The Dixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks have a new album out, and critics say that it’s the group’s best so far.
The Chicks went into hibernation for three years after a plunge in their popularity when their fanbase became outraged when lead singer Natalie Maines said she was ashamed to come from the same state as US Pres. George Bush. This was in 2003, and in reaction to Bush sending troops to Iraq and bombing the life out of the country.
During a March 10, 2003, concert in London, Natalie, a Texan, remarked, “we’re ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.” Two days later – just a week before Bush launched the Iraq invasion – she added, “I feel the President is ignoring the opinions of many in the U.S. and alienating the rest of the world.”
After speaking out against Bush and the US war on Iraq, the Dixie Chicks received various death threats. Former fans held pickets in front of concert venues, and called the Chicks ‘traitors.’
The Chicks express their views and, well, assessment about the incident through the single Not Ready to Make Nice.
The following is from a review from the Miami Herald:
"Taking the Long Way is intensely personal, and the first of the Chicks’ seven albums to feature songs all co-written by the trio, but surprisingly it is not a partisan album. Not Ready to Make Nice is not anti-Bush, doesn’t comment on his policies, or name any individual. Rather, it addresses narrow-minded intolerance and hatred. Maines is unrepentant, It’s too late to make it right / I probably wouldn’t if I could, and she’s shocked at how low some would go:
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger / And how in the world can the words that I said / Send somebody so over the edge / That they’d write me a letter / Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing / Or my life will be over.
Stung by the ban of their music on country radio, and unapologetically stubborn, the trio rips the threads out of the straitjacket parameters of Nashville and offers the barest hint of country through 66 minutes of music. Rubin enlists members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Heartbreakers, the Jayhawks, Semisonic and Bonnie Raitt for a gritty pop/rock flavor."
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Also, last night I saw a 60 Minutes feature on the Chicks, and it made me feel so proud to be, well, a fan because Natalie said "The music that’s important to me has always been the kind of music that stood for something… We write songs not so much because of what the radio stations will think, but more importantly because how we feel about the songs and what they’re about."
At this juncture when 70% of the American people have already expressed alarm over the continuing war in Iraq and the rising number of casualties among the US soldiers, I suppose it must do the Dixie Chicks some feeling of vindication and comfort.
