This may be my favorite time of the year. Not only is spring in the air, but this is the time of the year when I get to mow grass and split wood. Joyously I face these simultaneous tasks, knowing that these responsibilities are short-term.

For me, both movements of mowing and mauling invite similar therapy during such physical exercise — the therapy of listening to really good music, really, really loud.

Yesterday, in anticipation of some up-tempo mow tunes, not necessarily Motown, I cruised by the CD section of the Freeland Library to acquire more mow music.

Staring me in the face was one of the old Faces himself, Rod Stewart.

Stewart’s smiling, mop-haired photo, depicting his loosely-tied tie, clasped hands and fish and chip eating grin was on the cover of his fifth volume of “The Great American Songbook,” a musical series he began in 2001 on Clive Davis’ J Records label.

I never really liked Rod Stewart’s voice.

Maybe it was hearing his raspiness too many times during law school, the loneliest three years of my life other than marriage.

C’mon now. How many times can a guy listen to “Maggie Mae?”

I flipped over the CD to see the line-up of songs. Hmmm, “Beyond the Sea.” I always liked Bobby Darin’s version. Maybe with Stewart’s big band and my Yardman mower in the background, Rod would sound OK.

Returning home, I launched cut No. 2, “Beyond the Sea,” on my 1982 Panasonic CD player.

From the opening chords, showcasing the mellow, mixed sounds of the saxes and strings, I was hooked.

Oh my.

What if someone sees me jitterbugging with my mower?

Given the toe-tapping nature of that Darin cover, I started the Sno-Isle library CD from the top, beginning with the first song, “That Old Black Magic.”

Surely Stewart’s version would not have the impassioned energy of Louis Prima and Keely Smith’s recording, wailing with sax man Sam Butera.

Wrong, mulch lips.

Oh my, Part 2.

Stewart’s album continues with the classics which we all love to sing when no one is looking. Cole Porter’s daily double, “ I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “ I Get A Kick Out of You,” Stanley Adams and Maria Grever’s “What a Difference A Day Makes,” and an up-tempo version of Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson’s “Love Me or Leave Me,” which makes me re-think the Doris Day interpretation popularized in her bio-pic of Ruth Etting.

The real clincher for me came when I heard Rod singing “ On The Sunny Side of the Street,” the 11th cut on his CD, “Fly Me To The Moon — The Great American Songbook, Volume V.”

I have this Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields penned song in my record collection by Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, jazzman Jay McShann, Keely Smith, Lionel Hampton, The Pied Pipers and my fave version by Willie Nelson.

Willie’s “On the Sunny Side of the Street” is on his multi-platinum selling Stardust album, the only long-haired music other than Beethoven allowed in our father’s record collection.

Treat yourself to a listen of Rod Stewart’s fifth volume of American standards from his “The Great American Songbook” series.

I promise that I will have the CD back in our library system by the time you read this.