Archive for the ‘iPod Check’ Category
Thursday, July 14th, 2011
As I’m sure the rest of you do, I make playlists all the time. Many of them are lists of individual artists, but some of them have a concept.
My latest playlist is of covers. First, I have the original version (or the one that’s famous for being the original) followed by my favorite cover of it. My only rule is that I have to like both versions. So, songs where I like the cover but not the original won’t make the list.
I’ll share a sampling of what I have so far, as long as you share your latest or greatest concept playlist in the comments:
1. Buddy Miller, “Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go” (Miranda Lambert)
2. Hank Williams, “Hey, Good Lookin’” (The Mavericks)
3. Elvis Presley, “Suspicious Minds (Dwight Yoakam)
4. Dolly Parton, “Coat of Many Colors (Shania Twain/Alison Krauss)
5. Waylon Jennings, “Dreaming My Dreams with You” (Alison Krauss and Union Station)
6. Johnny Cash, “Understand Your Man” (Dwight Yoakam)
7. Merle Haggard, “The Way I Am” (Alan Jackson)
8. John Prine, “That’s the Way the World Goes ‘Round” (Miranda Lambert)
9. John Anderson, “Swingin’” (LeAnn Rimes)
10. Buddy Miller, “Don’t Tell Me” (Alicia Nugent)
11. Kasey Chambers, “Pony” (Ashley Monroe)
12. Tammy Wynette, “Stand by Your Man” (Dixie Chicks)
13. Bill Monroe, “Blue Moon of Kentucky” (John Fogerty)
14. Conway Twitty, “Goodbye Time” (Blake Shelton)
15. Hank Williams, “I Saw the Light” (Blind Boys of Alabama/ Hank Williams Jr.)
16. Bob Dylan, “Shelter from the Storm” (Rodney Crowell/Emmylou Harris)
17. Merle Haggard, “Today I Started Loving You Again” (Buddy Jewell/Miranda Lambert)
18. Nitty Gritty Dirtband, “Fishing in the Dark” (Garth Brooks)
19. The White Stripes, “Dead Leaves in the Dirty Ground” (Chris Thile)
20. Al Green, “Lets Stay Together” (John Berry)
21. David Allan Coe, “You Never Even Called Me by My Name” (Doug Supernaw)
22. The Decemberists, “Shankill Butchers” (Sarah Jarosz
23. Steve Earle, “My Old Friend the Blues” (Patty Loveless)
24. Eric Clapton, “Lay Down Sally” (Delbert McClinton)
25. Fred Eaglesmith, “Time to Get a Gun” (Miranda Lambert)
26. Dolly Parton, “Jolene” (The White Stripes)
27. Johnny Cash, “I Still Miss Someone” (Suzy Bogguss)
28. Pearl Jam, “Better Man” (Sugarland)
29. Kris Kristofferson, “From the Bottle to the Bottom” (Dierks Bentley/Kris Kristofferson)
30. Don Williams, “Lord, I hope this Day is Good” (Lee Ann Womack)
31. Bob Dylan, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s all right” (Randy Travis)
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Category iPod Check
Tags: Alison Krauss, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Ashley Monroe, Blake Shelton, Bob Dylan, Buddy Jewell, Buddy Miller, Conway Twitty, Dierks Bentley, Dwight Yoakam, Elvis Presley, Fred Eaglesmith, John Fogerty, John Prine, Johnny Cash, Kasey Chambers, Kris Kristofferson, LeAnn Rimes, Miranda Lambert, Patty Loveless, Randy Travis, Shania Twain, Steve Earle
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
To continue Country Universe’s celebration of the nineties, I’m throwing in a nineties edition of iPod Check. The rules are simple: put your iPod on shuffle and list the first ten songs to pop up that were released in the nineties. They don’t have to be singles, and they don’t have to be country.
I’ve listed my ten songs below. Share yours in the comments, and check your shame at the door! (I’ve got 1994’s “Hakuna Matata” on my iPod, but sadly, it did not come up in shuffle.)
1. Sara Evans, “There’s Only One”
2. Michael Jackson, “Remember the Time”
3. Shania Twain, “You Win My Love”
4. Martina McBride, “O Come All Ye Faithful”
5. Dixie Chicks, “Am I The Only One (Who’s Ever Felt This Way?)”
6. Original Broadway Cast of Rent, “Seasons of Love”
7. Clay Walker, “Live, Laugh, Love”
8. Tracy Chapman, “Give Me One Reason”
9. Alan Jackson, “If I Had You”
10. Blues Traveler, “Run-Around”
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
This edition of iPod Check is all about those great songs that you love which aren’t that well known. Put your iPod or favorite playlist on shuffle, then list the first ten songs that come up which weren’t singles or widely heard album cuts.
Bonus points for a little blurb with each song!
My list is after the jump.
1. Shania Twain, “Whatever You Do! Don’t!”
Only four of the sixteen tracks from Come On Over weren’t released as singles for one market or another. It features the creative use of fiddles that would become so prominent on Up!
2. Todd Snider, “Maybe You Heard”
From the Kris Kristofferson tribute album The Pilgrim, it’s a powerful challenge to friends who aren’t friends in need: “Don’t you condemn him. Leave it to strangers. You oughta know to give him a hand if you can.”
3. Bonnie Tyler, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain”
Creedence Clearwater Revival as arranged by Jim Steinman? As the opener of the album that features “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, it’s surprisingly effective.
