iTunes Shuffle
- Barricades & Brickwalls – Kasey Chambers
- Mastermind – Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
- No Regrets – Emmylou Harris
- (I Love the Sound of) Breaking Glass – Nick Lowe
- If I Had a Hammer – the Blind Boys of Alabama
- Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright – Bob Dylan (Live at the Gaslight 1962 version)
- West Texas Waltz – Emmylou Harris
- Hey Joe (Live) – Jimi Hendrix Experience
- My Jesus, I Love Thee – Amy Grant
- Both Sides of the Gun – Ben Harper
- Hard Road – Kasey Chambers
- Honey Don’t – Carl Perkins
- Listen to the Mockingbird – The Kentucky Colonels
- Night – Bruce Springsteen
- Come On, Pt. 1 – Jimi Hendrix Experience
- I Need Your Love So Bad – Buddy Guy
I’m often astounded at what my iTunes shuffles reveal about my listening habits and moods. For instance, I have been aware how much I love female musical artists these days. Lucinda Williams, Grace Potter, Kasey Chambers, Emmylou, Nanci Griffith, Allison Krauss, Allison Moorer, Shelby Lynne, Kelly Willis, Aretha Franklin, Bonnie Raitt, Etta James and others are among my very favorites. There was a time back in the 80s that I was a bit of a musical sexist with an affinity for only a select few female musicians.
My father-in-law said it well one time, though. He said he would rather listen to Emmylou Harris sing Here, There and Everywhere than the Beatles because, "if someone is going to sing me a love song I’d rather it be Emmylou than Paul." Dude had a point.
It’s interesting to have Amy Grant sing a hymn sandwiched between the dark humor of Hey Joe and the politically charged Both Sides of the Gun, and yet I’m deeply passionate about Jesus, politics and humor.
The thing that’s not really surprising though is that almost all of the music listed is guitar-oriented rock, blues and Americana. I love almost anything in which the primary instrument is guitar, whether it’s the strummed acoustic and crying pedal steel of No Regrets, the fierce electrified Weissenborn of Ben Harper, the jacked-up Telecaster of Springsteen, or Jimi Hendrix’ reckless Strat abuse. I’m not really into metal, Nu-Metal (with its ridiculous Cookie Monster vocals), or the indulgent wankery of Jazz and shred.
This shuffle was a great listen.
