Top Five On Friday - 11/3/06

The "label all my posts" project is going well. After I'm done, it will be a great way for you all to further explore my archives and see, for example, all of my answers to the Top Five On Friday! Here's this week's:

Top Five Albums That Have Had an Influence on Your Life

1) Nordic Roots by Northside Records. This is a sampler of modern Scandinavian music, and it opened my eyes to the world outside the FM dial. This led me to love fiddles, which led me to Cajun, Bluegrass and Celtic.

2) Volume 3: Further In Time by Afro Celt Sound System. This is the album that made me a huge ACSS fan. This is my favorite album of all time (as I'm sure you've read over and over by now) and it is my personal benchmark for album excellence.

3) Are You Experienced? by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. I bought this out of curiosity after hearing so much about how good Jimi Hendrix was as a guitar player. Five albums later, I'm a huge Hendrix fan.

4) He's the DJ, I'm The Rapper by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. I don't know exactly what influence this album had on my life, but I do have very fond memories of it from my childhood. I still own it, but haven't heard it in years.

5) 1 by The Beatles. This is a recent purchase (I bought it from a friend of mine), but it has already affected me in many positive ways. I get so much joy from all of these Beatles songs. I'll file this under "listen when in need of happiness."