Lucinda Williams

Rocks Off has to admit she never really was a Lucinda fan, originally thinking Miss Williams leaned too heavy on the country side of alt-country. But lately we've come around. For one, we love her careless voice - like Dylan, she's not concerned with singing on-key, and there's a kind of punk aesthetic to that. For two, in a genre that is very chick-heavy, she seems to have risen above the status quo with music that's almost genre-defying. And? She's an excellent songwriter.

We were wrong. We admit it. Besides, what could be better for a drive through the Chihuahuan Desert?

Bob Dylan

The Royal Albert Hall live album recorded in 1966 is our favorite Bob Dylan album because it perfectly encapsulates the essential Dylan - folk hero turned musical God. Also, the live version of "Like a Rolling Stone" from that recording may be the best rock and roll song of all time. With the scathing lyrics and the electric guitar, it's one giant "Fuck you" to the world of music as it was back then. Rocks Off has heard this song a million times, and she still gets chills when the piano, guitar, organ and drums all clash together at the very beginning of the song.

Dwight Yoakam

Rocks Off finally arrives in Big Bend National Park, the least-visited national park in the country. We meet our friends, one of whom is a geologist on his umpteenth trip to the Chisos, at a bar called La Kiva and listen to a cover band featuring the park's head botanist play covers of the Grateful Dead.

Later, as we're heading to our campsite in our friends' four-wheel drive (that's how remote the campsite is) they pop in their own years-old mixtape meant to evoke the wilds of West Texas. It relies heavily on Dwight Yoakam. We get our tents set up, cook a simple campside dinner and watch the stars while listening to Doyle Hargraves sing about how time doesn't matter in the middle of nowhere.