I was shocked to discover this weekend that the last two albums I bought were numbers 1 and 2 on the Amazon bestseller list. I suspect this hasn't happened for twenty years (if there had been an Amazon bestseller list 20 years ago). Usually my music selections are unlikely to make any bestselling lists...
Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris's All The Roadrunning is a wonderful album featuring Knopfler's songwriting and lazy guitar style at his very best alongside wonderful vocals from Emmylou. For me, it's one of those rare albums with no dud songs on it.
Dixie Chicks Taking The Long Way is taking me a longer time to get into, and has stronger and weaker tracks on it, I feel. However, I admire the Chicks for the way they've kept going against the odds and come back so strongly. Unlike many other right-wing bloggers, perhaps, I applaud their exercise of free speech and I don't believe the punishment they endured at the hands of ignorant radio hosts and even more ignorant country music 'fans' was justified.