Setting Their Own Terms

by Beverly Tjerngren

I love the Dixie Chicks. I was a devoted fan from the first time I heard their breakthrough single, "I Can Love You Better" way back in the fall of 1997. I bought their Wide Open Spaces album as soon as it hit the stores, and my baby daughter and I spent more hours than I can count singing and dancing to all the great songs, swaying slowly to the ballads and full-on shaking our moneymakers to the upbeat numbers. It's one of those CDs I never get tired of--I had it in my player as recently as yesterday.

The group went from strength to strength with follow-up albums, Fly and Home, both of which were in heavy rotation at my house and in my car. And I wasn't the only one who couldn't get enough. The Dixie Chicks were an unqualified success, selling tens of millions of albums worldwide and selling out huge arenas. Then they hit a wall. At a concert in London in March 2003, on the eve of the latest U.S. invasion of Iraq, lead singer Natalie Maines made an off-the-cuff remark that the group was ashamed that the President of the United States was from Texas. As soon as American media got wind of that tidbit, the tides turned for the Dixie Chicks. They became pariahs in short order, all but blacklisted in Nashville and reviled by flag-waving "patriots" riding high on zealotry.

After a number of months publicly weathering the storm--which at its worst included death threats made on the trio--the Dixie Chicks retreated from the limelight and spent some time focusing on family. Contrary to what some may have thought, however, they weren't waving a white flag or even resting on their laurels. They have a new album out, titled Taking the Long Way, and they're better than ever. Maines's voice is still exquisite and the group's instrumentals are still fantastic. Best of all, though, the Dixie Chicks have remained true to themselves, accepting the consequences for saying what they believe is right, and standing firm and unapologetic against what's wrong.

I love all the songs on the new CD, but so far my favorite is "Not Ready To Make Nice," which directly addresses the firestorm of the past three years. Co-written by all three Dixie Chicks and Dan Wilson of Semisonic fame (another of my favorites), it's aimed not at Bush or U.S. foreign policy or even the legions of fans that deserted them, but rather at the hatred they were met with for speaking their minds. These words sung in Maines's strong, clear, unrepentant voice put goosebumps on my arms:

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don't mind sayin'
It's a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger

And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they'd write me a letter
Sayin' that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I'm not ready to make nice
I'm not ready to back down
I'm still mad as hell and
I don't have time to go round and round and round
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*

I want to buy a thousand copies of the CD based on this song alone. Pardon my lame teen-speak, but the Dixie Chicks ROCK. They rock hard. Here's hoping they never back down.

*Maguire, Martie, Natalie Maines, Emily Robison, and Dan Wilson. "Not Ready To Make Nice." Lyrics. Perf. The Dixie Chicks. Taking the Long Way. Woolly Puddin' Music (BMI), Chrysalis Music, Sugar Lake Music (ASCAP), 2005.