Jimmy Kimmel's musical guest tonight was country singer Tim McGraw. I'd expected the stuff that was labeled country when I was growing up, best characterized in a cartoon that I can't recall anything more about than the punchline: "bwanga twanga Better shut your face, buddy, before I ram this beer can up your nose!". What I got was stuff that was much closer to rock than country. Good stuff.
I told Jimmy that I'd have to lay hands on a copy of the album. He gave me the one he was holding up for the camera. (After he was finished holding it up.) He said that a lot of the band members grew up listening to the classics of rock...just like I had. I talked to a couple of the band members after the show, and they confirmed that, and not a few of them had been playing in rock bands before joining McGraw. One said he was as proud of the work they'd done as anything else he'd ever played, and I have to agree with him.
Guess I'm gonna have to punch up the modern country channel on my XM while driving down the road and see what else I'm missing.