>>My wife loves the Dixie Chicks and plays them all the time - I normally have an aversion to country music (ironically, one of my favorite groups, Yes, admits they were influenced by country music), but the Chicks are pretty good. I hadn't seen the video for 'Not Ready to Make Nice'....interesting.
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>One of my favorite moments in "The Last Waltz", Martin Scorsese's documentary about The Band's final concert, is when Scorsese is talking to Levon Helm about the music in and around Memphis. It's sort of a crossroads, Helm replies, and you get a mix of all different kinds of music -- country, delta blues, bluegrass, gospel.
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>Scorsese: "Is there a name for this kind of music?"
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>Helm, smiling: "Yeah. Rock and roll."
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>If you want to watch a good rock concert movie, they don't get much better than this. The Band were terrific -- Rick Danko singing lead vocal on "It Makes No Difference" sticks in my mind among many great ones -- and the musical guests are a who's who of musical history. Great stuff.
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>Another favorite moment: Joni Mitchell giving an exasperated look at the clearly wasted Neil Young. (Who somehow manages to nail "Helpless"). Ronnie Hawkins burning down "Who Do You Love?" "Mystery Train" by Paul Butterfield. Above all, Eric Clapton singing and playing "Further On Up the Road". Clapton lets Robbie Robertson, who is a pretty good guitarist himself, take a brief solo, closing his eyes and leaning his head back. Clapton smiles and then blows him completely out of the water. I can't imagine moving my hands that fast, much less making music doing so.
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>Recommended for some evening when you're in the mood for a little music.

One more thing we seem to agree on. For my money, 'The Band' was one of the best rock groups ever. They were different from anything anybody else was doing with the possible exception of Creedence who afaic, only wished they could be 'The Band'. Among my absolute favourites were 'Acadian Driftwood' and 'Christmas Must Be Tonight'. Truth is, I loved just about everything they did.

And I'm not even now, nor then, really a rock fan.