I'm always interested when I hear people talk about the kinds of music and performers they enjoy. I'm genuinely curious as to how someone develops a taste for certain tunes or how they first learned about a particular album.

    For example, I had always known there was this guy named Johnny Cash out there. I heard a song or two of his here or there, but I really wasn't going out of my way to give him a chance.

    Then during my early teen years, a friend and I would spend hours riding the back roads of Georgia while talking about our future hopes and dreams. Our soundtrack was a well-worn cassette of 1967's "Johnny Cash — Greatest Hits, Vol 1," which became one of my first CD purchases. In later years, I would come to pick up Cash's American Recordings discs, which I think represents his best work - period, and Cash remains one of my all-time favorites.

    Here lately, I've found myself enjoying one of my newest acquisitions: Willie Nelson's "Red Headed Stranger." Nelson recorded this album in 1975 — the year I was born — and some of the songs remain in rotation to this day.

    So how did I get clued in to this fantastic recoding? Last year, the little lady and I hit the road to see a Cincinnati Reds home game. While we were in the middle of nowhere south of Ohio, one of the only radio stations coming in to the rental car played the track, "Hands on the Wheel," which I was unfamiliar with. I instantly knew it was Nelson, but I had no idea where that song could be found. We heard the song both coming and going to Cincinnati.

    Now I've got "Red Headed Stranger" loaded on all my desktops but two, and I have becoming increasingly intrigued with every aspect of every track. I fully recommend this disc to anyone, even if your not the biggest Nelson fan (prior to last week, I had only made one other Nelson purchase.) This is a phenomenal album from start to finish, and it carries a unique story in music history.

    So in answer to my original question, what's tops on your playlist right now?