Yesterday I received an email from a reader named Mary.
Here’s what it said:
You obviously love music and I do too, I just haven’t really listened to Christian music since Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith and Carman were practically my only choices. I’m a huge fan of country music and that’s pretty much all I own. I would really love to find some good Christian music to listen to though, I’ve been very convicted lately about what enters my heart through my ears and eyes, and I’m hoping you can help.
Here is the question:
If you had to choose 10 cd’s to take on a cross country road trip (no more than 10!) what would you choose?
Thanks so much!
Oh, Mary – you’re exactly right. I’m slightly obsessed with the music. And about five years ago I really got convicted that I needed to pay more attention to what I was listening to. I still listen to a wide variety of stuff – I like all sorts of music and find it difficult to listen to any one genre exclusively – but I have to say that listening to Christian music on a regular basis has had a huge – HUGE – impact on my thought life.
Also: thanks for the reminder about Carman. Took me right back to youth group circa 1987. Good times.
Anyway, here are the first ten CDs that I thought of when I read your email:
Pages
Alive Forever
The Best of Passion (So Far)
God Speaking
Glory Revealed
A Grateful People
The Twenty-First Time
Tell Me What You Know
Recollection: The Best of Nichole Nordeman
So Far: The Acoustic Sessions
So those are my ten. Until I think of the next ten. And since I’m a huge believer that we shouldn’t let the old hymns fall by the wayside, I’d also suggest having a couple of CDs that feature hymns. Here are two of my favorites:
Greatest Hymns
Hymned No. 1
Not to mention that there is one more CD we should all own because IT IS A CLASSIC, PEOPLE and never goes out of style:
Amy Grant: The Collection
Which brings us to thirteen CDs. There you have it. I did the best I could, Mary.
Finally.
I will also tell you that I’ve been listening to the latest Third Day CD for the last few days, and it is EXCELLENT. It’s called Revelation, and I actually have ten (TEN!) of them to share with you, the internets.
So if you’d like to win one of the new Third Day CDs, leave a comment that tells me your favorite road-trip CD. Doesn’t have to be Christian music – any kind of music will do.
Happy 4th, y’all!
This giveaway is now closed.
Jeremy Camp’s Stay
Choosing one CD is very difficult for me because I’m a music addict. Lately, I’ve been loving Maroon 5, Switchfoot, One Republic and Sugarland. I usually just burn compilation CDs for road trips because it’s too difficult to narrow down the CD stack. I’d love to win one of the new Third Day CDs. I love them! Thanks for the chance!
Happy 4th!
Anything by Passion Conferences, Third Day, Jars of Clay, and Jennifer Knapp!
Casting Crowns all the way!!!
Lately — Casting Crowns!
Happy Fourth of July! I love such eclectic music and it what I listen to depends on my mood. If I am going on a long road trip, it needs some pizazz to it. I really like Phil Collins and Genesis. Please enter me in your
delightful CD drawing. Many thanks, Cindi
Love the Brook Hills “Awaken” cds from 2007. Thanks for the giveaway!
Michael W Smith- Worship
Since most of our roadtrips tend to be in the summer, I’d have to say anything by Jimmy Buffet as long as it’s fit to play in front of the little ones!
It’s an old one – the Left Behind soundtrack.
Would love Third Day, and I do have a US address.
Okay, the country girl comes through in this response… Who can drive down the road without a little King George, aka George Strait?
James Taylor. . .and therefore Chris Rice too. :)
Well, my first thought was Neil Diamond! Then I asked my husband. His response? Weird Al. Wouldn’t you want to be on that road trip?
It would have to be Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ album “Into the Great Wide Open.” I’ve spent many trips singing along to their songs. Thanks for the giveaway!
My go to man is Steven Curtis Chapman.
Casting Crown and Creed are my favorite to listen to.
I just really started listening to Christian music. I started with your recommendation of Monk and Neagle, love, love, love it and was looking for more CDs to buy. THANKS for your list.
Now if I really had to pick only 1 CD it would have to be Journey, Greatest hits. Thankfully that will never happen. I have over 3,000 songs loaded on my Zune, everything from Monk and Neagle to Conway Twitty to Queen.
For this road trip it was Hillsong Mighty to Save, but I love Caedmon’s Call for road trips in general!
U2 BABY! Bono is going to be one of the worship leaders in heaven!
OK, I’m being honest — though I love Christian music (and all kinds of music) my favorite is Broadway —- and the one CD I would take is the sound track from “Wicked”. But you can’t just listen to it, you have to roll down all of the windows and belt it out while listening. Trust me, even though you get many, many, many strange looks, it’s SO worth it!
