hey nathan
I'm not very familiar with the Dixie Chicks' music (too pop for me) so can't comment there, but I couldn't have been more in support of their politics.

justice!
It surely would be a pleasure to see the greed-heads at Comcast go broke. There was nothing quite like the thrill of pulling the plug on their service after one too many rate increases. I'm back with them now after several cable-less years, but first chance I get, hasta la vista, baby.

"Pleasantly surprised to see the headshot" isn't quite how I'd put it, but I know what you mean.

Anybody who invites the Cousins into the back of a semi loaded to the gills with firearms and parked in the middle of the desert deserves what he gets. He got off lucky.

Am I the only one who thought Jesse's speech about relentlessly pursuing Hank was a parody of the famous "I'll be there" speech from The Grapes of Wrath? (Whenever a cop's beatin' up a guy, I'll be there," etc.) Maybe not, but if so, priceless.

Jesus, yes. "I am I said/to no one there/and no one heard/not even the chair." Now there's a lyric for the ages.

For the more hard-hitting side of the 60s, hard to beat "2525," or "Signs."

Shiny happy people…did Stipe write that, or is it borrowed from Whitman?

Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds does, in fact, make sense when listened to on acid.

I never got into Zeppelin at all — actively dislike a lot of their stuff and am bored by much of the rest — but I still think Page's guitar solo on Stairway to Heaven is one of the best I've ever heard, and the dynamics of the whole piece are amazing.

Which is not to say I don't also love art where the ego is hidden, where the artist is transparent. Flaubert comes to mind. That's probably the sort of art you're talking about, that you appreciate most, and I certainly don't mean to disparage that.

Sorry, French, but I can't agree that the best art is ego-less. To the contrary, I think it takes real ego to produce great art — maybe not for every artist, but for many if not most. It takes nerve to be an artist, to think you can pull off something worth calling art. Because I'm writing a book that's ambitious and…

as the saying goes
Love the art, not (necessarily) the artist. And Norman was most definitely an artist.

It would be nice to hear a decent CD of Rubber Soul…the one I have sounds like each member of the band is sitting in a different tin can.

Speaking of covers, Merle's cover of Lefty Frizzell's "That's the Way Love Goes" is one of Merle's greatest vocal performances.

Checking allmusic.com I see that two of those — "The Way I Am" and "If We're Not Back in Love By Monday" — weren't written by Haggard but the performances remain favorites.

Kern River is tops for me, followed by The Way I Am. Other favorites include Going Where The Lonely Go, Mama Tried, If We're Not Back in Love by Monday, and many others too numerous to mention. What a catalogue this man has!

Interesting that Merle might be a major pot head. Doesn't surprise me, despite his earlier songs against it. One of the things I like most about Merle is his willingness to change — as Emerson said, consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, or something like that.

thank you, merle
What a great way to start the day, hearing Merle's stubborn integrity still shining on. I liked Nathan's phrase "impeccably grizzled." The first and last songs on this album in particular are testaments to the fact that it IS possible to gain wisdom as you age, and to keep producing meaningful work.…

Of course, it's good news for Black Diamond Bay.