Chris passed the musical baton to me… in June. I didn’t realize it until a week or two ago, and then I forgot about it again! I am a bad relay team member.

But, I’m posting this now so that I’ll be sure to come back and do my duty this evening.

Amount of music on your computer?
9.9GB, 2632 songs. But that doesn’t include the majority of live recordings I have that aren’t in iTunes (because I don’t want them on my iPod). I guess it’d be easy enough to find out how many of those I have… okay, another 2.9GB/652 files.
That brings it to a total of 12.8GB/3284 tracks

Currently listening to?
Nickel Creek - Why Should the Fire Die?
Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
Randall Goodgame - The Hymnal
Harry and the Potters - their free stuff that’s online (though I really want to buy both their albums)

Five songs that mean a lot to you?
Mark Heard - Brown Eyed Sue. I got this song as an mp3 from Paste Radio. Right around the time Geneva was born. I would play it while holding her, and putting her to bed, and just generally when I was in her presence.
Nothing I would rather do
Than laugh a laugh with brown-eyed Sue
No place I would rather be
Than where I am when she’s with me

Another that makes me think of my girls, this one more particularly Ashley for some reason. It’s Randall Goodgame’s song My Best Friend. Like I’ve mentioned in the past, I totally rip the song out of context when I apply it to my daughters, but hey, sometimes you just can’t control these things.
All I want to do is love you
And whereever you fall I want to be
I want to be there to lift you
All I want to do is love you
And where you are
I want to be there with you

Jack Johnson - Better Together
It’s not too terribly often that Megan and I find an artist that we both really, really like. Don’t get me wrong… we have plenty of music overlap, but typically the stuff that I really, really like… she finds acceptable. And vice versa. But with Jack Johnson, we come together. Plus, we discovered Jack Johnson together, and grew in our enjoyment of him together. So, really, any Jack Johnson song means the same thing to me… reminds me of Megan, and our good times together. But this song, for obvious reasons, is what I’ll put on the list.
I believe in memories, they look so, so pretty when I sleep
And when I wake up, you look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time
And there is no, no song I could sing
And there is no combination of words I could say
But I will still tell you one thing
We’re better together

Speaking of AP, his first national release, Carried Along, came out in March of 2000. I believe it was the 21st or something like that? Anyhow… it was the week that my mother died. That album, as I’ve told Andy, was a tremendous source of encouragment to me at that time. I’ll just pick my favorite song from the album, since they all pretty much mean the same thing to me in regards to my mom, and that period of time. Shiloh
“Come home, come home and rest awhile
Come home, come home and rest awhile
Get on home to Shiloh”
The farther I have wandered off
The fonder I have grown, Shiloh
Yeah, all the while I find a smile
Thinkin’ about my home
The autumn breeze is calling me away
Calling me home to Shiloh

Caedmon’s Call - Mistake of My Life
This is from the album Long Line of Leavers, which was released in October of 2000. During this time Megan was in Ohio, and I was driving back and forth almost every weekend. I was a very sleepy individual during that time. We got married in December, so the content of the song should be pretty obvious as to it’s meaning. I remember, though, driving into the small town she lived in, with my windows down, volume turned up, and singing loudly this song. It was sort of my entrance song to Oxford. I’d probably sing What You Want more often, but, the lyrical content of this one is just too related to what was going on in my life at that time to pass up.
I’m in love, never been so sure of anything

Top five albums?
Hm.. tough one. These are not in any particular order. It is hard enough for me to pick the top five… putting them in order would be impossible for me.
Andrew Peterson - Love & Thunder
AP is my favorite contemporary musician. And L&T is my favorite of his albums thus far, so it definitely gets a spot. Carried Along is almost as good, but lacks a certain maturity that puts L&T on the top.

Caedmon’s Call - My Calm//Your Storm
I had not been a christian for very long when I first discovered Caedmon’s. I got a cassette copy of MC//YS from a friend, and I really enjoyed all the intricate guitar work. Then I picked up on the high artistic quality of the lyrics, and songwriting in general. Then I learned that they were a reformed band. They were my favorite band for a good number of years. 40 Acres gets honorable mention here. It’s a great record, and I only put MC//YS here because I heard it first.

The Cure - Wish
I actually bought this album when it came out in 1992 for my sister. I gave it to her, and promptly took it into my room to listen to it. I wasn’t a Cure fan at the time, and she wasn’ta big one, but I knew she at least liked them a bit. But I fell in love with the record, and listen to it quite regularly. I keep comin back to it, so I guess it deserves a place in my top five.

Toad the Wet Sprocket. It’s a tought call for me between fear and dulcinea, but I got with fear. I bought it for the single Walk on the Ocean, and discovered that every single song on the album is excellent. All of them, start to finish.

Man… that only leaves one left. I’m pretty much disallowing anything that I haven’t had for at least a year or two. I don’t know if it will have the kind of staying power necessary to have the honor of being listed in my top five favorite albums. I suspect, though, that Sufjan Steven’s Illinoise will be on this list after that time.

Jars of Clay’s eponymous release had a profound impact on me, as I had just come to believe when I discovered them. But, I don’t like the album as much anymore, so it can’t be on the list (was that cheating?).

So I just looked through the list of artists I have in iTunes, and the band that caused the deepest, most sincere stirring in my chest was Nirvana. So I guess I have to go with Nevermind. I got that album for Christmas from my sister. She had originally bought it for my brother, and had bought me Metallica’s black album. But, I had bought that at her recommendation. So she switched ‘em out. I learned what harmony was by listening to Something in the Way. I didn’t hear the harmony on the chorus for multiple listenings while a friend was telling me it was there, and was singing it. Then I heard it, and I realized that Nirvana was more than just a rock band.

Last album bought?
This past week I’ve gotten…
Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise, Nickel Creek - Why Should the Fire Die?, Randall Goodgame - The Hymnal, Sandra McCracken - Gypsy Flat Road.
Nickel Creek was the most recent of them all.

Recent discoveries?
Sufjan Stevens.

Passing on the musical baton…
Mike and Kristen
Gaines and Allison
Tim (see if he reads this…)
Derek