Greatest Hits: Something to Be Proud of

As many people may know by now, Sony was recently caught with egg on their face when a security specialist found out that a recently purchased CD (Van Zant: Get Right With The Man) from Sony music not only installed DRM software (digital rights management, to limit and outright prevent copying music to certain devices), but it did so in such a sneaky way that it hid itself entirely from Windows, and opened the system up to security issues such as viruses.

This CD has the same copyright protection, called XCP. When installed, Sony hijacks your computer and installs custom software which:

1) Hides itself entirely from Windows by installing as a rootkit
2) Hides itself in such a manner that any files begining with $sys$ are also hidden. For example, if you install the XCP copy protection software on your machine, and rename "document.doc" to "$sys$document.doc" it then becomes invivisble to you forever.
3) Installs its own custom CD-Rom drivers to...Read more

I'm leaving off a star here not because of lack of talent--Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry are two of the hardest-working, most talented guys in the music business today--but because this compilation leaves something to be desired; namely, some of the earlier, low-key songs. Also, it seems a bit soon for a "greatest hits" release from these guys...but they do deserve it.

I'm going to make an obligatory note about the singles this album doesn't cover (I don't know why they aren't featured, because they were some great tunes). Starting from the first album and working our way up: "All Night Long" (with Charlie Daniels); "Self Made Man;" "Cold One Comin' On;" and "You Do Your Thing." I don't think I missed any. Fortunately, two rarities (the honest and gut-wrenching "Didn't I" and Robert Earl Keene's hilarious "Merry Christmas From the Family") are included.

Montgomery Gentry have managed to meld enough southern rock into their country to make...Read more

Montgomery Gentry is one of my favorite country bands. Their latest CD, "Something To Be Proud Of: The Best of 1999-2005" is a great CD. It's only missing one of their more popular songs, "Cold One Coming On". The content of this CD is 5 stars.

One downfall to this release is that it contains copy protected content. You will NOT be able to play OR rip this CD without using Windows Media Player. None of my other programs such as MusicMatch or Winamp recognize there is a CD in the drive. You have to install software to play the CD on your computer! This is why I gave this CD only 3 stars.