First, I love the (Dixie) Chicks and would have been happy with a mediocre new album after 14 years. At one point they were considering an album of Patty Griffin covers, which I would've been fine with. I'm tempted to say that I'd love anything with Natalie Maines singing on it, but somehow her solo album from a few years ago just didn't work. But the Chicks have been in my life for a long time. I vividly recall driving across the country by myself from Northern Virginia to New Mexico to attend grad school and playing Wide Open Spaces. It was the perfect song and album for that moment in my life. I remember listening to Fly in our tiny Albuquerque apartment after I got married. They came out with Home, their most traditional country album, when I was back in Virginia, but living down in the country this time. When I was at Kent State getting my PhD and becoming politically engaged for the first time in my life, I took the Bush comment controversy to heart. Of course the...