Long Time Gone

Good ol' boys in the Red States are miffed that the Dixie Chicks are back after a silence of three years with a new CD.

Their new CD, "Taking the Long Way," isn't even due to be released until May 23, but their first single off the new album, "Not Ready to Make Nice," is already getting airplay on country stations (after its first full week of airplay, according to the AP, the song is number 36 on Billboard's country singles chart). Which is what's pissing off some of their redneck former fans.

It seems that, after Natalie Maines made an impertinent comment about President Bush at a London concert on the eve of the Iraq War in 2003, some of the country fans who had admired the group before now think they're a troika of Commie witches who should be burned at the stake. And who should not -- repeat, not -- be given any good old American airtime to spew their anti-American propaganda.

The group in turn, after a tearful apology for their ill-timed remarks on national television, observed how rock musicians came to their defense while their fellow country performers more or less kept silent. Afterwards, the group has said that it no longer considers itself to be a country group.

What do I think about all this? Well, my take is sure to be considered a little heterodox by both sides.

While I don't consider myself to be a fan of the Dixie Chicks, I like the group -- sort of. They've done work that I've liked and work that I haven't, as well as at least one song ("Goodbye Earl") that turned my stomach. But in general I think that they're three extraordinarily talented women. And I admit that I like "Not Ready to Make Nice" as a song.

As a statement, however, it leaves a little to be desired.

On the question of whether or not they should getting airplay I agree with a blogger named Somah who makes an interesting point (although he makes it a little ungrammatically):

"So many in country music fans are up in arms about the single demanding radio stations not to give it airtime. Ironically enough, this crowd that wants the Dixie Chicks banned from the radio is the same crowd that rallies behind Dubya to bring "freedom" to the world!"

One can't help but find that to be a nice little irony.

On the other hand, the video for the single is just obnoxious -- seemingly portraying the group as a troika of Joans of Arc standing up bravely against bigotry and injustice.

The facts are somewhat different.

The lyrics to the song have Natalie Maines saying that "I'm not ready to make nice/I'm not ready to back down." But the reality is that "back down" is exactly what the Dixie Chicks did after the controversy that blew up in their faces once Maines's overseas remark about the president was made public in the American press.

Contrary to what the song and the video might have you believe, when the shit hit the fan, they tearfully apologized on network television and then they hid. For three years they kept silent.

If "Not Ready to Make Nice" had been released in mid-2003 I would have been the first to applaud the Dixie Chicks for their courage. But putting it out now, when the War in Iraq has clearly failed and the president is a lame duck who'll be lucky if he makes it to the end of his term without being impeached, strikes me as being too little, too late.

And, under the circumstances, way too self-congratulatory.

Tom Moran