4. Willie Nelson, “Rainbow Connection”
A lot of his covers don’t work – “Time After Time”, anyone? But this one does, taking a Kermit the Frog standard and elevating it to the league of “Imagine.”
5. Bruce Robison, “Can’t Get There From Here”
Why Tim McGraw or Keith Urban haven’t covered this yet is beyond me: “I’m on a road that’s going nowhere, looking for a place that I belong. The wind’s pushing me in all directions, and none of them look like home.”
6. Tim McGraw, “Tickin’ Away”
Time is running out, and not just because closing time is drawing near.
7. Johnny Cash, “I See a Darkness”
This time the friend in need is there, but that’s not enough to halt his desperation from spiraling out of control.
8. Lorrie Morgan, “Greater Need”
“It seems like I want you around me a little more than you want to be, so I guess I’m the one with a greater need.” Killer.
9. Joe Diffie, “Good Brown Gravy”
They didn’t call him Joe Ditty for nothing. But this one’s a riot!
10. Madonna, “‘Til Death Do Us Part”
From her post-divorce classic Like a Prayer, this is one of the most nakedly revealing songs I’ve heard. “The bruises they will fade away. You hit so hard with the things you say. I will not stay to watch your hate as it grows. You’re not in love with someone else. You don’t even love yourself. Still, I wish you’d ask me not to go.
What are your ten hidden treasures?
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
“Pride attaches undue importance to the superiority of one’s status in the eyes of others; And shame is fear of humiliation at one’s inferior status in the estimation of others. When one sets his heart on being highly esteemed, and achieves such rating, then he is automatically involved in fear of losing his status.”
- Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher
This week’s iPod challenge requires you to check your shame at the door. Too often, there is embarrassment associated with our favorite music. We worry about the cool factor.
When I started Country Universe, I was determined to write honestly about what I like and dislike, regardless of how it might affect my credibility in the eyes of others. But I often keep mum about the guiltiest of my guilty pleasures.
So with this iPod check, I’m hitting shuffle and listing the first twenty songs that I’d normally be too embarrassed to share. Just to keep it fully honest, I’m using my “Favorites” playlist, the 3,000 or so songs that I truly enjoy, so you know these aren’t songs that I like. They’re songs that I love:
- Kellie Pickler, “Best Days of Your Life”
- Grease 2, “Back to School Again”
- Mr. Mister, “Broken Wings”
- N*SYNC, “Pop”
- Paula Cole, “I Don’t Want to Wait”
- Alabama, “Love in the First Degree”
- Guns ‘n Roses, “November Rain”
- Blondie, “Rapture”
- Billy Ray Cyrus, “In the Heart of a Woman”
- Neil Diamond, “Yesterday’s Songs”
- Sinead O’Connor, “Nothing Compares 2 U”
- Doug Stone, “Little Houses”
- Trick Daddy, “Nann…”
- They Might Be Giants, “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”
- Dexy’s Midnight Runners, “Come On Eileen”
- TLC, “No Scrubs”
- Arrested Development, “Tennessee” (A game of horseshoes!)
- Michael Bolton, “How Can We Be Lovers”
- Olivia Newton-John, “Have You Never Been Mellow”
- Shakespear’s Sister, “I Don’t Care”
Cast off your shame and share your own list in the comments!
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Maybe it’s just because I have so many songs on my iPod to begin with, but I’m often surprised when I put my iPod on shuffle. Songs pop up that I didn’t know I owned, along with others that I’d completely forgotten about.
You know the drill. You buy the album because you like the lead single, listen to it once, then you go back to the old stuff you always listen to. At least that’s what I do. I won’t even get into the albums that are sent to me for potential review.
So I thought this would be a fun iPod Check:
Put your mp3 player on Shuffle, and type the first ten songs that you either forgot you owned or didn’t know you owned at all.
Here’s my list:
- Shelby Lynne, “Track 12″
- Johnny Cash, “Slow Rider”
- Frank Sinatra, “Fly Me to the Moon”
- Sylvia, “Snapshot”
- Leonard Cohen, “Suzanne”
- Little Anthony and the Imperials, “Goin’ Out of My Head”
- Loretta Lynn, “Jackson Ain’t a Very Big Town”
- Foster & Allen, “Sweet Offaly Lady”
- Cat Stevens, “Lady D’Arbanville”
- Doug Stone, “Come in Out of the Pain”
I’m pretty sure I picked up Doug Stone’s hits collection in a bargain bin for road trip amusements. I totally forgot about buying the Sinatra classic.
What are your finds?
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
We’re making iPod Check a weekly discussion feature this year, with a bit of a different spin each week.
This week, check out the “Country” genre on your music list and post the first ten songs that play. Here are my ten, out of 5,626 in total:
1. k.d. lang, “Pullin’ Back the Reins”
2. Johnny Cash, “I’m Going to Memphis”
3. Sugarland, “Already Gone”
4. Dolly Parton, “Don’t Let Me Cross Over”
5. Trisha Yearwood, “Nothin’ About You is Good For Me”
6. Carlene Carter, “Two Sides to Every Woman”
7. Johnny Cash, “Thirteen”
8. Kenny Rogers, “I Don’t Call Him Daddy”
9. Emmylou Harris, “Tennessee Waltz”
10. Loretta Lynn, “I Believe”
As I’m sure the rest of you do, I make playlists all the time. Many of them are lists of individual artists, but some of them have a concept.
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