Christine's hometown newspaper, asked her for her Top 10 desert island tracks. Here's what the Queen came up with…

 

# 1 (tie) “I’ll Run Your Hurt Away” - Ruby Johnson, “Shouldn’t I Love Him” - Mable John - The two unsung queens of Memphis soul music. Grab their out-of-print CD compilations on Amazon.com while you still can.

 

# 2 “If I Could Hear My Mother Pray” - The Staple Singers – The entirety of their VeeJay gospel catalogue is great, pre-Stax. There is no deeper, more transcendent sound on the face of the planet.

 

# 3 (tie) “Shake ‘Em On Down” - North Mississippi All-Stars, “I’ve Got A Secret (Didn’t We Shake Sugaree)” - Mud Boy & The Neutrons – Two generations of Dickensons prove that what’s old can be made new again, and it’s a beautiful, ass-kickin’ thing.

 

# 4 (tie) “Devoted To You” - The Everly Brothers, “Whenever you Come Around” - Vince Gill

– So very sweet, so very powerful and true….

 

# 5 “Primitive Streak” - The Subdudes – The whole LP from 1996, but in particular, “Faraway Girl” - “Carved in Stone” - and “Sarita”. From the alt-kings of New Orleans. Thank God they’re back!

 

# 6 (tie) “Seven-Year Ache” - Rosanne Cash, “You Don’t Seem To Miss Me” - Patty Loveless and George Jones – Chicks gone wild – and blue, and deep.

 

# 7 “Back On The Chain Gang” - The Pretenders – One of the great songs about regret, and the longing that results.

 

# 8 “Walking In The Rain” - The Ronettes – Beautiful, yearning vocal. I’ve written a lot about the rain and its effect on me, most notably on “The Storm” - off Strip. And, yeah, those fabulous Ronettes were the original blueprints for the Beehive….

 

# 9 (tie) “I’m Not Through Loving You Yet” - Conway Twitty, “Guitar Town” - Steve Earle

– Twitty gets it like nobody else. And “Guitar Town” is a world-class “road” song, worth it for Richard Bennett’s guitar alone.

 

#10 “Dixie Chicken” - Little Feat – The Scratch Band, of which I was proud to be a charter member, worshipped at Lowell George’s feet.