The "Chicks" Speak

I love David Bowie...and The Who...and The Beatles, also Sheryl Crow, Joni Mitchell and The Indigo Girls, to name a few. My iPod/cd collection/record collection is a bit eclectic to be sure. However, there are no country music types on my shelves. I don't have anything in particular against country. I'm just not a fan.

I think I'm going to have to break with precedent, though and go out and buy the new Dixie Chicks album. It's just a matter of principal damn it! I knew they were different when a friend had me listen to "Goodbye Earl" off of their 1999 album, Fly. It's this rollicking, upbeat song about a battered woman and her best friend. After her husband, Earl, beats her into the I.C.U. her friend comes for a visit and they kill the S.O.B. and quietly dispose of the body. The police half-heartedly look for him but don't pursue the matter because "It turned out he was a missing person that nobody missed at all." I smile every time I hear that. I have a rather dark and twisted sense of humor.

Anyway, all the craziness that went on with the Dixie Chicks three years ago is being discussed again because of their new album. You may remember that they made an off-hand comment about our peace loving President, saying that they were embarrassed to be from the same state. The comment was repeated in a review and the shit exploded from there. Record sales dropped, country music stations stopped playing their songs and they actually received death threats. Kind of an extreme response to me, but I guess politics is a more contentious issue than even I thought. Or maybe it's just that some people's heads explode when an attractive woman (or three) has the unmitigated temerity to have a controversial opinion as well as tits. Hmmmm....



Now they have this new album out called "Taking The Long Way" with a single titled "Not Ready To Make Nice". I just adore them for this. It's so inspiring to see these ladies come back with an album that has spunk, character and musical integrity. The songs that I have heard are pretty cool. I'm no professional, but I like 'em. They have spent the last couple of years having kids, taking care of their families and writing new music. They have had to acknowledge the fall-out from their "outspokenness" and are dealing with it head on.

"It would have felt very false to just kind of go, 'OK. Nothing happened.' And
there is obviously this important issue that hasn't been dealt with, because we
did go away to have kids, and I think a lot of people thought we were in hiding,"
said group member EmilyRobison. "But we went away to have lives and let things
settle down a little bit, and to come back out and act as if nothing had happened
would have been strange to me."

So often, after I've gone and shot my mouth off, I want to do just that - hide and pretend nothing has happened. Couldn't I just pretend like it never occurred, move to another city so I don't ever have to see the person again and have radical plastic surgery so I wouldn’t be recognized in case I do run into them? (sigh) Let's just say I am no stranger to chewing on my own foot. With my big mouth, I tend to offend by accident and realize it a split second after the words have escaped. I don't know that I would have the guts to come out and release a record with songs addressing the fun-filled situation, especially if I had done it on a "national" level.

So, right now The Dixie Chicks exemplify the courage that I would like to bring out in myself. I would like to think that I would stand up for myself in a similar situation.

Maybe I'll start wearing cowboy boots and learn to play the fiddle.