Kenny Baker, “Frost on the Pumpkin”

Look, it’s October. We’re well into it, really. It’s the season of leaf-peeping, big and cozy sweaters, apple-flavored everything, and complaining about those who do or don’t enjoy a pumpkin spice coffee drink. But somehow, here at BGS South in Nashville and across the country from Oakland to Chicago to Miami the oppressive heat and generally obstinate weather of summer refuses to cede its ground to bonfires, apple pies, and hayrides.

So, while we wait for the ever-warming climate to give in, allowing us perhaps one or two enjoyable weeks of late-harvest vegetables, dazzling colors, warm waning light, and a slight nip in the air (before a brown, muddy winter), Kenny Baker’s “Frost on the Pumpkin” will have to get us in the mood. It’s like an immersive auditory candle, bringing our favorite time of year wafting on the swampy, 90 degree breeze. It reminds of a barn dance, insulated with bales of straw and heated with warm, dancing bodies — and maybe some whiskey in the cider and nog.

After all, what’s more autumnal than a resonant, warm, ruddy-sounding fiddle, played at the perfect happy-medium dancing speed by one of the most down home, soulful pickers to ever pick up a bow? Well, actual autumn might be. But for now, “Frost on the Pumpkin” will have to suffice. And if, wherever you are, this tune isn’t just a harbinger of our favorite season, but a soundtrack, will you send some of that crisp air our way? We could use a little frost on our pumpkins…