In music, as in life, timing is everything.
The Texas-bred Dixie Chicks learned this all too well following the firestorm of controversy ignited by lead singer Natalie Maines' brief, onstage remarks three years ago about the then-pending war in Iraq. Speaking to a London audience barely six weeks after the Chicks performed the national anthem here at Qualcomm Stadium to kick off Super Bowl XXXVII, she needed only 15 words to turn the top-selling trio into instant pariahs.
“Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas,” Maines said to cheers. The resulting backlash in this country was so heated – death threats, radio boycotts and charges of sedition – you might have thought the Chicks had personally bought bombs and missiles for the Iraqi army.
But how different would the reaction be if Maines made the same remark now, when the president's ratings are at a new low and many Americans question our military's role in Iraq?
Her 2003 comment seems innocuous compared to the sentiments expressed in such recent songs as Neil Young's “Let's Impeach the President” and Pink's “Dear Mr. President.” And it seems polite compared to Madonna giving the finger to a large image of President Bush at her tour-opening show Sunday in Los Angeles, where she suggested that anyone who disagreed could perform oral sex on the president.
Maines, violinist-singer Martie Maguire and banjo-player-singer Emily Robison sound comparatively restrained on “Taking the Long Way,” which never mentions Bush by name or title. But there's no mistaking the depth of their convictions, or their determination to hold their ground on what is easily the most thoughtful and moving work of their career.
On the album-opening “The Long Way Around,” Maines sings Guess I could have made it easier on myself / But I could never follow.
She's even more steadfast with “Not Ready to Make Nice,” on which she sings in unison with Robison and Maguire: It's too late to make it right / I probably wouldn't if I could / 'Cause I'm mad as hell / Can't bring myself to do what it is you think I should.
Anyone looking for a more strident or confrontational tone will be disappointed. After all, if the Chicks really wanted to ruffle some red-state feathers, they could have invoked the bumper sticker message: No one died when Clinton lied.
Instead, the group sounds liberated, as if the lingering controversy gave them the resolve to make music that is stronger and more meaningful than anything they've done before. Producer Rick Rubin (Johnny Cash, Shakira, System of a Down) encouraged the Chicks to dig deep to express themselves, and they responded with their first album to entirely feature songs the trio wrote or co-wrote.
The mature tone of the songs reflects their serious subject matter: infertility (the poignant “So Hard”), Alzheimer's disease (“Silent House,” co-written with Crowded House's Neil Finn), the sometimes harrowing impact of provincialism (the hard-rocking “Lubbock or Leave It”), and cautious optimism for our children's future (the gospel-tinged “I Hope,” co-written with Keb' Mo'). Even the love songs have a bite, as evidenced by these lines from “Easy Silence” (co-written with Semisonic's Dan Wilson): Monkeys on the barricades / Are warning us to back away / They form commissions trying to find / The next one they can crucify.
Stylistically, the group expands its country and bluegrass roots, with classic-rock nods to Bad Company's “Feel Like Making Love” on “Silent House” and Neil Young's “Heart of Gold” on “Not Ready to Make Nice.”
This is both a natural evolution and an acknowledgment that narrow-minded programmers at country-radio are unlikely to embrace these admirably unrepentant Chicks any time soon. But no matter: Country's loss is pop-music's gain.
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