“It’s about sitting on new friends’ porches in the early morning. It’s about those quiet times when no one feels like talking and just passing out or staring out the window and thinking,” he says. “The easiness of the South.”

To give you a glimmer of the Lesser Birds’ sound, critics alternately described 2004’s String of Bees as the type of music you want to paper your apartment with, a nap in a warm blanket, and laid-back porch pop. We caught them downtown at Tritone last summer, and were mesmerized by the shimmering mountain mist conjured up from the ether.

Lucky for us, Greg and fellow Lesser Birds Mark Janka and Tim Joyce are heading back into town to play The Fire with local favorites Like Moving Insects and Adam Acuragi on Aug. 4.

Meanwhile, even if there’s no roadside produce, Jaybird pit stops or Waffle house breakfast runs in your future this summer, don’t worry - the living is still easy. Slide into the passenger seat and let a Jersey boy by way of Midwest score your sweet-tea soundtrack to the South.

• There’s Hell in Hello But More in Goodbye, Jim O’Rourke (Bad Timing)
Jim O’Rourke is pretty flawless if you ask me. This is one my favorite guitar lines ever, and I love how the song starts out with it right away at full speed. There is no buildup to it, it just starts in. This is the song for when you first get into the van in the morning and are still waking up. It’s easy listening. 9:38 of easy listening, especially after two minutes in when he just settles into a drone with some spare notes here and there, slowly building the pieces back together at the conclusion.

• Big Star Baby, Mojave 3 (Puzzles Like You)
A pop song to wake us up. This one would seem to work best driving through Florida for me. Can a Brit in love with California make songs for a drive through the south? They can when the song has that pedal steel moaning throughout. This song begs for the hot sun of a late afternoon.

• Stack O’Lee, Mississippi John Hurt (Avalon Blues)
Mississippi John Hurt is one of those guys I wouldn’t know unless we went on tour. When you have room for 8000 songs on your iPod and two other band mates to help you fill it, you get exposure to lots of music you’ve never heard. A story of two drunks who get in a fight, one steals the others hat, the other shoots and kills him in return.
Don’t mess with a man’s hat.

• Love in Vain, The Rolling Stones (Let It Bleed)
For me, much better than the Robert Johnson original (is that sacrilege?).

• Running, Returning, Akron/Family (Akron/Family)
Cause we kind of need a louder song to wake us up, we’ve been driving for a few hours now and the sun is beating down through the windshield and knocking us out. I love the banjo and the percussion on this song, which might be a mash-up of some drums, some foot stomps and some handclaps. Another song like the Jim O’Rourke song that starts out loud and pounding and dissolves in the end into this little sing-a-long with la la’s and more banjo.

• Sligo River Blues, John Fahey (Blind Joe Death)
The first time I heard John Fahey (or that I knew I was hearing Fahey) was on a drive out of Athens, GA. We decided to take the rural route to Florida instead of the interstates. That is all I can picture when I hear this song. Country roads and peach stands. I love how slowly he moves along with this guitar line. He’s in no hurry, he’s just rolling along down the road (or maybe a river in a little raft?). He has no cares in the world (that’s probably not true, but it sounds that way).

• Heart of Gold, Neil Young (Harvest)
One of those songs I always remember from family car trips when I was a kid, which were usually through the South. It was always on the radio. I’m a sucker for good pedal steel and harmonica, and the drums on Harvest are probably, to me, the best sounding recording of drums ever. That’s how drums should sound. Warm and punchy with just a little bit of that beating on a cardboard box sound.

• Strolling Down the Highway, Bert Jansch (Bert Jansch)
We can spend a long day in a van. Eventually we all just need to shut up and look out the window and let the mind wander. The road as vehicle to reflection.

• All the Way from East St. Louis, Mississippi Fred McDowell, (Arhoolie, Vol. 2)
Fred probably just sitting on his porch plucking away at his guitar.
I could see myself sitting on a porch all day sipping whiskey listening to Fred McDowell if I lived in the South (or really owned any house with a nice front porch).

• Stolen Car, Bruce Springsteen (The River)
Because no mix about the road is true without Springsteen. This ends the mix and ends the day. It’s late at night and we have a few hours to drive still. I love how much reverb is on this song. This is a song my friends in Zelienople should cover. Those muted drums are beautiful. This song can only be listened to late at night in complete darkness.

You can check out the music of the Lesser Birds of Paradise at www.myspace.com/thelesserbirdsofparadise and www.lesserbirds.com.