Remember when October was country music month, and the CMA's (Country Music Awards) were scheduled accordingly? Then, in 2001, somebody who probably didn't grow up on a farm realized that they could move the CMA's to November Sweeps and get big Nielsen numbers (and presumably big ad money). Wait a minute. Country music? Popular enough to be considered ratings-boost material? When did this happen?

Of course, nobody thought (or cared) to move the CMA's 'lite'- the ACM awards - from the end of the TV season in May.

The Dixie Chicks have just turned in their third week in a row of top selling album for the new release 'Home.' Impressive enough, but wait - there's more. We're talking three weeks of best selling album on the POP chart. Dixie Chicks? Pop? Has anybody heard this album? It's like the 'Oh, Brother Where Art Thou' soundtrack on hayseed steroids. Not that I'm against that kind of thing; on the contrary, I was brought up on that stuff. But I used to be one of a select few that would even entertain such a notion. In an early interview the Chicks talked about a producer they worked with (who probably didn't grow up on a farm either) who told them that, "Banjo just won't get airplay on country radio anymore." I guess he was wrong. Way wrong. Never mind that the banjo-toting chicks now have a three-time best POP album. With banjos on it. Of course it doesn't hurt that they're also doing covers of Fleetwood Mac songs (Landslide) and duets with Sheryl Crow (Strong Enough).

Not that pop music is offering anybody much of a challenge these days. Think about it - once alternative became mainstream, where else was there to go? There's no feeder system now. No wonder '105.3 The Max' is such a hit. Eighties music has come around for another turn, and somehow this is supposed to be new stuff. A cutting edge idea. Of course, if you think about it, when 'oldies' radio started in the 70's they were playing songs from the 50's and early 60's - music that was 20 years old. Now The Max is doing the same thing. News flash, 30-somethings: you're listening to the new version of an oldies station. Of course, they would never call it that, because then we wouldn't listen. "Us? Old? No way. Now if you'll excuse me I have to get into my mini-van/ sport-utility and take my kids to soccer/ scouts/ fill-in-your-8-to-15-year-old's-interest-here."

When I was growing up, listening to country music with a relatively small group of friends, there was a TV spot for local station AM980 WONE (yes, I listened to AM growing up. Yes, I had FM, but this was a good station). The ad featured a good looking model encouraging us to listen because, "Country music has changed - it's really good." As if somehow it was crap before? I was always offended by that ad. I guess I still am. Of course, country music was changing - thank goodness we had Randy Travis to bring it back around. Then some 10 or 15 years later Garth Brooks opened the door and invited all these pop audiences (who, granted, were running out of things to listen to anyway) in. Remember Garth on the Arsenio Hall show? Before he got fat? Before the Chris Gaines debacle?

Country has always had its crossover hits, its ups and downs in Nashville, and its strays from its roots. So it's popular again. So it's mainstream again. So country videos have more in common now with the Grand Old Party that the Grand Ole Opry. So a bunch of people who have no idea how to relate to this particular brand of lyric are on the bandwagon. It'll pass. The true blue country fans will be alone together again as soon as pop figures out what to do with itself next. Meanwhile we'll rely on Alan Jackson and George Strait to keep it from becoming so sort of alternative-mash-hip-hop mess, and we'll wait for the Dixie Chicks to get fat. Like Wynonna. And Garth. And Trisha. And Toby. And Kathy Mattea (anybody remember Kathy Mattea?). After all, it's a long-standing country tradition.