Coming Out of the Country

The Dixie Chicks don't want to be a country music band anymore. They complain that they got little support from their country peers during the recent controversy, and received no Country Awards at all. Says violinist Martie Maguire, "[W]e now consider ourselves part of the big Rock 'n' Roll family."

Comments

[rizzo]

Another "branding" problem solved.

[s'wonderful]

So long Dixie Twits.

[Jeff Smith]

News flash:

Celebrities act like spoiled children.

Who would have thought?

Jeff

[Jesse Walker]

So the Dixie Chicks, whose music actually sometimes sounds like country, are now a rock band, while all those country bands whose music sounds like '70s rock are not rock bands, and none of these folks are blues bands even though they all use the 12-bar blues form, and Kenny G is jazz. Have I got that straight?

[JFT]

When reached for comment, the Big Rock 'n' Roll Family replied, "Yeah, okay. Whatever."

[Curt Warner]

Wait. They shouldn't be allowed to say that.

[Xrlq]

So they're a rock group now? Cool! Now I can boycott them, too.

[alkali]

Country music drove out Johnny Cash (RIP), Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, k.d. lang, and the list apparently will go on and on. Bizarre.

[Thorley Winston]

Just out of curiosity, what sort of "support" did they expect to receive from their ?country peers? that they didn't receive and why did they think they were entitled to receive it?

[Warren]

JFT,
HA! That is totaly the funniest thing I read today. Better than the chewing and spitting gag I was going to make.

[Anonymous]

Country music drove out Dolly Parton? Funny, I don't remember Grandpa Jones forcing her at gunpoint to do BeeGees songs.

[Bali Bob]

I hope nobody in Rock Music is mean to them. We don't want them here in Gamelan music.

[midori-san]

It seems country music has a lot of narrow-minded, flag-waving, "USA! USA!" types in it, so its not surprising the Dixie Chicks, who choose to do their own thing, would feel alienated from them.

Of course, I was at a Rush concert last year which had a lot of overlap with a monster truck rally, in terms of the attending fans. Just goes to show--in music, you can't really pick your fans or your peers.

[Stmack]

If the big Rock 'n' Roll family doesn't give them much more support than the big Country Music family gave them maybe they can try Rap.

[Gene 6-Pack]

Perhaps they would get better treatment in France or Germany?

[Thorley Winston]

Country music drove out Dolly Parton? Funny, I don't remember Grandpa Jones forcing her at gunpoint to do BeeGees songs.

Nor for that matter do I recall either Johnny Cash or Merle Haggard being forced out. The latter performed in Minnesota not too long ago.

I seem to recall a CMT interview a few years ago in which Natalie Maines was asked if the group planned to stay in country music and IIRC she said that they would probably switch to a different genre (she said something about wearing leather and body piercings) if they thought it was the way to go.

[Gene Berkman]

I lived in Texas for 6 years, and have maintained contact. Everyone I know in Texas is ashamed that George W Bush claims to be from there.
I think the Dixie Chicks have a great future in rock'n roll.

[chthus]

Also, realizing they pretty much sound like a cross between Good Charlotte and Avril Lavinge, Dixie Chick agents are currently in negotiations with MTV execs to refer to them as "punk rock."

[Brady]

Hank III says it best:

Well we're losing all the outlaws
that had to stand their ground
and they're being replaced by these kids
from a manufactured town
And they don't have no idea
about sorrow and woe
'Cause they're all just too damn busy
kissin' ass on Music Row

So I'm here to put the "dick" in Dixie
and the "cunt" back in country
'Cause the kind of country I hear nowdays
is a bunch of fuckin' shit to me
And they say that I'm ill-mannered
that I'm gonna self-destruct
But if you know what I'm thinkin'
you'll know that pop country really sucks

[William]

"It seems country music has a lot of narrow-minded, flag-waving, "USA! USA!" types in it"

I find nothing "narrow-minded" about patriotism or love for one's country. The Chicks dissed a sitting President, during a time of war, while they were in a foreign country.

I just want to point out that we narrow-minded former Dixie Chicks fans would have done the same thing had they said this about President Al Gore.

