Carey's CD Picks

For any music lover, it's a struggle to pick a Top Anything. You finish a list and then you think of 10 more, then 20 more that should have been there. The truth is a list of music for me is really infinite, and not definite at all. So, these CDs are ones that connected to me over time and for different reasons. I hope you find a track or two that opens a door or closes a window.

	Raising Sand By Alison Krauss and Robert Plant I love it when music surprises me. This CD had me at hello. From track one and all the way through, it’s like a slow dance with a lover that you don’t want to end. When Killing the Blues comes on and seeps through my speakers, I have to stop typing and listen and just soak it in. The contrast of Alison Krauss’ pure angelic voice with the edge of Robert Plant’s leathery rock vocal works on every track. Their tribute to the Everly Brothers with Gone Gone Gone transports you back in time, as does Please Read the Letter. Pour a glass of red wine when you listen to this, and put the keyboard away. It’s worth it.

	Pneumonia By Whiskeytown Though Pneumonia was Whiskeytown's last CD, these songs stand out for their stark beauty. It shows the range of Ryan Adam's prolific songwriting, and remains for me a CD that when you play it, it can never be background music. It takes front and center stage in your psyche and says: Remember how that felt?

	Car Wheels On A Gravel Road By Lucinda Williams Six years in the making, this CD was worth waiting for. It's a piece of American art, capturing the longing of the small town and the longing of a lover's kiss. It's raw and honest with a naked truth that simultaneously wrestles with demons from the past and dances with angels. With all the mass commercialism in music that has become a true T&A spectacle for both men and women, thank God for voices and writers like Lucinda Williams.

	Red Dirt Girl By Emmylou Harris She is the artist's artist, someone who has inspired so many musicians to go their own way and make music that means something. Known as a masterful interpreter of music, Red Dirt Girl is her own music, showcasing some of her own writing. It is both haunting and hopeful, and reinforces why EmmyLou is one of the grand dames of American music.

	Time Out Of Mind By Bob Dylan This CD came out while I was reeling from a heartbreak, and when I heard the title track, Love Sick, I was seriously hooked - a true junkie for pain through music. It felt like Dylan had been inside my head watching me. Masterfully produced by Daniel Lanois, Time Out of Mind is a dark and murky walk from the heart to the head.

	Transcendental Blues By Steve Earle It was tough for me to settle on two Steve Earle CDs. Since Guitar Town is referenced often, I decided to go with a couple of his CDs that are different from each other and showcase his incredible range as both a songwriter and musician. Transcendental Blues is hillbilly meets the Beatles with a pint of Guinness mixed in for good measure. This CD weaves a tale from beginning to end with the envy of Everyone's in Love with You to the foot-stomping Galway Girl and the ache of Lonelier than This. Steve Earle can take you through every emotion, bring you back up for some air, but leave you still wanting more. This is what makes him one of the best songwriters in any genre of music.

	The Mountain By Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band When you combine Earle's songwriting with the musicality of the Del McCoury Band, you are drawn into the down-home power of bluegrass. A fitting homage to the music of Bill Monroe, he tells the tale of the miner and "brings you down in the dark hole and back up at night." Whenever I listen to this, I see my Grandfather, a farmer up in Northern VT who worked in an asbestos mine like his father did. For me, that's what Earle conjures on this CD: where we come from, our roots and the highways we travel that take us from home and back again.

	Stardust By Willie Nelson Willie has given us so much incredible music, but Stardust holds a special place for me because it was a CD that my Grandmother and I both listened to together. Like Willie, she loved the classic tracks on Stardust and was missing them. For me, it was discovering those songs and hearing them interpreted by the Red Headed Stranger. He was the first musician who made me realize that music didn't need strict commercial boundaries. I love Willie for pushing back at the record company to get this great quilt of music woven the way he heard it: simple and pure.

	Rise By Kim Richey Listen to this CD on a train and let it hold you as the train rocks and the whistle blows. It has that rare quality to transport and transform your state of mind. Girl in a Car is one of my favorite tracks with a chorus that you can drink like a glass of red wine. The honesty of her writing is like a drive in a car when you're going through something and your mind is spinning. After the ups and downs of the ride, you do rise, just like the title promises.

	The Wheel By Roseanne Cash Artfully produced by her husband, John Leventhal, The Wheel is a testament to the strength of Roseanne Cash's songwriting and her ability to survive. On every track, you feel both her vulnerability and her strength. You remember her and her ex-husband, Rodney Crowell, in the Nashville spotlight, and you feel the weight of change, and the redemption of truth.

	American III: Solitary Man By Johnny Cash Rick Rubin, thank you, thank you, thank you. For bringing Johnny Cash back to a whole new generation of listeners and for knowing that all that was needed was his voice and a guitar. If you don't own any of the American recordings produced by Rick Rubin, get one now and let the legacy of Johnny Cash live on in your iPod, your stereo, and your heart. Peace to Johnny and June and to the music they're making in the hereafter.