Traveling Music

In a few days we leave for another vacation in the Smoky Mountains. As per usual, I am in charge of the music for our trip. This year I'm not bringing many CDs with me as I've decided to just use the ipod. I know, I've complained about the ipod ruining the music industry (which may or may not be a bad thing depending on how you look at it) for years, and I still maintain the sound quality is sub-par. However, my ipod is loaded from CDs I already own, and I only bought it to use on road trips because it's much easier and neater than bringing 30 compact discs with me.

Anyway, in preparation for this trip I cleared the ipod and started fresh by downloading a crapload of stuff into my itunes, making lots of playlists and downloading the playlists into my ipod. That process was harder than just loading up a bunch of songs and letting it go, but it did make me be a little more selective about the songs. I had to keep in mind that it's not just for me this time (hence the absence of most of my punk and metal collection) and so I put on some things specifically for Valerie. Don't get me wrong, I had to approve all choices of artist and I got to pick which songs were used, but I still compromised quite a bit for someone who's such a music Nazi.

So for those interested, here's a list of all the artists that will be keeping us company on our road trip(in alphabetical order as listed on the ipod). I had intended on publishing the playlists themselves, but this project has taken much longer than anticipated, so this will have to do.

Alice Cooper, Alice In Chains, American Hi-Fi, Audioslave, The Band, The Beatles, Billy Joel, Billy Squier, Bruce Springsteen, Buddy Holly, The Buzzcocks, The Cars, Charlie Daniels Band, Cheap Trick, Chely Wright, Chickenfoot, The Clash, Corinne Bailey Rae, Cracker, Creedence Clearwater Revival, David Bowie, The Derailers, The Drams, Drive-By Truckers, The Eagles, Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis Costello, Elvis Presley, Eric Clapton, Faith Hill, Foo Fighters, Frank Sinatra, The Fratellis, The Gaslight Anthem, Genesis, George Harrison, George Jones, Gin Blossoms, The Go-Gos. The Goo Goo Dolls, Hacienda Brothers, Hank Williams, Hank Williams III, Hayes Carll, Huey Lewis and The News (go ahead, lie and tell me you don't love it), INXS, The Jayhawks, Jerry Lee Lewis, Joe Cocker, John Lennon, Johnny Cash, Julianne Hough, Kaiser Chiefs, Kings Of Leon, The Kinks, KT Tunstall, Lee Ann Womack, Live, Merle Haggard, Mr. Big, Old 97's, Pat Benatar, Pearl Jam, Pixies, Queen, R.E.M., The Ramones, Reverend Horton Heat, The Rolling Stones, Rush, Sara Evans, Sheryl Crow, Shooter Jennings, The Smithereens, Soul Asylum, Soundgarden, Squeeze, Steely Dan, Stone Temple Pilots, Stray Cats, Superdrag, Supersuckers, T. Rex, Tift Merritt, Tinted Windows, The Toadies, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Traveling Wilburys, U2, Van Halen, Waylon Jennings, The Who, and Willie Nelson.

Once again, the alphabetical listings are as they appear on the ipod. Wow. You'd think the geniuses over at Apple would have at least sixth grade English skills. Oh well.

Now go make your own mix.