PLUS, it embarrasses the heck out of your children!!!!
:)
I would definetly have all 5 of my Sara Groves CD’s but my Third Day CD’S would be right along in the mix. I actually got to stand in line and meet/greet & get their autographs/pictures a few years ago. They were so nice and even though there was a one item limit to get signed they were gracious enough to sign my brother-in-laws CD who didn’t get to come due to aiding my sick sister. I didn’t even have to ask them to, they just did it joyfully!
Megan(FAN)
HUGE HUGE HUGE Third Day fan here. I ALWAYS have third day in the car, but also, on LONG road trips, gotta have a mix tape (ipod actually) of some good old 80’s songs.
And of course, a bit of Hannah Montana, and High School Musical thrown in for my little one….
Well. I don’t usually enter the contests. But I have to enter this one because it got me thinking about the last time I took a road trip.
I went down south to meet some new friends, if you know what I mean.
And the CD I listened to almost nonstop was Bryan Adams Greatest Hits.
Jack Johnson – any really – but if I could bring only one I’d bring On and On
My new favorite would have to be BarlowGirl, their first CD (sorry can’t remember the title). Love them and their message!
Blessings
Sue
marklovessue@numail.org
Currently the most important CD we need for a road trip is one my husband made for my son with lots of kiddy songs. However, if I was alone it’s have to be either David Crowder or Shane and Shane.
Oh I love any Watermark. Christy Nockels is my absolute favorite. But if I was with my husband we would probably have Newsboys or Third Day on.
Robbie Seay Band-Give Yourself Away
oh and Veggie tales for the 3 yr old crowd!
A homemade mix of 70’s & 80’s songs that my husband made…does this count? :) Thanks for the giveaway!
Passion
or
SCC
or
Hillsong/Hillsong United
or
Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Paul Baloche, David Crowder
oops, way more than one – but that’s the glory of the iPod’s shuffle feature!
classic fifties make their way into our road trip …..lately we listen to 10th Avenue North a lot!
the soundtrack from saturday night fever…. and u2 anything.
Too hard to decide!
But I love The Eagles Greatest Hits because they remind me of driving cross country in the baby blue station wagon as a kid.
Rest in peace, Pontiac Safari.
Andrew Peterson!
I sure hope it’s not too late to get in the contest. I love Third Day! They are probably my favorite Christian group.
I’ve been listening to Cobie Caillat recently and I like her style.
Strong Tower CD by Kutless!
I would like to be entered to win on of the CDs too. Thanks.
My favorite is one no one has ever heard of, and you can’t get it anymore on CD (it’s out of print). But oh wow, I checked, and you CAN get it on iTunes. Go figure.
So my favorite is “Thifty Mr. Kickstar” by Dryve. Despite the download rates, the best song is “Rain,” which is hands down my favorite worship song ever. I got to see them perform it live before they broke up. It’s long on the CD and longer live. It starts slow and builds, sounds a little country although they’re definitely a ROCK band. LOVE IT. I remember listening to “Rain” one day, really getting into it, and it began pouring down rain. Kinda like a God thing or something. ;-)
The rest of the album is great too; don’t get me wrong. It’s what I call a “desert island” disc (if you had to choose 10 albums to be stranded with on a desert island, what would you pick?). It’s been on my list since it came out, oh, 15 years ago.
Roadtrip with or without kids?
With: any Toby Mac, all my kids from age 3-15 LOVE him.
Without: classic Petra…oh, yeah Baby!!
Oh, I would soooo love to win this. A CD that I find myself popping in over and over through the years would be Selah’s 2004 CD Hiding Place. The signature song My Hiding Place is one of my top most worshipful songs. I can truly be in the presence of the Lord when that song is on. However, I love any really exalting music!!
Blessings,
Trixi
If I’m traveling with my kids, it’s the High School Musical soundtrack or perhaps now Camp Rock. Makes everybody happy.
If I don’t have to worry about what they think, I usually put on the country playlist from my iPod. Big ole mix of Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, and a ton of others.
I love (anything) SCC. But his new Cinderella is my favorite road trip choice (car ride, now with rising gas prices!)
Stephanie
Depends on who is in the car with me – kids, they like country, hubby, he wants oldies, by myself, Brooklyn Tab with the Crabb family!
My WOW CDs for sure!!! I have all of them and love them so much b/c they are such a great mix of all my fav songs.
Growing up my dad would always put a Hal Ketchum tape in on long trips, now it doesn’t seem like a road trip w/o Hal.
Matt Redmans’ “Blessed Be The Lord” CD.
