Pensieri di un lunatico minore

Patriotism, freedom and music

Of late, two albums have shifted back into rotation on my iPod. The first is the latest Dixie Chicks album, Taking the Long Way Home (iTunes). I’ve been listening to the Dixie Chicks, off and on, since the mid 1990s, and was first turned on by something Ray Benson mentioned at a concert once. This album, to me, represents the culmination of a lot of changes they’ve been going through.

No longer content to live inside the confines of country music—not that they ever fit very well—they have shrugged off the entire concept and remade themselves with a blending of a lot of things. You can’t call it country when you have Chad Smith playing drums. The album holds tight to their foundational sound and I think that there’s a lot of great tracks. While I love their political commentary, and admire them for speaking their mind, I think “Voice inside my head” is the best track.

The second album that’s re-entered rotation after a bit of a break is The Revolution Start … Now (iTunes) by Steve Earle, who has gone through quite the ride over his career. Never content to do what he’s told, he’s made an amazing album full of anger and the very core of protest. Love or hate it, it’s a great album and demonstrates that there is some rebellion left in the rock world. A “rich man’s war” indeed.