Top Ten Favorite Songs...

Oh my my, this is downright impossible. I'm afraid to pick a list because I will be leaving out so many wonderful ones. How can I choose? What makes a song meaningful to me? Where I was at when i heard it? What the song has taught me? How a song has the power to make me dance no matter what kind of mood I'm in? How the song enriches my life? Ugh. I need a hundred songs, not ten. However, I will do my very best. This list will probably barely scratch the surface, but I will try my best. They are in no particular order.

1.) Tori Amos- Precious Things "No one dared, no one cared to tell me where the pretty girls are. Those demi gods, with their nine inch nails and little fascist panties tucked inside the heart of every nice girl." The first time I heard this song, it genuinely resonated within my being. Her seething and yet gorgeous vocals, the racing piano. It was bold. Innovative. She was bringing light to something that I had never heard someone talk about in a song before. Not like that. It was powerful and honest and I still love it. I felt like someone was on my side. I don't want to over romanticize, and I'm not the biggest fan of some of Tori's later work. (I pretty much stopped at 'Scarlett's Walk' which is also a beautiful album)but as a hurting and confused girl, Little Earthquakes helped me through my entire adolescence. I revist it now and then and I still believe every song on that album is timeless.

2.) Old 97's- Four Leaf Clover "I've got a four leaf clover, but it aint done one single lick of good. I'm still a drunk. I'm still a loser living in a lousy neighborhood." It is difficult to choose just one song on this album, but if I had to pick one it would be this track. I love this duet. It is incredible! The first time I heard this song I was about 18. I had just gotten my own place and this band was introduced to me by my best friend. I really liked it, but this is one of those albums that grew on me. I didn't fully appreciate it until I saw them perfom live. The self loathing, the dirty guitars, the drum line, the raw vocals and broken poetry...it gets under your skin and stays there.

3.) The Beatles- Because "Because the sky is blue, it makes me cry." How do I choose just one? I need a separate list just for Beatles songs. However, Because has always been one of my all time faves. It brings me to tears. It makes me feel happy and free. I love the complex, thick, and interwoven melodies drenched in reverb. It has been the inspiration for some of my own songs. It's simply perfect.

4.) Dolly Parton- Coat of Many Colors Oh Dolly, how I love thee! This song is so sweet. As a child who grew up poor and had a loving, Christian grandmother I can totally relate to it. It brings me back to childhood. And the message is universal and so important. I love how singable the melody is. She turned it into a children's book, which I sadly do not own. I will some day though. I remember some of her specials on television as a kid. I wanted her to be my mom. Still do.

5.) Radiohead- No Surprises "A heart that's full up like a landfill, a job that slowly kills you, bruises that won't heal." When I first got this album, back in my teens, I used to listen to it the whole way through. I love every single song. I can sing it front to back. But No Surprises was a song I was obsessed with. I used to play it over and over. That sweet melancholy guitar line reminds me of a music box. The song makes me feel like I am in a snow globe, another world. I have never read any quotations or articles regarding what it supposed to be about. I don't want to. However, to me, it is about lonely people quietly wasting away. Sort of like an Elenor Rigby kind of thing. Beautiful, brilliant, and sad.

6.)Patty Griffin- Up To The Mountain (MLK Song) "Sometimes I lay down, no more can I do. But then I go on again because you asked me to." Patti Griffin's voice has a signature all its own. It is an original and no one could imitate it. Within it lies strength, power, gentleness, fragility, questioning, and warmth. This is a song inspired by Martin Luther King's last speech. The first time I heard it was a couple of years ago and it blew me away. She takes me places I forgot I could go. Enough said.

7.) The Avett Brothers- Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise "There was a dream, and one day I could see it. Like a bird in a cage, I broke in and demanded that somebody free it." This is the third track on I and Love and You, their latest album. Not only is the music beautiful, the message of the song was so pertinent to my life when I first heard it. I love the pure and sweet simplicity of this band. I love the bluegrass accents, folk elements, and rock beats. This was their first recording with a major label and their first time going full out electric. This album is full of movement and hope. You get the feeling of someone who is putting the past behind them and jumping into the future. And who among us doesn't need that kind of inspiration now and then?

8.) Ani DiFranco- Shameless "I never avert my eyes. I never compromise. I never nevermind the poetry." This woman is awesome. Yes, I am a fan. She is smart, ballsy, and blatantly honest in her songs. So many of her songs tell stories and I feel like I'm looking at a snapshot of a specific time and place. She is a great writer too. She makes me think, even when I don't agree with her. This is a rockin number on secret love. It's juicy, and the way she tells the story it's like she is sticking her tongue out at you and saying "I don't care".

9.) Bob Dylan- Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands "With your mercury mouth in the missionary times/ And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes/ And your silver cross/ and your voice like chimes/Oh, who among them do they think could bury you?" Ugh, this song is so beautiful to me. The poetry is incredible. There is something in his voice, in the way he sings it too that pulls at my heart. It makes me ache in that good way. Again, I have never read what this song is supposed to be about. He seems to be a very abstract and intuitive writer at times and a very focused one at others. To me, this song is about a woman figure and he undresses her soul layer by layer. Actually, I have learned so much from Dylan in his lyrics, including a lot about the way men see women. Then again, haven't we all?

10.) Mahalia Jackson- Didn't It Rain? In terms of voices, Queen Mahalia is my number one. She is a gospel singer from Louisiana, popular in the 50's and 60's. I am a big fan of southern roots music, black gospel and blues quartets being at the top. She could shake the windows with the power in those pipes. In fact, in her early recordings she would step way back from the microphone and you could still hear her so well. When I listen to her songs, I feel comforted...like she is wrapping her arms around me. She is transcendent. She fills me with light.