And any of the Chris Tomlin’s CD. (mine is a compilation of my favorites of him put together by friend. Same with Casting Crowns)
I kept changing my my every time I read another comment. So many favorites!
But this week, I’m headed to a Florida beach, so I’m taking Jimmy Buffet.
David Crowder Band’s “Illuminate” cd is one of my all time favorites, as is Third Day’s “Offerings,” both of them.
Good choices. Third Day is always in our top 10 for trips of any kind!
Road Trip to the Beach- Beach Boys Greatest Hits
Road Trip to family Christmas- Amy Grant Home for Christmas
Road Trip anywhere else- Mandisa or Jimmy Buffett (they are very similar, you know.)
I, too, love Hymned #1 by Bart Millard (just got done listening to it!) and Phillips, Craig and Dean Top of My Lungs. We are traveling from Tuscaloosa, AL back to Indiana as we speak, or type I mean!
I said “Hey Boomama!” as we went through B-ham, by the way.
Because I’m not strange or nothin’!
This AT&T wireless card thingy is awesome! We’re in Franklin, TN right now and we may just pick up some lunch at Captain D’s~~ Although it’s not 4:30 in the afternoon, so The Cottrells probably aren’t there for supper yet! :)ha
Back to music, we have Selah and Mark Schultz along for the ride, too!
My favorite road trip CD is Gateway Worship’s new CD – “WAKE UP THE WORLD”
You can sample it at:
http://www.myspace.com/gatewayworship!
Great stuff, and we worship at church like this every Sunday – cuz Gateway is my church! WOO HOO!
Before that we listened a lot to Jamie Smith, Jeremy Camp, Third Day, and I really like Kari Jobe!
Short trips around town Come The Morning by Chris Tomlin. Longer road trips the complete Phantom of the Opera.
My fav is any of chris tomlin’s cds.
Any CD featuring Southern Gospel works great on road trips!! The four part harmony is the only way to go.
Coldplay!
And also Patsy Cline…my mother and I used to road-trip to my aunt’s in AL belting it out with Patsy the whole way there. :0) Good times…
I like to take clean secular songs and sing them as praise songs. Natasha Beddingfield’s Unwritten and Pocket Full of Sunshine are two of my FAVS right now.
Seriously… I can praise me some Jesus with these two songs.
I also love anything by Sara Groves and Lindsey Kane.
Sophie- saw you (and Melanie’s) face(s) on the LPM video highlighting Deeper Still Atlanta. Clearly Bet (and company) knows a good thing when they see it because there are also a few great shots of Angie in her denim trousers.
:) Hugs!!
I, too, am loving your lists and suggestions of Christian music, BooMama! Two days ago I spent quite a lot of time and $ on Itunes, thanks to you : )
Our favorite roadtrip cd is a compilation cd that a friend made for me – movie soundtraks – Sound of Music, Meet me in St Louis, the old Cinderella, and Rosemary Clooney and Frank Sinatra. While on a 13 hour road trip with my mom, husband, and 4-year-old daughter, there was something on it for everyone : )
My daughter is REALLY into Elvis which is funny. She is only 5.. It is a karyoke CD that we listen to. Her favorite song is Blue Suede Shoes. . .
I love George Strait’s “Pure Country” soundtrack!
We really like the WOW CDs…a wide variety of our favorite Christian songs. Other than that our most recent favorite was the first song only of one of Tim McGraw’s CDs – “Live Like You Were Dying.” We took a road trip to Chicago about a month ago so our kids and 4 of their friends could go skydiving. Of course, the SKYDIVING line of the song was where we had to turn the volume to the max! That song will always bring a big smile to our faces :)
80s music. Especially if I’m with my girls. It’s make the road trips way fun and way fast!!
On our road trip to Deeper Still we had: Mandisa, Travis Cottrell, and Randy Travis’s Glory Train!!
Okay, I am way too indecisive to choose a most favorite favorite, but one recent road trip was enlivened by Green Day “International Superhits” (I think that’s the name of the album).
Currently in my cd player is George Stait, Newsboys, and Casting Crowns.
Jennifer Knapp – Kansas. Listened to it moving to Texas from Florida and then when I moved back. Love it!!
Shannon Wexelberg is one of my new favorites.
Thanks.
Elayne
Wow worship
Favorite secular roadtrip: Center Stage soundtrack
Favorite Christian: Shine…The Hits by the Newsboys
I just came back from a road trip and listened to Amy Grant’s collection there and back!
Must. Have. My. Bee Gees!
