Shuffle

Every once in a while, I look at my iTunes library and am amazed at the vast and random assortment of music I have managed to collect to date. Right now, my library is sitting at 8,616 songs.* That's twenty-four days worth of auditory goodness, y'all.

Because my music has been on my mind, I thought that just for kicks and giggles, I'd share a little slice of my strange tastes with you. I pulled up the DJ function in my iTunes and refreshed it. Here are the the first ten** tracks that popped up.

"Landslide" (as performed by the cast of Glee)
"A Little More Country Than That" by Easton Corbin
"Just Remember" by Sister Hazel
"Country Star" by Pat Green
"Dance With You" by Bowling For Soup
"The Tracks of My Tears" by Johnny Rivers
"When I Dream of Michelangelo" by Counting Crows
"In Between Days" by The Cure
"You'll See" from the Rent soundtrack (original Broadway cast recording)
"Indian Outlaw" by Tim McGraw

I actually think this gives you a pretty good idea of my overall tastes in music. So, make of that what you will, and feel free to judge me accordingly as you proceed through your Thursday.

*I use the word "songs" loosely, "tracks" might be more accurate as my library does also include more than a few audio books.
*I did skip one audio book track and an instrumental from a soundtrack that appeared on the list. 

On the Playlist

What road trip would be complete without a new music mix? None of mine, that's for certain. Every time I have embarked on a road trip, for as long as I can remember, I have always made at least one new mix-tape or mix-CD for said trip. This coming journey is no exception. This time I decided to go with all songs that I can sing along with at the top of my lungs (for keeping myself energized and to entertain my kiddo). If I'm honest with myself, most of these songs have made their way onto multiple mixes, but never before have so many of them been assembled on one disc for my listening pleasure! I am already excited to pop it in to my stereo!

For the curious, here's the mix I made yesterday:

Drive On

1. Dixieland Delight by Alabama
2. Mean by Taylor Swift
3. Alright by Darius Rucker
4. Lover, Lover by Jerrod Niemann
5. You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon
6. She Likes Hair Bands by Butch Walker
7. Mr. Jones by Counting Crows
8. Unwell by Matchbox Twenty
9. Long Way Down by Goo Goo Dolls
10. Hey Jealousy by Gin Blossoms
11. Hey, Soul Sister by Train
12. Fast Car by Christian Kane
13. I'm Gonna Be Somebody by Travis Tritt
14. Small Town Kid by Eli Young Band
15. Small Town Saturday Night by Hal Ketchum
16. Gunpowder & Lead by Miranda Lambert
17. Breathe by Michelle Branch
18. Fair to Middlin' by Collin Herring
19. Little Red Rodeo by Collin Raye
20. You Look Good In My Shirt by Keith Urban

You can probably see the train-of-thought nature that went into some of the assembly of this mix, but I am pretty happy with it. It should be a fun listen. 

Of course, just one mix for a twelve hour drive won't cut it. I do realize this. Sadly, I am not quite into the twenty-first century with the electronics in my car and cannot just plug in my iPod to select from whatever I feel like listening to in my vast library of music and audio stories. I'm going to get there one day (soon, hopefully). My stereo is equipped for it, it just doesn't have the actual connector installed, and every time I ask my dealership about getting it done, I get some vague mumbo jumbo about their "audio guy" and his mysterious and baffling (to them) schedule, so I have yet to get that taken care of. Probably gonna cave and go elsewhere at some point. But. Not before I leave on Friday.

This means assembling a good selection of CDs to take along with me, in addition to the aforementioned mix. Here's what I've got:

1. All twelve of Big Finish Audio's Stargate SG-1 and Stargage Atlantis audio dramas (six for each show, each clocking in at around fifty minutes to an hour).
2. There's A Hippo In My Tub by Anne Murray (for the kiddo).
3. The album of songs from my daughter's current semester of music class.
4. All the Stars and Boulevards by Augustana.
5. Can't Love, Can't Hurt by Augustana.
6. Augustana by Augustana. 
7. Fishin' For Woos by Bowling For Soup.
8. All of my favorite Bowling For Soup songs not on the new album (condensed into two CDs--which, hey, lets me put two versions of Belgium on there, score).

All in all, I think this should keep us going out there on the open road.