I don't think I could have a Top 5 list without including John Hiatt.

I used to maintain a website for a music instrument shop. I can proudly state that we took the website from about 400 unique visitors a month to over 60,000. We did a variety of things to keep people coming back, but one of the features we had led to many interesting comments.

We carried a pretty wide assortment of acoustic-oriented CDs and started listing (almost weekly) the 5 CDs in the CD player. Often it was something new, other times it was an old favorite, or something topical (Johnny Cash got a lot of in-store play shortly after his death). Inevitably, the Desert Island debate came to the fore-- which 5 CDs would you choose to listen to for the rest of your life?

My son recently asked me the same question. As I explained to him, I didn't know if I could ever complete a never-changing list because it is so affected by my mood (much like Rob in High Fidelity). For the sake of fun though, here's my current list (in no particular order):

Honorable Mentions to Catch Bull at Four by Cat Stevens, Deja Vu by CSNY, 1000 Kisses by Patty Griffin, Darkness on the Edge of Town by Bruce Springsteen, and Shoot Out the Lights by Richard Thompson.

Note: Taken from a line in High Life by Counting Crows, a song that appears on their This Desert Life CD. Adam Duritz is such an interesting lyricist and an equally evocative singer. Interesting that nothing by the Crows made the list. Perhaps another day...