Political music: Dixie Chicks not only ones who aren’t ready to forgive

Anyone who thinks the awards that the Dixie Chicks took home from the Grammy Awards Monday night were about the quality of their music is sadly mistaken.

The Chicks took a plethora of awards home including the coveted Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year honors, beating out some pretty powerful competition.

They also took home the best country album Grammy.

Really? The best song and album across all those genres? Has the rest of the music world missed something or were Monday’s awards a statement?

Bingo.

The Chicks have been having some issues with some of their fans since Natalie Maines stood up on a stage in England and made a derogatory about her country’s president on the eve of the Iraq war.

Fans all over the country as well as some fellow artists didn’t think it was her place and raised a fuss.

Maines refused to back down — and the country music organization responded — as did many of the group’s fans. They have been snubbed, ignored and challenged.

What they don’t seem to get is that it was not what Maines said — but where she said it.

Professing support for your country at home and then heading abroad to take potshots at it — is not honorable. And Maines did not stop there either. She has since continued her comments.

So, their market responded, and let the Chicks know what they thought about their statements — another version of freedom of speech, just one Maines doesn’t seem to recognize.

The pop music world welcomed the Chicks and gave them a loud cheer Monday. And hopefully they will be happy there.

Because as the lyrics of the award-winning song — some of us are still “not ready to make nice.”

Published in Editorials on February 12, 2007 11:28 AM