This is the another installment in my series of favorite records.

In yesterday’s podcast I talked about the Guess Who, and how I believe they are greatly underappreciated, given the incredible amounts of great music (not to mention big hits) they generated in the 60s and 70s. And as luck would have it, we’re to the end of the G’s in my Top 50 Album series.

The Guess Who made 4 excellent records in a row between 1968 and 1970, starting with Wheatfield Soul (hard to find, except on an oddly paired double album CD) and ending with Share the Land. Any of them could be on this list, but I’m going to settle on just one- Canned Wheat from 1969.

Canned Wheat is the best place to start for those who remember the Guess Who only for their long string of radio hits. This is an excellent rock record that features some fine Guitar work from Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings’ great voice.

No Time, the first track, is a classic rock standard, that you’ve heard before. Minstel Boy is a beautiful and sad number inspired by a Thomas Moore poem. Laughing and Undun, two classic rock gems, follow.

Every other song on this record could easily have been a hit. In fact, this record could be a greatest hits record for a lot of popular bands. And it’s just one of 4 great records in a row by this under-appreciated band.

One of the things that impresses me the most about the Guess Who’s records is how well they have aged. These records sound like they could have been recorded yesterday. The true sign of musical genius is the ability to make music that still sounds fresh 20 years later. Bob Dylan does it. Springsteen does it.

And so did the Guess Who.

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The Guardian Observer has a list today of 50 record that changed music.

Here’s the top 20 on the list with my short take on each.

1) The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967): Venus in Furs is one of my all time favorite songs, but the most influential rock album of all time? Please.

2) Beatles/Sargent Pepper (1967): Great record, can’t argue with a number 2 rating.

3) Kraftwerk/Trans-Europe Express (1977): Never heard it.

4) NWA/Straight Outta Compton (1989): I actually had this record before I wrote off rap altogether. I’d put Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back ahead of this one. If you want to be completely accurate, it was Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight that started the entire rap movement.

5) Robert Johnson/King of the Delta Blues Singers (1961): This record was a momentum play, fueled by the sold his soul to the devil marketing plan. I’ll take any Howlin’ Wolf or Muddy Waters record over this one any day.

6) Marvin Gaye/What’s Going On (1971): Can’t argue too much, but Johnnie Taylor and Al Green were doing the same sort of stuff just as well.

7) Patti Smith/Horses (1975): Everybody treats this record like it’s a sacred relic. It’s pretty good. Not number 7. I’d put the Sex Pistols as the top punk act.

8) Bob Dylan/Bringing it All Back Home (1965): Not my favorite Dylan record, but still a trend setter.

9) Elvis Presley/Elvis Presley (1956): Can’t argue with this, but where is Little Richard, the true creator of rock and roll?

10) The Beach Boys/Pet Sounds (1966): Absolutely a top 10 music changer. I still listen to this record regularly.

11) David Bowie/The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (1972): Glam rock that was still good music.

12) Miles Davis/Kind of Blue (1959): I’m not a jazz fan, but hard to argue.

13) Frank Sinatra/Songs for Swingin’ Lovers (1956): I’m not much of a Frank fan either, but hard to argue.

14) Joni Mitchell/Blue (1971): Sorry, but I would have to agree with the cash register and go with Carole King’s Tapestry. Court and Spark was the Joni record that changed me musically.

15) Brian Eno/Discreet Music (1975): To my knowledge, I have never heard a Brian Eno song.

16) Aretha Franklin/I Never Loved a Man the Way I love You (1967): Girl power, round one.

17) The Stooges/Raw Power (1973): About right for these punk pioneers.

18) The Clash/London Calling (1979): Should be much higher.

19) Mary J Blige/What’s the 411? (1992): Never heard it.

20) The Byrds/Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968): This first marriage of rock and country should be way, way higher. Other possibilities are the Dillard and Clark records and the early Eagles.

Where in the world are The Allmans/At Fillmore East, Grateful Dead/American Beauty, and early the Who? Where is Exile on Main Street, a record that scads of artists still try to emulate?

My favorites from 21-50:

26) Stevie Wonder/Songs in the Key of Life (1976)

27) Jimi Hendrix/Are You Experienced (1967)

35) The Ramones/The Ramones (1976)

36) The Who/My Generation (1965)

42) The Smiths/The Smiths (1984)

44) Talking Heads/Fear of Music (1979)

49) De La Soul/3 Feet High and Rising (1989)

Overall, a good list chock full of good music.

This is the another installment in my series of favorite records.

One of my favorite country rock bands of the early 70’s was Goose Creek Symphony. Although named for a place in Kentucky, the band was actually formed in Phoenix and played a San Francisco-influenced country rock sound.

Any of their first three records could have made my list, but I’m going to pick their first one.

Among the many great songs on Established 1970 are Charlie’s Tune, the first Goose Creek song I ever heard and still one of my favorites, a fantastic version of Satisfied Mind, Confusion, the excellent and Band-like Raid on Bush Creek and Talk About Goose Creek.

All of these songs are fantastic. Their next two records, Words of Earnest and Welcome to Goose Creek, are also excellent.

In the trivia department, the fiddle player’s wife was the maid of honor at my sister’s wedding in College Grove, Tennessee in 1976. Small world.

Goose Creek and The Amazing Rhythm Aces, along with Area Code 615 and its offspring, Barefoot Jerry, were among my favorite bands of the early 70’s- and they still are today.

