ten songs

Recently I saw a discussion on another site : if you could only have ten songs to listen to, what would they be? and why?

My choices have to to with memories of place and landscape -- although not necessarily those named in the song -- with faith, and with journeys of one sort or another. Links are to places where you may preview excerpts of the songs if you’d like. I like the way these artists think, and I’d recommend exploring their work beyond the songs I’ve named here, too


Tish Hinojosa -- Amanecer
all my time in New Mexico. also, when I worked in public radio, in Florida, I used to use this as a signature sign on to my early morning weekend shows.
Seamus Begley -- The Kerry Hills -- the west of Ireland


Kathy Mattea -- You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive, from her album Coal, which is coming out in April.I spent some impressionable years living in Appalachia, and those landscapes and people never leave your mind
George Strait -- Amarillo by Morning Texas. rodeo, the road, and Texas...
Cathie Ryan -- The Farthest Wave Grief and loss, change, hope, faith, Ireland, America, and the seas between, journeys of the heart and grace in understatement
Cathie Ryan -- In My Tribe"In my tribe, music is blood memory."
Altan -- Ten Thousand Miles -- homecoming and leave taking, an American folksong by musicians from Donegal
Carrie Newcomer -- There Is a Tree what it's like, and what it is not like, to be called to be an artist and a creator
Cara Dillon -- There Were Roses the cost of politics, and the power of friendship and community


Caroline Herring -- Carolina Moon
" a Carolina Moon is rising in the Texas sky” and what more could you want, except love, bluegrass, and biscuits, all of which are in the song.