Have you written your list?

What has it been like growing up the oldest daughter of Johnny Cash? You don't know, and neither do I. Only Rosanne Cash knows.

And I hope her daddy is smiling at her now after her latest effort to bring some of Johnny's favorite songs back to life. As the story goes, and maybe you've heard it, Johnny was disappointed early in his daughter's life for what he perceived was her lack of respect for country music.

Hoping to instill in her a stronger regard for the deep musical roots that guided his life and career, he compiled for her a list of "100 Essential Country Songs" he thought she should know and learn.

As she writes in Rosanne's Blog: "It could have easily been called '100 Essential AMERICAN Songs', as the list covered every critical juncture in Roots music, from early Folk songs, protest songs, history songs, Appalachian, Southern blues and Delta bottomland songs, to Gospel and modern Country music. This list is not only a personal legacy, but I have come to realize it is also a cultural legacy, as important to who we are as Americans as the Civil War, or the Rocky Mountains."

Eleven of the songs appear on "The List'', her new album, which opens with Bill Halley's "Miss the Mississippi and You" (from Crystal Gayle's 1979 album):

I'm growing tired of the big city lights
Tired of the glamour and tired of the sights
In all my dreams I am roaming once more
Back to my home on the old river shore

I am sad and weary far away from home
Miss the Mississippi and you dear
Days are dark and dreary everywhere I roam
Miss the Mississippi and you

Roaming the wide world over
Always along and blue, so blue
Nothing seems to cheer me under heaven's dome
Miss the Mississippi and you

Who wouldn't want his daughter to know that one?

Perhaps a more important question, one posed by Rosanne herself: What list are you sharing with your family or friends? Something to think about...