[Jim Walsh]

Would someone mind telling me why I should give a rat's ass one way or another...

[Jesse Walker]

William: The one thing I really don't understand -- and when I say "don't understand," I mean "am completely fucking mystified by" -- is why it's considered such a terrible sin to criticize the president "in a foreign country." I mean, who gives a shit where they said it?

Oh sure, if it were on an official podium in Baghdad a la Jane Fonda, I could comprehend the uproar. But Britain was the most loyal ally the US had in the Iraq war, and anyway, the singer's comment was incredibly mild. I'm utterly baffled why anyone other than Bush himself would be offended by it.

[PapayaSF]

Jesse, I think the no-criticism-in-foreign-countries thing grew out of manners. I suspect it was considered like criticizing your family in front of company.

As for the Dixie Chicks, I had a similar reaction to Wesley Clark's statement that he would have been a Republican if Karl Rove had returned his phone calls: anyone announcing that their musical style or political ideology is determined by snubs is announcing their own shallowness.

[Ron Hardin]

Johnny Cash said in a recent Imus interview that his favorite from his latest album was ``Danny Boy.'' http://rhhardin6.home.mindspring.com/imuscut.cash3.ra (808kb)

[chthus]

I think the foreign country angles was one about balls. Yes, since this is not anatomy class, women can have or lack them. Had they called him an embarrassment at a show in this country, particularly TX or at least somewhere in the south, they would have taken some balls. Sure, they would have taken some flack, but they also could have pulled the old, we're Americans and we are free to speak our mind on US soil. But they were in England, saying this "bold statement" to a bunch of Brits. It didn't seem to be them speaking their mind so much as them catering to an Bush disliking audience.

Another angle that probably pissed people of is the whole idea of behaving differently when you either have company over or are out somewhere. I used to say all kinds of things and get away with it at home, but as soon as we were out or a guest came over, I'd get cracked if I said something wrong. Not just swearing, but divulging private family business, making fun of my sister, or a variety of other things.

[Thorley Winston]

William wrote:

I find nothing "narrow-minded" about patriotism or love for one's country. The Chicks dissed a sitting President, during a time of war, while they were in a foreign country.

I think it was also something more basic then that. Natalie Maines wasn?t making some bold political statement, what she did was seen as the sort of behavior you would expect from a two-faced high school brat who tries to integrate herself with the cool kids by dissing the folks back home.

[HH]

"Everyone I know in Texas is ashamed that George W Bush claims to be from there."

Yeah and no one Pauline Kael knew voted for Nixon.

The problem is the rock stations barely play their music either anymore.

[Jason Ligon]

It is amazing that they really didn't understand their customer base.

Sometimes marketing just misses - I recall seeing one of those not-so-fresh commercials during a football game once, but this was aggregious.

[John J. Coupal]

Until the smoke blows over, the Chicks have been spending a lot of time in old Europe. That part of the world appears to appreciate them.

[mark]

As someone who grew up in the midwest in a small town and is intimately familiar with typical slack jawed country music lovers, I can only say that it serves them right for ever catering to a bunch of backward-ass inbred Walmart shoppers in the first place. I wish them the best of luck with their new target audience.

[Kevin Carson]

Jesse,

Yeah, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Bros, even the Dead, would probably be considered "country" acts today. Not that that's entirely a bad thing--they'd sure beat the shit out of what's on "today's hot new country" radio format. Every once in a while, I call the local "new country" stations and request Roy Acuff, just to enjoy their puzzled reaction.

chthus,

Balls is right. The DC's earned my disrespect when they started furiously backpedalling in the face of some fans' outrage. They ought to know that once the professionally offended smell blood, whether on the left or right, all the appeasement in the world won't satisfy them. You might as well stick to your guns. Anyone so weak and whipped as to resort to that "Uh, what I really meant to say was..." crap DESERVES to be torn apart by the demagogues.

