Bless the Dixie Chicks, baby Jesus

A triumphant Natalie Maines said "I'm ready to make nice" after collecting the Dixie Chicks' fifth Grammy last night. She damn well better not be.

"Not Ready to Make Nice" alone prompted me to buy my first "country" CD since, well, ever. (I'm not old school enough to have an album collection, but I do still buy "records" and wish more people did. My thoughts on the sorry state of the music industry, and consumers' culpability in it, will have to wait for another day.)

No song this year -- not even Weird Al's "White and Nerdy" -- approached the Chicks' defiant anthem for crank-up-the-volume play in my SUV. (Come to think of it, it might explain why my speakers are shot.)

I'm a huge fan of the mad-as-hell-and-not-gonna-take-it-anymore genre. I also liked the CD's title song, "Taking the Long Way."

In their honor, I may just play them both during timeouts of the next basketball game I announce. All the better that it will be Valentine's Day.

"Not Ready to Make Nice" was most deserving of "song of the year" honors. I have a bit of a beef, however, in the "best rock album" category.

Nothing against Red Hot Chili Peppers, which won with "Stadium Arcadium," but Tom Petty's "Highway Companion" was the best musical purchase I made all year. I loved Neil Young's "Living With War" too, for reasons stated previously, but Petty rocked my world.

He always has, but this was special. At my umpteenth Petty concert, with no less a warm-up band than Metallica, I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with my son at his first rock concert.

Petty didn't win the Grammy, but he presided over an important father-son experience. I didn't even mind that Zach preferred Metallica. What teenager wouldn't? But as I think back to seeing the Doobie Brothers with my eldest sister probably 30 years ago, I know he will always remember his first concert. And I cherish him as my "Highway Companion."