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Outside Magazine June 1999

Road Trips
Can't Beat These Beats
An all-star guide to the best in road tunes
By Mary Catherine O' Connor

"It takes one to know one" is a phrase we haven't uttered since grade school. but in assembling this sampling of sound-track-for-the-road music, it seemed to make sense. Everyone knows songs are sweeter on the highway, but these musicians' musicians know better.

JOHN LEE HOOKER
"When you're a long ways from home and you hear some down-home blues like Charles Brown's 'Driftin' Blues,' it really picks you up. He's deep-deep blues, like melike when he hits a home run he goes deepand I like it."

JEFF TWEEDY (OF WILCO)
"I like 'French Connection' from the Upsetter Collection because it doesn't have a lot of words, so I can write my own lyrics to it. And it's kind of trancelike, which helps the milesand my mind melt away as I drive."

COOLIO
"I like smooth songs, you know, the Commodores, Lionel Richie. But I also like that new song by Nate Dogg 'Never Leave Me Alone.' The beat takes your mind off the fact that you're in the car."

MICHAEL STIPE (OF R.E.M.)
"One time I drove from L.A. to Atlanta with Jim McKayand we had Neneh Cherry's 'Conquistador' on repeat the whole way."
GILLIAN WELCH
"Neil Young's 'Tonight's the Night' is good for those last 100 miles the graveyard shift. He sounds as ragged as I usually feel."

MIKE GORDON (OF PHISH)
"Once I was driving three cats to the vet. They were loose, running around my feet, and since I'm allergic, I needed to get out of the car fast. But then 'Nellie Kane' by Hot Rize came on, so I just went around and around the cul-de-sac in front of the vet's office until the song was over."

LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III
"My favorite road-trip song is Little Feat's 'Feats Don't Fail Me Now.' I also listen to my Jane Fonda workout tape when I'm driving to gigs. She's so commanding and stern."