Music Row, Nashville, TN:

The New York Times reports on an undercurrent of the status quo in the "Country Music" money making machine. For a number of years now, the marketers of country music, once thought of as a form of American folk music, has identified its clientel as solely bought and paid for Republicans conservatives. According to the Times, some of the musicians are starting to become unhappy with this particular status quo that advocates supression of free speech and violence against dissent, i.e. the Dixie Chicks.

Could it be that an industry that has exploited sentimentality is no longer going to following in lock step the marketing of its products by draping their salesmen in red, white and blue cloth? That's unlikely, but the fact that a few of the musicians are now comfortable enough to complain indicates a crack in what had appeared to be a solid block.