Today on Country Music Television: Homecomings and hookers!

I watched a bit of CMT today (and I need to emphasize "a bit", because CMT is one of those channels I can only watch for about ten minutes before becoming really annoyed), and discovered Dolly Parton's video for the song "Welcome Home". She's still on her gospel/bluegrass kick; the song is basically a spiritual contrasting happy military homecomings with the unhappy ones. It's not bad if you're into that sort of thing: Respectful of the subject, realistic about sorrow, and not too pushy about the God stuff.

Dolly's recent shifts in musical style don't appear to have affected her fashion sense. In the video, she alternates between two outfits. One is an odd skirt suit done entirely in military camouflage, which makes perfect sense... if she's secretly G.I. Joe's office manager. For the rest of the video, she's wearing the same outfit she wears on her new album's cover -- an equally-odd red, white, and blue skirt suit, with made even odder by the addition of a matching pillbox hat. It makes her look like the world's most patriotic flight attendant.

Still, "Welcome Home" is a better song (and video) than anything Toby "Wars and Whores" Keith has produced lately. Take a look at his videos, and what do you see? "I Wanna Talk About Me" -- hookers. "Beer For My Horses" -- more hookers. "I Love This Bar" -- even more hookers! Am I the only one who thinks Toby Keith may have some issues with women?

Posted at 11:32:38 PM EST on 21 February 2004 from Trenton, MI