Playlist help!

August 13, 2010 10:52 PM

Playlist help: 40-something mom's relaxed birthday brunch.

I'm throwing a relaxed potluck brunch in honor of my mother, in order to be a Good Daughter. She's in her mid-late forties, as will be most of the friends attending.

It'll be pretty much hanging around and talking, but I'd like to burn a few CDs of appropriate music, just for the background.

She doesn't listen to a lot of music (mostly NPR around here) but when she does, it's usually world music, like Amadou & Mariam or Putamayo type stuff. I'll try to sort through those for appropriate music, but does anyone have suggestions of things she and her friends would like? It's really more to set a relaxed tone than to actively listen to, so it doesn't need to be super-specific to her tastes.

I'm 17 and I have no idea about that sort of thing so help greatly appreciated!

posted by R a c h e l to Media & Arts (17 answers total)

At your mother's age, she may have listened to Deep Forest back in the day.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:12 PM on August 13, 2010

Ali Farka Toure also has some music that is easy to listen to but is also complex and interesting.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:15 PM on August 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

maybe you can make a Pandora station using the music you know she already likes, and play that.
posted by bearette at 11:44 PM on August 13, 2010

Norah Jones?
posted by bluedaisy at 12:03 AM on August 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Make a Pandora station (*cultivate*) and pay for the no-ad version. Will be much easier, better and cheaper.

I find joy in cultivating a good station.
posted by k8t at 12:17 AM on August 14, 2010

Any of the So Frenchy So Chics. You can check them out on iTunes or buy them from Amazon.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 12:49 AM on August 14, 2010

k8t's suggestion of seeding a Pandora station with her favorite music is a good one. Also, Ali and Toumani is a really good world music jazz album. It's relaxed and beautiful.
posted by bluefly at 3:48 AM on August 14, 2010

Oops, KokuRyu already recommended Ali! But Toumani Diabete also is a fine musician.
posted by bluefly at 3:51 AM on August 14, 2010

There's a series of compilations called "Buddha Bar" that work really well as background music.
posted by backwards guitar at 4:26 AM on August 14, 2010

An alternative with a playful twist is Nouvelle Vague, light and sweet female vocals which cover a number of punk songs that some may recognize.
posted by megatherium at 4:44 AM on August 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Pink Martini, perhaps?
posted by aintthattheway at 5:59 AM on August 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Big yes to Nouvelle Vague; your mother may also like Tinariwen, if she isn't already familiar with them. Oh and I'd be thrilled if my son organized something like this.
posted by HandfulOfDust at 6:09 AM on August 14, 2010

Early Earl Klugh, Heartstrings, Rayna...pretty much anything with a woman's name as the title.
posted by Mertonian at 7:59 AM on August 14, 2010

Ha, I too was going to suggest Nouvelle Vague.
posted by salvia at 8:04 AM on August 14, 2010

I'm 46 and have all every radio in the house turned to NPR.

The Eyes Of Amelia by Eric Tingstad & Nancy Rumbel

Anything named after a woman by Earl Klugh

An Ending/Ascent by Brian and Roger Eno (this was the PBS theme for one season a few years ago)

Fly Me to the Moon by Astrud Gilberto
posted by Mertonian at 8:32 AM on August 14, 2010

Anything by Diana Krall and/or Bebel Gilberto. Perhaps Gotan Project and/or Melody Gardot. And the soundtracks to "Amélie", "Chocolat" and "Sideways".
posted by iviken at 2:12 PM on August 14, 2010

Try the album *A Meeting By the River,* with Ry Cooder and V.M. Bhatt. Anything by Habib Koite (musician from Mali) is also great.
posted by chicainthecity at 2:32 PM on August 14, 2010