BUY THIS ALBUM!

If you have any interest whatsoever in "roots" music, bluegrass, folk, or "traditional" country music, you must get this album, and I'm not just saying that because Kathy Mattea is my favorite artist.

Coal is by far her best album ever.

Kathy is a native West Virginian whose family has been involved in some aspect of coal mining since her miner grandfathers. So “coal” is definitely in her veins, and it definitely shows in this album, both in song selection and in execution. I’m not sure there’s anyone who could have sung this collection of songs any better.

This album will win Grammy’s.

I can’t wait to hear these new songs in person. Hopefully in Nashville in June or possibly Boston in September (who knows, maybe both!)

GAC has a great show called “The Master Series” and they are currently showing a Kathy Mattea episode. If you can catch this on a repeat, I highly recommend watching. She has some great stories not only on making this album but stories of her entire (now in it’s 25th year!) career.

So go and buy this album everyone!

I guess I should also catch up on my movie list. I haven’t really been watching much. Haven’t been to the theater in forever, but there just hasn’t been too much I’ve wanted to see and I still have a free ticket burning a hole in my pocket!

27. Alvin and the Chipmunks (DVD) 6/10. Pretty cute for a kids movie. It is the chipmunks for pete’s sake! Not enough Jane Lynch, though!

28. National Treasure: Book of Secrets (airplane) 7/10. Better than I thought, but that could have been because I was stuck on a plane sitting on the tarmac for more than an hour waiting for weather to clear. Nice distraction.

29. Enchanted (DVD) 6.5/10. Decent, but not as good as the hype I thought. I was kind of bored a few times.

30. A Mighty Wind (DVD) 6.5/10. Decent, Jane Lynch made it worth watching for me. She’s just too funny!

The season is almost over!

Thank God! I'm so sick of the traffic and people driving who don't know what the heck they are doing. On a positive note, I don't think anyone has driven into a bank recently! (there was a six week period where 3 different people drove into banks because they mistook the gas for the brake.)

On the other hand, that means summer is here. Well, I don't think summer went away this year. There were only a few cool days this winter and most days that were normally in the mid 70s and not humid, were in the mid 80s and fairly humid. This morning was very humid because it rained quite a bit overnight, and my car currently does not have air conditioning which really really sucks.

Not a whole lot of movies to catch up on. This new laptop has been the death of my reading and watching movies. I play on it instead.

23. Feast of Love (DVD) 6/10. It was so so. I was disappointed.

24. Once (DVD) 7/10. Pretty good, interesting ending.

25. No Reservations (DVD) 5/10. Another disappointment. Kind of boring, actually.

26. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (Encore) 6/10. I hadn't seen this since the theater. The NASCAR stuff is so dumb, like in his very first race he takes over for a driver who just gets out in the middle of the race and leaves, so Ricky decides he can drive. He winds up 3rd in the race. Ok, how on earth is this possible. By the time they decided on Ricky to replace the guy and for him to get in the car and all, he'd have to have been AT LEAST 3 laps down. No way could he come back to get 3rd! And the wrecks were so dumb and unbelievable. Cars at that time rarely became airborne. Really I only watched this movie because I needed a Jane Lynch fix. Jane Lynch is a comedic genius.