music on a desert island

everyones done it before. you get shipwrecked on an island. you can only take 5 albums with you -- as apparently this island has a cd player and power source. ive slightly cheated by choosing one double album, which i have deemed legal. but you cant choose box sets. what are your album choices?

my current top 5 "stuck on a desert island" albums, in no particular order and subject to change at any moment.

1. nirvana "mtv unplugged"
i wasnt a huge nirvana fan during their heyday and i actually didnt pick up this album until 1996 which was 3 years after it was released and 2 years after kurt cobain died. just a great collection of live music with some interesting covers. it will always remind me of the year i spent living in atlanta as this cd got a lot of rotation from me at the time.












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2. johnny cash "live at folsom prison"
come on, The Man In Black, says it all. the ultimate in country music. you hear the prisoners cheering for him and the performance is periodically interrupted by prison guards making announcements. you even get a duet of "jackson" with june carter. no, thats not where my sons name originated.












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3. kings of leon "only by the night"
just a top to bottom great album. sure, some of the songs got overplayed on the radio but i still turned up the volume every time they came on.













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4. dave matthews band "live at red rocks"
im a big dave fan. though i still very much enjoy some of their newer stuff, this live collection of the early stuff will always be the best music for me. im sure getting to know this band during my college years and watching their rise to stardom has something to do with it too. in fact, this album was released the summer after i graduated. i was on a cross country trip but drove through colorado 2 months before this show.













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5. david gray "white ladder"
you have to have something to relax to on the list. another top to bottom solid album. incidentally i found out about david gray when he was opening for dave matthews band shows in 1999. this is always my go-to, quiet sunday morning music.













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