26,
May 2006 Dixie Chicks
At the Academy of Country Music awards last
Tuesday, the host, Reba McEntire, made a snide, outrageously unfunny comment
wishing to ingratiate herself to the neocons and religious right - "If
the Dixie Chicks can sing with their foot in their mouths, surely I can host
this sucker." More than three years ago, Natalie Maines, the Dixie Chicks'
lead singer, told a London audience, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the
president of the United States is from Texas." It seems many Americans now
share this unflattering opinion of George Bush. The comment, delivered less
than two weeks before the invasion of Iraq, set off a fire storm in the entire
country-music establishment.
Maines and
her two partners have become the country-west music pariahs suffering from lost
performance appearances and a wide spread ban of their music on country radio,
including their latest album, "Taking the Long Way" (Open
Wide/Columbia). Attempts to stifle
freedom of speech, is an appalling reflection on the country-music
establishment. It is encouraging that high profile performers like, the
Dixie Chicks, should place principle ahead of popularity and profit. A
lesson we should all emulate.
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