Billy Joe Walker Jr.

As 2006 nears its end, no one can argue that the world of country music isn't, at this moment, the most adventurous in the mainstream pop music industry and that Nash Vegas is taking more chances on its acts as the rest of the biz relies more on narrowing things into smaller and smaller niches that can easily be hyped and digested. Sure, as always, artist's images and many recordings are calculated to score big as in any pop industry. The difference is in approach. The country-listening audience/demographic has widened considerably; therefore, there is a need – as well as an opportunity – for experimentation to see what sticks. This is the most exciting the music's been since Willie and Waylon hit the charts in the '70s, or perhaps to be a bit more fair, when Garth Brooks turned them upside down in the early '90s…

Another of Chet Atkins' attempts to break into the jazz world during his Columbia period, this recording veers well across the line into new age wallowing of the most innocuous kind. At this point in time, when a record opened with soothing ocean waves, followed by a gentle wash of synths, you could pretty much expect the new age to be lapping at your feet throughout. As he has with so many other genres, Atkins displays an instinctive grasp of this feel-good idiom, though he has to hold back his powers of invention to conform to its clichés and repetitions. Yet even amidst the twittering sound effects and electronic drums of "Up in My Treehouse" and the listless treatment of Keith Jarrett's "My Song," Atkins' guitar always exudes dignity.

On January 12, 1970, 'Time' magazine placed The Band on its cover with the headline, 'The New Sound of Country Rock.' In the taxonomy of popular music, Country Rock was now a thing, a categoryby 1970. There were Country Rock browser bins in some stores, and trade magazines like 'Billboard'routinely classified records as country-rock or country/rock, expecting readers to know what they meant.

On January 12, 1970, 'Time' magazine placed The Band on its cover with the headline, 'The New Sound of Country Rock.' In the taxonomy of popular music, Country Rock was now a thing, a categoryby 1970. There were Country Rock browser bins in some stores, and trade magazines like 'Billboard'routinely classified records as country-rock or country/rock, expecting readers to know what they meant.