There was a period when there were few modern standard bearers. Now lots of people are doing traditional country.

That album was just rejected outright by country radio. It was like an open revolt against one of country's biggest superstars.

It used to be when people came to this country the priority was to build your home, it was something you learned to do. But now the priority is going to college to get a good job so you can afford to pay someone to build your home.

It's kind of that period in your 20s when you're on the verge of something and you feel that you're playing musical chairs, ... The music's about to stop and you'll have to sit down somewhere and you hope that you're making the right decision before it's too late. All the characters are well-intentioned, they're all trying to please everyone, and I think that's where they make bad choices.

...it seemed a part of her life, to step from the ancient to the modern, back and forth. She felt rather sorry for those who knew only one and not the other. It was better, she thought, to be able to select from the whole menu of human achievements than to be bound within one narrow range.

Clearly the pendulum had swung away from her. The new album is her attempt to jump back on that pendulum.