Blog Posts by Robert of the Radish

Lilith Fair was a female-centric music festival that was produced for three years running in the late 1990's (1997, 1998 and 1999). The festival was founded by musician Sarah McLachlan after she was insulted by a music industry that refused to give female artists the credit and respect they deserved.

Also referred to in some circles as Girlapalooza, Lesbopalooza and Breast-fest, Lilith Fair was named after Lilith, a mythological female demon, sometimes referred to as Adam's first wife.

The festival was a big deal at the time, and although the artists featured spanned many genres and styles, they were all bound by their common sisterhood.

This playlist features a double-cd set of songs by artists who were part of the Lilith Fair festival a decade ago.

The Lilith Fair Festival Playlist

1. Sunny Came Home - Shawn Colvin

2. Nobody's Supposed To Be Here - Deborah Cox

3. Strong Enough - Sheryl Crow

4. Travelin' Soldier - Dixie Chicks 

5. Closer To Fine - Indigo Girls

6. Simply Beautiful -

Being that Ireland is surrounded by the sea, it's no wonder that the seafaring life has inspired a myriad of Irish songwriters. This playlist looks at Celtic music about, or inspired in some way by the ocean. From tales of immigration on cramped ships, to working the sea for survival, to general ocean-centric odes and sea shanties. This 20 track playlist features both traditional and contemporary Celtic artists -- including The Chieftains, The Pogues, Boys Of The Lough, Planxty, The Clancy Brothers, The Dubliners, De Dannan, Sharon Knight, Altan, The Irish Rovers and more.

There is something appealing about the old salt who faces enormous hardships working on ships at sea for months or years at a time. The reality is however, no matter how beautiful the ocean is, a life at sea is a hard one -- unless you're working on a cruise ship. I will choose to keep my romanticized version of the sea and this playlist is a good start.

Celtic Sea Songs

1. Over The Sea to The Skye - James Galway

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I've been wanting to do a playlist like this for a long time, but the time required has kept me from jumping in. Well, I finally threw caution to the wind and built my first "road trip playlist". It's not merely a group of songs about the road, but is instead a collection of songs that synch up with a planned route. In this case, the route is one I take often between my new home and my old one. The 3 hour drive from Charlotte, NC to Charleston, SC. The songs in the playlist are timed against the route and will tell you something about the area you happen to be driving through at the time.

I make the assumption that you follow the route as drawn by Yahoo! Maps and that your speed is about 80 miles per hour, which seems to be the accepted number on I-77 and I-26. Of course, I do not promote going over the speed limit, so the fast forward on your subscription ready device will come in handy if you're not a law breaker.

We start our playlist in uptown Charlotte, NC. After you get into

 Van Morrison - Keep It Simple

62-year old Irish legend Van Morrison still has an overabundance of soul, his 33rd full-length studio album, titled Keep It Simple, has everything you want in a Van Morrison album. Van's soulful vocals steal the show, as they should, but are supported by tasteful and masterful instrumentation that's low on flash, but high on feeling. If you focus on details you'll be wowed by the gospel-tinged backing vocals, a perfect B3 underline, a melodic guitar riff,  a warm steel pedal, a heartfelt lyric, or any number of other elements that never bring too much attention to themselves. However, the brilliance here is how every ingredient comes together to create not just a great song or even a great album, but a great experience — something that will stick with you. The third song on the album is titled "That's Entrainment" and I must admit I had to look the word up. Entrainment is a "physics phenomenon of resonance, first observed in the 17th century. It's

From late February to late April many of our fine institutions of higher learning stop classes for what is known as "spring break".

During this time many students separate themselves from the books and travel to tropical destinations. Once on location they partake in ritualistic rites of passage that usually include dancing, alcohol, drugs and fornication.

Since music is a big part of spring break I thought I would take a stab at creating the ultimate spring break party mix. In order to do it I first had to take off my critic hat. After all, spring break is not about analyzing or intellectual honesty -- it's about throwing inhibitions to the wind and having fun. So the 50 songs selected for this list are infectiously hedonistic.

Genre was not considered so you'll find tracks from across the spectrum of popular music, but each one will instill a strong desire to dance, drink, laugh, or hump.

In other words, no spring break is complete without songs like those found in this

The automobile has been a symbol of status, freedom and power for as long as we've been driving them. So it's no surprise that the car has been immortalized in song. For this playlist I focused on a genre that has produced a plethora of timeless car songs -- Classic Rock.

Now a few points I would like to make about the selection parameters before I get the inevitable comments like "HOW COULD YOU LEAVE OUT 'Motorbreath' by Metallica you idiot!".

1. SONG AVAILABILITY: If a song is not available at the time I created this playlist it is not included here. What makes a playlist column valuable is the fact that you can click the play button and listen to the songs in full, not just :30 samples. So, this rule automatically excludes worthy songs like "Baby You Can Drive My Car" by the Beatles and "Low Rider" by War.

2. GENRE: It had to be classic rock, no other genre was considered. Now I understand that many songs skirt the edges of the genre. So in some cases I chose to include borderline

Over the last decade or so, car companies have become known for launching the careers of musicians whose music is featured in their television ad campaigns and for reviving interest in older bands. In fact, its almost automatic that songs featured in a good TV ad can expect to see big increases in popularity and sales. This playlist features 18 tracks that have been used by Mitsubishi Motors in 18 memorable TV commercials.

Mitsubishi is a Japanese conglomerate that was founded in 1870 as a shipping company, it has since grown to include over 500 Mitsubishi Group companies employing over 50,000 people across the globe.

The name Mitsubishi comes from the Japanese words Mitsu, which means three and Hishi, which means water chestnut, but is also used to denote a diamond shape. This is why the company's logo is a set of 3 diamonds.

You have certainly used a Mistubishi product sometime in your life as their core member companys produce Kirin Beer, 3 Diamond Seafood, Nikon cameras, Nippon

"Jungle Boogie" is a funk song recorded by Kool & the Gang for their 1973 album Wild and Peaceful.

The song soared to the top ten as a single and became hugely popular in dance clubs across the country. It's spoken lead vocal was performed by the band's roadie Don Boyce and an instrumental version of the tune with an overdubbed flute part and additional percussion instruments titled "Jungle Jazz" appeared on the album Spirit of the Boogie.

"Jungle Boogie" has been repeatedly sampled on songs including the The Beastie Boys' 1989 release "Hey Ladies", Madonna's 1992 top ten hit "Erotica" and Janet Jackson's 1994 top ten single "You Want This".  Hip-hop artists have used the song's infectious beat to provide the foundation for countless tracks.

This playlist starts with the original Kool & The Gang version of "Jungle Boogie" and is followed by 13 more songs that sample it including the three previously mentioned.

Songs That Sample "Jungle Boogie" Playlist

1. Jungle Boogie - Kool & The