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This is the another installment in my series of favorite records.

There’s nothing I like better than well written, dark and brooding songs. No one does this better than Gerald Collier. The former frontman of the Best Kissers in the World (a fine band in its own right) has four released and a couple of unreleased records that are uniformly excellent. By excellent, I mean dark and brooding. With great writing, playing and singing.

But the best and most brooding of them all is his first one, 1996’s is I Had to Laugh Like Hell.

There are 12 songs on this fine record, from the downward spiral of Boozin’ Time and the biting I Ain’t the One You Hate. This is good stuff to listen to in an empty house, with all the lights turned off, the windows open and a bottle of whiskey in your hand.

I know Gerald a little, via email. He lives in Austin now, and normally you can get more of his music, including an excellent unreleased record and a great live one, via his website. He told me last week that his web site is down, at least temporarily. I hope Gerald gets another record deal and I hope his website comes back online, because he’s one talented dude.

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This is the another installment in my series of favorite records.

I’ve loved Emmylou Harris since the first time I heard her 1977 masterpiece Luxury Liner. And there are any number of her records that are worthy of my Top 50 list. But there’s one of them that’s just a notch above the rest.

That record is her 1992 live album, is At the Ryman.

I remember going to the Ryman to see the Grand Ole Opry when I was a kid, and I sure wish I’d been at the Ryman when Emmylou made this live tour de force. She joined up with the Nash Ramblers, one of the best backing bands in the history of recorded sound, led by Sam Bush and Roy Huskey Jr., and simply made one of the best live records ever. One of the best. Ever

From the opening chords of Steve Earle’s Guitar Town until the last chord of Smoke Along the Track, there’s not a song on this record that I’d rate less than a 9.5 on a 10 scale. The two best songs are covers of Bill Monroe’s Walls of Time and Get Up John (I can’t listen to a second of either one without feeling that beautiful tug of spiritual emotion). I expect Sam Bush’s fingers were in shreds at the end of Walls of Time. What a beautiful song.

This is a great album.

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This is the another installment in my series of favorite records.

The first half of the eighties was a fantastic time for me musically. I was living in Nashville, listening to a ton of good music, writing a little with some other songwriters and generally having a good time. Among the best music I heard while I was living there was early Webb Wilder, Raging Fire, John Scott Sherrill, very early REM and one of the best country records I have ever heard. By Elvis Costello

That record is his 1981 record Almost Blue. It’s a fantastic record of awesome covers of great country songs, including Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down, Good Year for the Roses and I’m Your Toy. Be sure to get the 2 disk re-release, which has another disk of bonus songs, including my favorite song on the record, Psycho.

People who haven’t heard Elvis do country probably either can’t believe it or assume he did it as satire. Wrong on both counts, as this is one of the best, straight-up country records ever made.

1977’s My Aim is True turned me onto Elvis, but this record made me a huge fan

This is the another installment in my series of favorite records.

Any of the Eagles’ first five records could make a good argument for this list. Their California influenced country rock sound further defined the genre founded by the Byrds and Dillard and Clark. Great records all, but my clear favorite is 1973’s Desperado.

Desperado is a concept album about old west outlaws, but the songs themselves run the gamit from a country waltz (Saturday Night), to semi-bluegrass (Twenty-one), to acoustic county rock (Tequila Sunrise). But the masterpieces on the record are Bernie Leadon’s Bitter Creek, Don Henley’s title track (which has some of the most beautiful lyrics of any song you’ll ever hear) and the three versions of Doolin’-Dalton.

The record has been mildly criticized by some as being too much Don Henley and too little everyone else. I’m a huge fan of Bernie Leadon’s contributions to the Eagles’ catalog (Train Leaves Here this Morning, from their first record, being perhaps my favorite Eagles song, with Journey of the Sorcerer not far behind), but I can find very little to criticize about this record.

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This is the another installment in my series of favorite records.

We have our first double entry. Of all the artists on all the records I have ever heard, none are any better than Dillard & Clark.

Former Byrd Gene Clark and bluegrass guru Doug Dillard formed one of the first country rock groups when they began recording as Dillard and Clark in the late 1960’s.

Their first record, recorded in 1968, is The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark. It’s the best record either of them have done- and it’s a fine one. Perfect, country rock songwriting and playing. She Darked the Sun is one of the prettiest songs I’ve ever heard. Don’t Come a Rollin’ is a harp driven country romp without equal. Get It On Brother is bluegrass and gospel and a whole bowl full of goodness. There is not one song on this record that is not excellent. In fact, calling them excellent may be selling these songs short.

Their second record, titled Through the Morning, Through the Night, was released a year later in 1969. It’s slightly more of a traditional country/bluegrass record. But it has some great songs, including fabulous covers of No Longer a Sweetheart of Mine, Four Walls and the Beatles’ Don’t Let Me Down.

But what gets this record on this list are two of my favorite songs ever- and I mean both favorite and ever. The title track, a Gene Clark original, is a haunting, alternative country number. And then there’s Polly, another Gene Clark original. You simply have to hear this song to understand how perfect it is. Haunting. Wistful. Tears. Simply beautiful.

No one, not even The Rolling Stones, has ever released a two better records in back to back years. Go buy these records. Play them for your loved ones, your children, your grandparents. No one should go through life without hearing these records