I’ve been playing with the Sansa Rhapsody and trying to see what all it can do. On my last road trip, I built a couple of artist based custom channels in Rhapsody and transfered to my SansaRhapsody to see what Rhapsody kicked out. I’m going to see the Dixie Chicks tonight in Tacoma so put together a country music channel with my favorite hillbillies including: Dixie Chicks, Jerry Jeff Walker, Keith Urban, Toby Keith, Clint Black, Dwight Yoakum, Jimmy Buffett (close enough), Willie Nelson and Brad Paisley. You can pick up to 10 artists and allow Rhapsody to pick the songs, pick additional artists and fill out a channel.

The Good:
- the channel was built and was easy to transfer to the sansa rhapsody
- the song list was long and didn’t get all the way through it
- heard a lot of songs from my favorites that I hadn’t heard before including a live version of Landslide from the Chicks and Willie Nelson covering “Spirit of New Orleans”.
- heard some new artists that I liked a lot (The Mavericks)

The Bad:
- I was in the mood for some rockin’ country and it mixed in slow with fast. It’d be nice to be able to base a list around some songs that have the flavor I’m looking for and expand on that.
- Too many Christmas songs! While I appreciate the country stylings of holiday classics, not ready for it and didn’t expect it in the song list.

Overall:
- A great way to discover new music from favorite artists and plug into some new artists
- Long list of songs delivered so you can set it up and let ‘er rip while doing other things (like driving).
- You’ll get some clunkers in with the jewels which I’m OK with because I have a fast forward button, it is a long list of songs and I didn’t pay for a CD or a song before listening to the entire track (ie; my risk of discovering new music is practically nil).

I’ll post a review of the Dixie Chicks show this week. SeeYa!