I Love Those Chicks

There is nothing that drains the coolness out of a Bay area conversation than coming out as a country music fan.  It takes a fair amount of trust for me to fess up to a music collection that is probably 20% country music, ranging from Lyle Lovett to Johnny & June to Steve Earle to Sara Evans to Robert Earle Keen to Kelly Willis.....gulp....a dollop of Garth to that zen master Willie.  That list makes it pretty obvious that I grew up in Texas.

Let me be clear in defining country music - I am not talking about some form of bluegrass that is just Yo-Yo Ma slumming or some tortured singer-songwriter "discovering" the Stanley Brothers or some side project that dives deep in sea shanties.  When all of these can certainly be enjoyed, they do not lubricate the soul and draw on the emotions in the same way that that high, lonesome sound coupled with a steel guitar and a 1-2, 1-2-3 beat that just begs for two-stepping.

I love country music.  There I said it.

From dawny

And in a special place in my heart, there exists the Chicks - Emily Robison, Natalie Maines and Martie Maguire.  I can remember seeing posters for them when I grew up in Texas and they had their first lead singer - they'd perform at clubs in Deep Ellum, at the state fair and at art festivals.  When Natalie joined, they morphed in a sound and an experience that was uncommon in U.S. pop culture - real women using their femininity and their power to create pop that entertained and nudged.

Wide Open Spaces captured a lot of the yearning that I had to move on from the great republic of Texas.  Fly was the soundtrack of an entire for my family & I - I can vividly remember my oldest daughter singing along to Earl while she was strapped safely in our back seat.  I was one of the token men at the their Oakland stop on the Home tour, a revival meeting that rivaled Oprah's ability to tell stories thru mass media on a personal level.

Then the incident happened - and my respect for them stepped up an even larger level.  Before polls caught up with them, they voiced the embarrassment that many Texans had about King George's war and the scary way that a group of men were driving our people and our country back, based on fear and greed.

Not to be too grandiose, but the Chicks suffered a great deal for this stance.  They got thrown off playlists, they got dissed by Toby Keith (honestly, is this man a Disney character in Cracker-land ?) and they got death threats.  Who would have thought protest music would have such an attractive face an a gorgeous 3-part harmony.

Their new CD Taking The Long Way Home releases today - I've been listening to it for about 3 hours already.  It is a fearless piece of work, a broader palette of sounds.  They were on Letterman last night.

One of their first singles challenges me to stick closer to my convictions:

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

Forgive, sounds good.
Forget, I'm not sure I could.
They say time heals everything,
But I'm still waiting

Comments

[mindi]

I'm so glad you came out of the country music closet! I love country music including the Chicks and Garth among many others. The funny thing is that growing up in Oklahoma I couldn't stand it. I ran across a special about OK country music artists on the radio during a homesick bout while living in Louisville. Not only did I feel less homesick listening to the artists talking about places I knew, I fell in love with the music. It's nice to find fellow CM fans in CA.

[fernando]

Picked up the new on yesterday in a market here in delhi (gotta love globalisation). Been a fan from the early album and whilst I'm not big on country, I enjoy their sound and have grown to appreciate the content on the last few albums. Home is a fav and I'm sure the new one will be big in our household as well.

[bobbie]

love the dixie chicks, enjoy jonny cash, but you can have the rest of them!

yes, i can't imagine CM is very popular in your corner of the world, but i'm sure 'the long way' will even find some play out there because of it's political message.

can't wait to hear the cd myself, just downloaded it from itunes.

[rick]

Traitor.

Just kidding.

I love Hank Williams Sr., JC, Kris Kristofferson, Steve Earle, even Buck Owens (RIP)

thanks for sharing.