The Playlist: Age Ain't Nothing but a Number

John Ratcliffe is not making age an issue in his Republican primary runoff against U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall, who turns 91 next month, so we start this week's Texas news-inspired playlist with Aaliyah's "Age Ain't Nothing But a Number."

The easiest way to enjoy the playlist is to download Spotify, which is a free program. But even without it, you can still follow along. Here are this week's other selections:

Two staffers left Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's re-election campaign this week. "Everyone agrees that there is a path to victory, but there is disagreement about what that path to victory is," one said, inspiring the addition of Alan Jackson's "You Go Your Way." 

The chairman of the University of Houston System Board of Regents asked the people of Victoria to have faith in the system as it makes changes affecting the University of Houston-Victoria, so we included John Hiatt's "Have A Little Faith in Me." That's followed by ZZ Top's "Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers," which was added because of legislative testimony from craft brewers seeking further reforms to the beer industry.

We have "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons because a radioactive waste site in West Texas received its first truckload of transuranic waste from the federal government’s nuclear weapons program. After receiving support from the federal government in an interstate legal battle over water from the Rio Grande, Texas hopes it has an edge over New Mexico — and the playlist has "Texas/New Mexico Line" by Town Mountain.

A special prosecutor, who is investigating whether Gov. Rick Perry abused his authority when he eliminated state funding of the Texas public integrity unit, said that what he’s found so far is “concerning.” So we included "Should I Be Concerned" by Allison Moorer.

Some Texas lawmakers and business leaders are frustrated with the delay in plans to drug test unemployment insurance benefit applicants, so we added "Tired of Waiting For You" by The Kinks. Meanwhile, statistics from the state's corrections agency show that officers are using “major” force against inmates more often, so we also have "Use the Force" by Jamiroquai.

And finally, since gubernatorial candidates Greg Abbott and Wendy Davis spent much of the week battling over pre-k funding, we close with a song likely to be heard in preschool: Raffi singing "Wheels on the Bus."

Enjoy!