Declaring themselves “nervous and excited,” the Chicks opened their Taking The Long Way 20th Anniversary Tour on Wednesday night (Sept. 30) at Detroit’s Fox Theatre, making nice as the trio commemorated a time of their lives that was anything but.
It was, Natalie Maines acknowledged to the crowd, “a very bizarre point in our career,” coming after she “had the audacity to bash the president.” That was George W. Bush on March 10, 2003, during the lead-up to the next Iraq War, when Maines told a concert audience in London that, “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.” The remark met with immediate backlash, including backlisting of the then-Dixie Chicks music on radio and other media, public protests, record burnings, death threats and feuds with other artists — most notably Toby Keith. Maines apologized later that month but rescinded it three years later.
“The incident,” as Maines referred to it Wednesday, was still fresh when the Chicks began making their seventh studio album, 2006’s Taking the Long Way. “(Producer) Rick Rubin reached out and said, ‘Hey, you think you ladies might have something to say?” Maines recalled. Bringing in a corps of all-star co-writers and players, he and the Chicks crafted a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums charts, which went on to be certified double-platinum and win five Grammy Awards — including album of the year and best country album, while the defiant single “Not Ready to Make Nice” took home another three, including record and song of the year.
For the 16-date tour, which runs through Nov. 2 (Detroit was also where the original tour supporting the album started just over 20 years ago), Maines and multi-instrumentalist sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer are playing Taking the Long Way in its entire 14-song sequence, aided by video footage — both unseen and from the 2006 documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing — along with another 40 minutes of greatest hits. Sublimely played by the Chicks and their six-member band, it was a trip down a not-always-pleasant memory lane, but cathartic and ultimately triumphant, and with plenty of memorable moments.
These were among the best…
