The Dixie Hypocrites

A pretty good explanation of why I can't stand the Dixie Chicks, and have lost some respect for those that support them...

From the Lubbock (Natalie's hometown) Avalance-Journal...

Chicks keep striving to shrug off country label

Now don't you feel foolish asking your favorite country station to play the new Dixie Chicks songs? I would.

Of course, I was aggravated when the Chicks described Lubbock to the nation as one of the last places still not playing their music, conveniently forgetting that residents in many cities, including Jacksonville, Fla., heard no Chicks music. Atlanta's two country FM stations still have not spun a Chicks song for locals since March 2003.

Shoot, KQBR "The Bear" (950 FM) in Lubbock was playing the band's music even as the trio kept moaning about a (non-existent) Lubbock boycott after higher-rated KLLL Radio (96.3 FM) gave up the Chicks' ghost at the behest of advertisers and listeners.

Yet from 1998's "Wide Open Spaces" to "Home" in 2002, the Dixie Chicks consistently helped country music expand audiences and boundaries.

And aside from the petty, childish inclusion of Natalie Maines' kiss-off of her hometown, "Lubbock or Leave It," the new Dixie Chicks album also is often masterful.
But the band still blew off country in cruel fashion in interviews with Entertainment Weekly and Time.
Maines painted every country fan's neck red, while fiddle player Martie Maguire insulted country musicians.

Then in June, Maines shocked fans in Los Angeles.

Country station KZLA had stuck by the Chicks, playing songs off the new album 225 times, according to the June 19 issue of trade magazine Radio & Records. KYSR, an adult contemporary station in L.A., had played the new tunes 38 times in the same time frame.
Maines flew to LA, ignored KZLA and gave her only interview to KYSR. Still not relying on the truth, she told KYSR that the Chicks had received "no airplay, except for you guys," in Los Angeles.

R.J. Curtis, KZLA program director, said, "My staff has been on the front lines for the Chicks. ... They feel betrayed," reported R&R. "How can I look (staff) in the eye and ask them to cheer on the Chicks' new single?"

Curtis said that he was told by Simon Renshaw, the trio's manager, that the Dixie Chicks are done with country because country radio is too toxic for them in all but about four markets.
On June 30, Chicks publicist Kathy Best e-mailed news that, in four weeks of release, more than 2 million copies of new Chicks album "Taking the Hard Way" had been sold worldwide.
But with Maguire playing fiddle and sister Emily Robison a magnificent banjo player, don't kid yourself.

The Chicks will not shake their country influence.

When the publicity machine eventually clanks to a stop, the Chicks, not the hype, must sell CDs with a fraction of past airplay. And to survive, they must fill venues after having insulted their most loyal supporters.

Ironic or sad, it didn't have to end up this way.

William Kerns' entertainment reviews and commentary can be heard at 8:15 a.m. Monday through Friday on KLLL (96.3 FM).