station on iHeart radio. You never know what year they will be on, I have had countdowns from 1971 and other times it is 1987 but I do like and miss the coast to coast radio broadcast. I also go for the Italian American classics-Sinatra, Dino, Frankie, and all the others usually later in the day. Now if it is raining or snowing I simply sit and listen to the storm-no music needed!
I'm a semi-retired musician and music has always been a big part of my life so I'm a bit picky when it comes to what I listen to. And my preference whether smoking a pipe or not is progressive rock - for the uninitiated it's a combination of rock and classical - examples would be bands like YES, Genesis, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues and a whole lot of others from a variety of countries. I don't even mind when bands sing in their native tongue. I have tons of bands from Italy, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Hungary, Japan - any country where there are progressive rock musicians making and recording music. Lets be honest, half the time it's hard to understand what some vocalist are saying anyway, so as long as they sound good I don't mind. But my preference is instrumental progressive music, which was the type of music I composed when recording under the moniker Ghosts Of Pompeii. It's easier to let your thoughts drift while listening to instrumental music and enjoying a bowl of your favorite tobacco.
And for that reason my second favorite music to listen too while smoking is movie soundtracks. And by one composer in particular - Bernard Herrmann. You may not recognize the name but I'm sure you've heard his music from Hitchcock films like "North By Northwest", "Psycho", "Vertigo", "The Man Who Knew Too Much"; fantasy films like "Mysterious Island", "Journey To The Center Of The Earth", "The Three Worlds Of Gulliver", "The Day The Earth Stood Still", "It's Alive", "The Ghost And Mrs. Muir", "Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad", "Jason And The Argonauts", "Fahrenheit 451"; and film classics like "Citizen Kane", "The Devil And Daniel Webster", "Jane Eyre", "Taxi Driver", and "Hangover Square" to name a few.
And like fellow piper 'abcbill', I too enjoy Mannhiem Steamroller's Fresh Aire series of eclectic New Age albums, as well as the German electronic synth band Tangerine Dream. All great music to listen to while puffing on a pipe.
@mfresa great choice! String Quartet No. 14, C-Charp Minor. Personal favorite, I had to play it in high school. The same song that was used in the Band of Brothers TV movie series. Absolutely haunting and terrific all at once. The whole song is not like that.
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Bob Dylan is pretty good too, thought provoking tunes.
I occasionally put on some Gregorian chant when I'm in a contemplative mood.
Also, @PappyJoe, thank you for suggesting The Roadhouse podcast. I'll definitely be giving that a listen.
I have noticed that a lot of you guys like folk or easygoing music to accompany your smoke and I have to agree. Bob Dylan, Jim Croce, Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, or Crosby, Stills, & Nash are good choices for me.
Soul music works too.
I'm a semi-retired musician and music has always been a big part of my life so I'm a bit picky when it comes to what I listen to. And my preference whether smoking a pipe or not is progressive rock - for the uninitiated it's a combination of rock and classical - examples would be bands like YES, Genesis, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues and a whole lot of others from a variety of countries. I don't even mind when bands sing in their native tongue. I have tons of bands from Italy, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Hungary, Japan - any country where there are progressive rock musicians making and recording music. Lets be honest, half the time it's hard to understand what some vocalist are saying anyway, so as long as they sound good I don't mind. But my preference is instrumental progressive music, which was the type of music I composed when recording under the moniker Ghosts Of Pompeii. It's easier to let your thoughts drift while listening to instrumental music and enjoying a bowl of your favorite tobacco.
And for that reason my second favorite music to listen too while smoking is movie soundtracks. And by one composer in particular - Bernard Herrmann. You may not recognize the name but I'm sure you've heard his music from Hitchcock films like "North By Northwest", "Psycho", "Vertigo", "The Man Who Knew Too Much"; fantasy films like "Mysterious Island", "Journey To The Center Of The Earth", "The Three Worlds Of Gulliver", "The Day The Earth Stood Still", "It's Alive", "The Ghost And Mrs. Muir", "Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad", "Jason And The Argonauts", "Fahrenheit 451"; and film classics like "Citizen Kane", "The Devil And Daniel Webster", "Jane Eyre", "Taxi Driver", and "Hangover Square" to name a few.
And like fellow piper 'abcbill', I too enjoy Mannhiem Steamroller's Fresh Aire series of eclectic New Age albums, as well as the German electronic synth band Tangerine Dream. All great music to listen to while puffing on a pipe.