I couldn't get it down into two lists. I've lived too long. I got it to three, by fudging some entries, but it should have been three lists of 30 or 40 each, to get all the really significant ones.

Birth to Parenthood (1941-1970):

1) "The Kid's Last Fight" by Frankie Laine
2) "Walk, Don't Run" by The Ventures
3) "Apache" by Jorgen (sp?) Ingmann (sp?)
4) "Rave On" by Buddy Holly
5) "Silver Dagger" by Joan Baez (first album)
6) "Wildwood Flower" (same as 3)
7) "Walk Right In" by the Rooftop Singers, I think it was - for the 12-string work.
8) John Herald's intro on "Four Rode By" by Ian and Sylvia
9) "Black Mountain Rag" by Doc Watson (first Vanguard album)
10) Everything Ian and Sylvia did on their first three or four albums. No way can I choose one.

Parenthood to Empty-nester (1970-1996):

1) "Voices in the Hills" by Dick McCormack (I know you never heard of it, but it's in the DT. Check it out.)
2) "No Better Reason" also by Dick. You also never heard of it.
3) "Fill One Room" By Dick McC yet again. You also never heard of it, but you will if you buy the whole Mudcat set.
4) "The Mary Ellen Carter" by Stan Rogers
5) "Northwest Passage" by Stan Rogers
6) "Reynardine" - the version sung by Mick Moloney
7) "The Year of '88" by Christopher Shaw
8) Ian Tyson's version of "Home on the Range"
9) "Claude Dallas" by Ian Tyson and Tom Russell (recorded by both)
10) Ian Tyson's whole "Cowboy Culture" series - especially "Cowboyography"

Empty-nester to present (1996-2002):

1) "Tom Ames' Prayer" by Steve Earle. Especially Norman Blake's guitar break thereupon.
2) "Copperhead Road" by Steve Earle. I know it came out a lot earlier, but I'm slow getting to these things...
3) "Wrangling Dudes" by Andrea Cady. You never heard of it unless you have our second CD or the Mudcat series.
4) "Double Diamond II" (my title) by Andrea Cady. You never heard of it either.
5) "Adirondack River Song" (my title) by Andrea Cady. Again, you never heard of it.
6) "Miner's Lullaby" Lyrics by Utah Phillips, Music by Stecher and Brislin. I still have trouble listening to it.
7) "High Atmosphere" by Robin and Linda Williams
8) "West Rutland Marble Bawn" on Dan Milner's Irish in America album. It got to me in particular because West Rutland is 15 miles from me, and when I was a bright young lawyer for the Marble Company I did work on tax appeals on some of the quarries mentioned in the song.
9) "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" by Richard Thompson - Del McCoury's version.
10) Tom Russell. Everything. Especially the western stuff. Also especially Andrew Hardin's guitar work on "Angel of Lyon."

Peter.