William,

There's a big difference between real patriotism and the manufactured patriotism. An example of the latter is the periodic frenzy of the proles in Orwell's London, that could be orchestrated and directed toward whatever target of convenience the Party presented. I think some of the most patriotic people in our history are those who RESISTED the U.S. government, from the Whiskey rebels on, and as a result safeguarded our liberties. For that matter, the patriotism of people like the Massachusetts militia in 1775 should be "unpatriotic" by the standards of megadittoland and Scarborough Country, since the Revolution was primarily a rebellion against the legitimate DOMESTIC governments of the colonies. It's been a long time since we've had a foreign enemy remotely as dangerous to our liberties as the domestic power of the U.S. government.

[nm156]

Speaking for the "Big Rock 'n' Roll Family," can we decline? I have never understood the DC's popularity, beyond the hot chick type of admiration, I mean. As musicians, well, who cares? They're like any one of a dozen others in a similar vein. Pissing off the rednecks was at least original, if accidental.

[Lefty]

Brady thinks Hank III says it best. Here's an excerpt from his website:

"3 & AssJack, Photo shoot for the forth coming HellBilly/Punk release 'This Ain't Country'."

If you hurry I think you can catch his act at the new Walmart in Dyersburg.

[David]

O/T: Am I the only guy who thinks the DC are quite UN-attractive? They look sorta "horsey".

[Shambolic]

Well, to be brutally honest I suggest that American country music has long become a moribund music form. Whilst I was never a big fan I think I can at least appreciate that some of the values that used to animate the great American country music of the past, things like giving a voice to the lonely individual, the outsider looking in, the renegade who doesnt quite fit with the society he or she is in the midst of, as well as a love of homeland and place- have basically vanished to be replaced by a kind of hankering for conformity instead. Oh well, maybe I have a hoplessly romantic idea of what Country Music is about and no doubt alert readers will ask me to justify with examples the things I have said above, but anyway as this relates to the Dixie Chicks let me simply say that if their music stands up to scrutiny then they will stand the test of time better that some of those acts who have been ready to criticise them. On the other hand wasnt Steve Earle really a whole lot more provocative- I would be interested to know how he is faring these days.
Patriotism is not simply measured by your readiness to agree with your government- whatever your government tells you.

[chthus]

The short troll looking one gives me the heebie-jeebies. She's one of those people that I just need to turn away from or change the channel when she comes on. Especially if she's dancing, scary.

[nm156]

Steve Earle is still around. Not sure if he's touring though.

[RIAA SUX]

You got to be fucking me! The Dixie Chicks, Rock? No! Alterno Folk, Maybe.

[Matt Welch]

One time in 1991 or early 1992, I was in a foreign country being interviewed by Leslee Stahl of 60 Minutes. She was doing a "Young Americans in Prague" story, and her angle -- not supported by any evidence to speak of -- was that my supposed "generation" despised the government just as much as they did back in Leslee Stahl's day, except that, well, we didn't have the guts to stay at home and fight to change our country. She spent an afternoon at our newspaper, trying to get us all to "admit" how much we wished we were living in the '60s, and how we were "driven away" from home by the terrible politics ... and the only guy who would bite was a thirty-something hippie type from Frisco. (She even begged the busking band I was in to play a 1960s cover song -- we only played one cover, and it was "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" -- so she could film the proof of her thesis.)

Anyway, she & I had a one-on-one, and I was a terrible disappointment. Apparently, when I had gotten drunk with her attractive young producer months before, I had made some goofy jokes about how stupid and awful American politicians were. So Leslee kept saying, when the camera wasn't rolling, "you know, think back to how ANGRY you were that day. RE-LIVE some of that anger." (quotes are not exact). Since I was 23 years old or something, and being interviewed by 60 freakin' Minutes, I was very anxious to please.

"Man, just LOOK at all those Democratic candidates," I said for the camera (quotes not exact). "I mean, EVERY TIME I see George Clinton on TV, he's so insincere I wanna barf!"

Moral of the story: 1) Criticize the freakin' president all you want (or not at all), anywhere you want. Free speech doesn't end after the English Channel. 2) Whatever you do, DON'T LET LESLEE STAHL INTERVIEW YOU. Before you know it, she'll be goading you into insincere insults against Planet Funkadelic.

