My favorite tunes from A to Z (Jaguardog's w/o)

Jul 04 '05 (Updated Oct 24 '05)    Write an essay on this topic.


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The Bottom Line Music is good. I like good music.

Woah, it's taken a long time to put this together, even if I don't say much about each artist. I grew up with folk music and started enjoying rock, jazz and classical in my high school and college years. This collection is pretty eclectic. Some of these are artists only. Some are songs. Some are albums or CDs. I hope you find something interesting in this rather long list.

A
Allman Brothers Live at the Fillmore East
Altan (trad. Irish music)
Amazing Rhythm Aces: Too Stuffed to Jump
Louis Armstrong: What a Wonderful World

B
Greg Brown: The Poet Game; Covenant; Further In (I think Greg Brown is the best American songwriter since John Prine)
The Band: Stagefright; The Band (self-titled); Music from Big Pink
Bryan Bowers (autoharp): The View From Home
J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos; all of his organ music; sacred cantatas
Anton Bruchner: Symphony #9
Beethoven: Symphony #5
Jackson Browne: Saturate Before Using; For Everyman
Jimmy Buffett: A1A
Boston

C
Cream: Crossroads (makes even Robert Johnson's version pale); Sunshine of Your Love; White Room
Bruce Cockburn: Circles in the Stream; Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws; Humans; Bruce Cockburn Live
Shawn Colvin: A Few Small Repairs
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: First album (no Young) and Deja Vu
Dan Crary: My favorite bluegrass flatpicking guitarist. His album, Nightrun, with John Hickman and Byron Berline, blows me away, especially their version of Forked Deer.
Eva Cassidy: Songbird
Canned Heat

D
Doors
Nick Drake: Pink Moon
Alex DeGrassi (solo acoustic guitar): Turning/Turning Back; Slow Circle
Bob Dylan: Tangled Up in Blue
Dire Straits
Dixie Chicks: Home
Connie Dover: The Wishing Well
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue

E
Emerson Lake and Palmer: the album with Lucky Man; Pictures at an Exhibition
Eagles: the earliest albums, before Joe Walsh
Enya: Watermark (good relaxation music)

F
Fleetwood Mac: Black Magic Woman (Peter Green wrote the song by that name; Carlos Santana did not); Bare Trees; Mystery to Me; Future Games (less well-known albums, the latter three from the mid-70s)
Front Range (excellent contemporary bluegrass)
Ferron: Driver
Fairport Convention

G
David Grisman: all of his dawg music
Jerry Garcia: all of his solo albums
Grateful Dead: Live Dead; Skull and Roses; American Beauty (Box of Rain and Ripple are amazing); Wake of the Flood; Mars Hotel
Woody Guthrie: he's the original folkie
Vince Gill (I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize. And I'd kill to have Vince Gill's voice. Nobody Answers When I Call Your Name is a modern country classic.)

H
Jimi Hendrix: possibly the most soulful guitarist ever to play
G.F. Handel: Messiah
Michael Hedges (solo acoustic guitar)
Emmylou Harris
Billie Holiday
Robert Hunter (The 'Dead's lyricist for most of Jerry Garcia's songs)

I
Indigo Girls: Closer to Fine

J
Jethro Tull: Stand Up; Aqualung; Heavy Horses; Thick as a Brick
Keith Jarrett (jazz piano): Standards (several recordings with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette)

K
Alison Krauss with Union Station (country/bluegrass): Now That I've Found You, So Long So Wrong, and everything else I've heard so far. The real voice of Man of Constant Sorrow from O Brother Where Art Thou (Dan Tyminski) is in this band.
Kingston Trio (thanks, mom and dad)

L
Lyle Lovett: Lyle Lovett and his Large Band; Pontiac
Little Feat: Waiting for Columbus
Gordon Lightfoot: everything through the mid-'70s
Lata: Melodies of the Queen (Indian film music on traditional instruments), Volume 1

M
Pat Metheny (excellent jazz guitar)
W.A. Mozart: c-minor mass; requiem (I prefer his scared music to his secular music)
Mason Proffit (as good as the Eagles but nobody has heard of them)
Natalie Merchant
Loreena McKennett: The Book of Secrets

N
Harry Nilsson: Nilsson Schmilsson

O
Phil Ochs: Changes

P
Tom Petty: Wildflower
John Prine: First Album (self-titled); Diamonds in the Rough; Sweet Revenge (I think Prine is the best American songwriter since--and maybe including--Dylan)
Poso Seco Singers: If I Were a Carpenter
Pure Prairie League: Bustin' Out
Pentangle: Sweet Child
Tom Paxton

Q
Queen (never owned one of their records but think they were immensely talented and a lot of fun)

R
REM
Bonnie Raitt: Give it Up
Roxy Music: Avalon
Colin Raye: His cover of What if Jesus Comes Back Like That (from I Think About You) is awesome. The song is actually written by Pat Bunch and Doug Johnson. Never heard of 'em. The song tears me apart because a little girl I worked with is in it.
Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band

S
Sublime: Sublime
Cat Stevens: Teaser and the Firecat, Tea for the Tillerman. (Leslie's right: songs like How Can I Tell You, Morning Has Broken and The Wind are absolute classics of the gentle folk genre)
Saint-Saens Symphony #3 (Organ Symphony)
Silly Wizard (trad. Irish music)
Seldom Scene (bluegrass music with a distinctive style)
Gil Scott-Heron
Simon and Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Water
Sweet Honey in the Rock: Good News
Spirit: Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus

T
Richard Thompson: Everything he recorded with Fairport Convention and all of his solo albums; also Shoot Out the Lights, with Linda Thompson
James Taylor: Fire and Rain
Koko Taylor (Chicago's Queen of the Blues)
Toad the Wet Sprocket: Fear
10,000 Maniacs
John and Terry Talbot: No Longer Strangers

U
U2

V
Susanne Vega
Stevie Ray Vaughn: a white boy who could truly play the blues

W
Lucinda Williams: Sweet Old World (I Like it better than Car Wheels on a Gravel Road). (Again I agree with Leslie: Lucinda's version of Nick Drake's Which Will rules.)
Jesse Winchester: first album (self-titled); 3th Down 110 to Go
The Waybacks: Burger After Church

X

Y
Yes: Close to the Edge
Jesse Colin Young: Lightshine
Neil Young: Needle and the Damage Done

Z
Warren Zevon: Excitable Boy; Warren Zevon (self-titled); Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School
Frank Zappa
Zombies: Time of the Season is a riot to sing along with!

Man oh man, what have I forgotten? I reserve the right to add to this list as I shake the stems and seeds out of my old LPs and wipe the dust off of CD cases I could never open without breaking the hinges.

Thanks to JAGUARDOG for hosting this write-off. If you’d like to join in or just read other entries, see: http://www.epinions.com/content_4389118084 .


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