Charlie Hall… his music is loud and alive and yet there is beautiful worship as well. The perfect mix for all of your emotions during a roadtrip!
I would probably take Casting Crowns or Mercy Me on our Ipod. I am just like your reader, Mary. I have gotten away from my Michael W Smith, Sandi Patti (showing my age) roots and over the years have leaned more towards Country music. Now that I have a 3 year old daughter I am trying to get back to Christian music.
Wow, we are getting ready for a road trip in a week, and I will be loading my cd player with Frente (anyone here know who that is??) Chasing Furies, a mix cd with Cranberries and Alanis on it, soundtrack to a Buffy epi, My Chemical Romance, and probably one of our Passion Cds. Strange mix of cds I know, but I have eclectic tastes!
I love me some christian music! Thanks for doing this giveaway. :)
My favorite Road Trip CD is James Taylor’s greatest hits. LOVE IT.
I LOVE YOUR BLOG! Fabulous!
But to answer the question, Sovereign Grace’s newest CD, “Come Weary Saints” has been my latest favorite travel buddy.
Besides my sweet husband Steve, of course!
Thanks for your blog–it is greatly enjoyed and appreciated!
I love everything by Third Day, and don’t have their latest CD, so I hope I win!
Right now I’m hooked on Indelible Grace. I can’t pick a favorite CD of theirs, though.
My last two road trips I listened to See the Morning by Chris Tomlin and In Christ Alone by Keith & Kristin Getty. Loved them!!
I also listen to a WIDE selection of music, but I dusted off “Abba” recently and have had a great time with it!
James Taylor’s Greatest Hits and/or one of my Christian Artists Mix CD’s. How can you listen to one artist for soooo long???? I have too much ADD for that:)
High School Musical, since my road trip is usually with kids. I also love to pop in some Keith Urban. I would LOVE to hear some Christian music besides just the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (who I love, by the way).
Just ONE???
If I really had to narrow it down, it would be a VERY tough choice between Shane Barnard’s “Rocks Won’t Cry” and Jen Knapp’s “Kansas”. I Love to sing in the car to these two CD’s!!
I have a great compilation CD of various artists singing songs written by Andrae Crouch. It is called Tribute. I enjoy listening to it because of all the featured artists, plus you can’t go wrong with Andrae Crouch songs!!
The Coyote Ugly soundtrack.
Truly a great roadtrip CD.
I don’t know if I could ever just pick just one CD. You’re talking about someone that goes from Depeche Mode to Nichole Nordeman to Kenny Chesney to Coldplay to Monk & Neagle before lunchtime. Plus some talk radio, then some Texas country, then some Journey. I am ADD girl!
I have to go with Monk & Neagle. I got it from a wonderful blogger named BOOMAMA!
Love listening to Matt Maher’s “Empty & Beautiful” as well as anything by Lost & Found (www.speedwood.com)
Am I crazy to even attempt to throw my hat in the ring?!?
But I have to say that one of my favorite CD’s isn’t made by recording studios, I have my teenager make my worship CD’s for me. She takes all my favorites from Nichole Nordeman, to Chris Tomlin and puts them all on one for me.
Pretty cool teenage-trait to have, Mom’s CD-maker!
Favorite road trip music would have to be Paul Simon’s Graceland album. From back when they were called albums.
I have 3 little girls, ages 6, 4, and 1, so any time we go anywhere it has to be kids’ music. They are loving listening to the Ramona books on CD right now. If by chance I were to go somewhere without them, I would be so happy to listen to grown-up music that anything would do. I love country music and American Idol, so maybe Carrie Underwood?
Best of the Eagles…or anything Keith Green. Depends on the mood.
I love so much music its hard to choose a favorite, but lately the “Hairspray” soundtrack has been moving me. Or anything opera.
Jungle of the Midwest Sea by Flatfoot56 – awesome Christian celtic punk
i have been digging listening to my iPod lately instead of CDs on roadtrips. i’ve invented a new game called “iPod roulette.” i have over 2000 songs i have accumulated over the years and i set it to play all and shuffle. you just never know what you will hear. i actually listened to 3 Christmas songs today…
Allison Krauss- Forget About It, Elvis Presley’s Greatest Hits, Avalanch Ranch VBS CD for the kids!
I still really like Johnny Cash’s “Walk the Line”. That deep voice and the guitar music really does sound good.
Thanks for sharing the goodness :))
I have several Road Trip CD’s that I put together myself. That way I have a huge variety of things to listen to on my trips.
I like anything I can sing to. Currently my favorite CDs are “Go” my the Newsboys and “The Road From Here” by Little Big Town.