[ron]

this is why i listen exclusively to finnish folk/polka/black metal about marauding, christian-slaughtering trolls.

[Anonymous]

I thought all press is good, even if it is bad?

[nm156]

Personally I think GWAR would kick their asses.

[Brady]

Lefty,

III's band "Assjack" is his hellbilly/punk band. He also releases solo recordings that are "country" and released by Curb. This is more than a work of marketing, go see a show or listen to the cds and you will see the difference is striking. If you don't know anything about an artist why don't you keep you mouth shut so you don't look like a fool.

[Don]

"I think it was also something more basic then that. Natalie Maines wasn't making some bold political statement, what she did was seen as the sort of behavior you would expect from a two-faced high school brat who tries to integrate herself with the cool kids by dissing the folks back home."

Yep.

[holly]

Someone out in the wide blogosphere (I'm too lazy to figure out who) attributed Natalie's remark to Insecure Liberal Hayseed Overcompensation Syndrome, or something like that. Makes sense to me.

What doesn't make sense to me is why anyone should be "ashamed" of someone they don't like being from the same place they are.

Ok, one other thing that doesn't make sense to me - using "walmart shopper" as a term of extreme opprobrium. Why not just sniff and call them "poor people"?

[Franklin Harris]

What do you mean Kenny G isn't jazz???? Nooooooo!

[Phil]

As someone who grew up in the midwest in a small town and is intimately familiar with typical slack jawed country music lovers, I can only say that it serves them right for ever catering to a bunch of backward-ass inbred Walmart shoppers in the first place.

Perhaps you aren't aware of this, but country music -- although I don't care for it -- is and has been one of the top-selling and most-listened to music format in the country for about a decade, even among sophisticated urbanites like yourself. You don't become a triple-platinum, stadium-packing artist by targeting Iowa and Mississippi.

As far as this goddamned, wasn't-this-dead-fucking-MONTHS-ago bullshit about the Dixie Chicks, "criticism" is one thing. "Just so you know, neener-neener George Bush!" is what you can expect from a) stupid people and b) ten-year-olds, which is exactly what they acted like, and exactly what they got treated like. Maybe when they're ready to engage the world like big girls, they can get more respect.

[chthus]

"Free speech doesn't end after the English Channel."

Matt,

That attitude may not have been so easy to put into practice in Prague just a few years before you were there.

[Anonymous]

Any time a singer says something on stage, she's trying to provoke a reaction. The Dixie Chicks did that, just not the reaction they wanted. Live and learn.

[john]

Steve earle is very much alive and kicking. He's just released the double CD "Just an American Boy". Earle's politics are very much inclined to the left and I dont share them, however, as a songwriter he's in the elite of the elite.

[rick]

w is from connecticut, where there is no bottom quartile!

[Damon W. Root]

To echo Brady just a bit, a typical Hank III concert features a full country set, showcasing his grandfather's songs and his own, then he disappears for a bit, reappears to warn the audience what they are in store for, and does a full punk/metal set. He's quite good at both. Also, he's currently the bassist for the metal band Superjoint Ritual, which is led by Pantera singer Phil Anselmo and features Eyehategod guitarist Jimmy Bower. When he says "this ain't country," he's giving certain members of his audience a chance to split if they don't want to hear Slayer and Misfits covers.

[Kevin Carson]

holly,

I was always kind of apprehensive of the Clinton questions when I told people I lived in Arkansas. I bent over backwards to reassure them I didn't like that walking piece of crap. So I certainly sympathize with Maines' defensiveness about HER piece of crap. (If by some miracle Hillary does get elected president, I'll have two reasons to be unhappy).

[Brian Hawkins]

Way back in my own "playing in bands" days, referring to the generic classification of one's own music was the universal sign of lameness.

[Matt Welch]

chthus -- Um, I'm aware that Communism fell in Central Europe in 1989. Not sure what impact that has on whether one should muzzle oneself in a foreign country....

As for the DCs, it boggles me why anyone would get so excited about what a musician would say about politics. Unless it's Merle Haggard talking about UFOs or something, who cares?