Last night, I was flipping through the channels and found "Afterglow Live." I guess I had been busy and hadn't really listened to Sarah McLachlan in a while. Maybe it's because my last album of hers was from 1997, nearly 8 years ago. But man, when I saw the concert I was transfixed all over again.

You know, some of the other female artists we talk about here are really good. I'm thinking about Diana Krall, for example. She's nice to listen to, and she makes almost every sound system sound pretty good. So I guess that's probably about half the reason why we listen to Diana Krall. That's why she's at every audio show playing in every room. They want to seduce the listener with her sultry voice.

But there's something a lot deeper going on with Sarah McLachlan's music, if you ask me. I don't listen to her because of what she makes the system sounds like. I listen to her because of the music she performs. I listen to her because of her passion.