Posted on 06/17/2006 5:54:37 AM PDT by veronica
Adam Sweeting assesses how the Dixie Chicks have weathered a political storm
Will it be the salmon teriyaki with organic greens, or asparagus tempura and tuna sashimi? As the waiter hovers with pencil poised, the Dixie Chicks debate the menu with the practised air of professional restaurant critics. The Chicks have traditionally been branded a country band, but clearly it's some time since their diet consisted of ribs, tacos and pancakes.
Sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire project a polished Fifth Avenue elegance, and vocalist Natalie Maines is a vision of sculpted cheekbones and smoky eye-shadow.
With their origins as bouffant-haired ingénues playing bluegrass music long forgotten, the Chicks are in Miami to attend a Sony BMG conference, where their new album, Taking the Long Way, is high on the corporate agenda. It's their first release since the group weathered the storm of outrage triggered by Maines's expression of shame that President Bush was from her home state of Texas. Although they've sold 30 million albums, the company was concerned about their commercial future.
When Maines made her comment on March 10 2003, 10 days before Operation Iraqi Freedom unleashed "shock and awe" over Baghdad, the Dixie Chicks were probably the biggest act in country music. Yet within days, their music vanished from the charts and the airwaves, apoplectic rednecks crushed piles of their CDs with tractors, and the FBI was feverishly monitoring death threats against the trio. It was the most heinous pop-star outrage since Ozzy Osbourne urinated on the Alamo.
"The reaction was as if Natalie had said 'Death to the President' or something," says violinist and vocalist Maguire.
"It was the bullying and the scare factor," shudders banjo and guitar player Robison. "It was like the McCarthy days, and it was almost like the country was unrecognisable."
The level of debate can be gauged from the way Maines was compared to "Hanoi Jane" Fonda, who was photographed manning a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun at the height of the Vietnam war.
The Chicks can't hide their disgust at the lack of support they received from other country performers. "A lot of artists cashed in on being against what we said or what we stood for because that was promoting their career, which was a horrible thing to do," says Robison.
"A lot of pandering started going on, and you'd see soldiers and the American flag in every video. It became a sickening display of ultra-patriotism."
"The entire country may disagree with me, but I don't understand the necessity for patriotism," Maines resumes, through gritted teeth. "Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country… I don't see why people care about patriotism."
There can be no rational explanation of how Maines's remark came to drive a red-hot poker into America's divided soul, but it's only now that some of the poison has begun to dissipate.
Early concerns about the premature demise of the Chicks' career subsided when the furiously unapologetic single Not Ready to Make Nice became the most downloaded track on iTunes, despite a lack of radio airplay. Then the album went to number one on the Billboard 200 after selling half a million copies in the week after its release in America last month. It looks set to be their first UK top 10 album this Sunday.
The recruitment of Rick Rubin as producer, the man who rejuvenated Johnny Cash, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Diamond and others, is guaranteed to extend the Chicks' appeal, though it would be disappointing if the album's thoughtful range of subject matter (from IVF to Alzheimer's) was overshadowed by the Bush episode.
"I think for longevity's sake, our music had to mature and we had to mature as people," says Maguire. "Not that this particular event had to happen, but it sped up the process for us and helped us make a record that's really meaningful to us, whether or not other people see that."
Survived? That`s news to me.
lol..next article.."How Zarqawi survived his scrape with two 500lb bombs"
Dixie who?
Here is the formula for Marxist Success in the music industry:
1. Hit it big as a Capitalist
2. Condemn everything that made you rich in the fist place
3. Live off your wealth while while wondering why no one loves you anymore.
4. Play empty arenas and blame someone else
They probably hired people just to download their songs a million times on ipod.
This article attempts to put the lipstick on the pigs but it fails. The Chicks sound really, really dumb.
This has been posted many times already...Which is good as it gives me the opportunity to again say that there's been a change in their concert schedule.
Please note that the Dixie Hicks will be playing:
Hancock High School Auditoreum July 11th. They will be the opening act for Da Yoopers.
http://www.google.com/musica?aid=IPuFyIe7Od&sa=X&oi=music&ct=result
My God, is it possibly for this broad to be any more stump ass stupid?
"I really don`t understand the need for eating and breathing!"
In other words, these girls are soooooooooooo tres chic, unlike you unwashed hicks and coverall-clad bumpkins. I'll bet none of YOU know how to project a polished Fifth Avenue elegance. All YOU know how to do is polish off a fifth of Jack Daniels.
"It was the bullying and the scare factor," shudders banjo and guitar player Robison. "It was like the McCarthy days, and it was almost like the country was unrecognisable."
Oh, please! Yeah, you're such martyrs, such noble campaigners for truth and tolerance. Sell it somewhere else, honey.
The Chicks can't hide their disgust at the lack of support they received from other country performers. "A lot of artists cashed in on being against what we said or what we stood for because that was promoting their career, which was a horrible thing to do," says Robison.
Uh huh. Because YOU weren't cashing in or promoting YOUR careers, were you? And maybe, just maybe, those other artists refused to support you because they despise you and they support the president. If it's "horrible" for them to express their disgust with you, then why isn't it equally horrible for you to open your blowholes and take cheap shots at the president, all for a round of applause from a bunch of Euroweenies?
This whole article is an apologia for the Dizzy Twits, and an attempt to salvage something of their careers.
Why did the Ditzy Chimps survive their vicious attack on their president? Because he isn't the nazi dictator the left claims he is. If he were half that bad, the Chimps would have commit suicide in the vicinity of Little Rock.
They just don't get it, do they?
Ozzy osbourn peed on the Alamo!!!!!! I did not know that....... I am OUTRAGED!!!!
I wish he would pee on the Ditzy Twits.
I'll take Toby Keith, Europe can have the Ditzy Chicks.. I think that is a fair deal.
Raymond
Natalie Mains is really, really ignorant. She doesn't know why we need patriotism? She doesn't know why she has the freedoms she has. She knows no history. My guess is that she is a product of public schools and is just a prime example of what the union schools are turning out. She is also a prime example of 'the arrogance of ignorance.'
Reminds me of Michael Moore...If you do a search on google, there is a website that lists all the hypocrisy of that fat turd, such as him owning Halliburton stock, riding in limos, and living in a multi-mill condo, yet his whole gig is bashing America, capitalism.
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