Palace of Gold by Blue Rodeo

Palace of Gold, Blue Rodeo's ninth studio album, came out on Warner Music Canada in 2002, and it finds the Toronto country rock veterans, together since 1984, doing something bands that far into a career rarely bother with: letting new colors in. It was their first record with Bob Egan, the steel guitar player who came over from Freakwater and Wilco, and his lines slide and sigh all over it. Then there are the Bushwhack Horns, whose brass nudges the band's rootsy twang somewhere warmer and rowdier than their usual back-porch haunts, with Glenn Milchem keeping the drums loose underneath.

Coming after the stopgap of Greatest Hits, Vol. 1, it plays like proof that the story wasn't finished, and "Walk Like You Don't Mind" was the song that carried it onto the countdowns. Are You Ready came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.