International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
Sunday, February 11, 2007
NEW YORK: The Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines could not resist the rich irony — or the chance to rub their success in the face of a country-music establishment that turned its back on them.
"That's interesting," Maines said in picking up the band's Grammy Award for best country album on Sunday. Country radio stations have largely ignored the band after Maines' infamous 2003 remarks critical of President George W. Bush on a London stage.
"Well, to quote the great Simpsons: 'Heh-heh,'" she said, invoking the gloating laugh of a bully character on "The Simpsons" TV series.
The Dixie Chicks' "Not Ready to Make Nice," a blistering retort to their critics following the incident, had already won the Grammy for song of the year. They drew several standing ovations from an audience well aware that their victories had a political point attached.
"I, for the first time in my life, am speechless," Maines said in picking up the song-of-the-year trophy.
She quickly got over it.
On the eve of the Iraq war in 2003, Maines told a London audience: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." That immediately made the band targets of hate mail, boycotts and talk-radio shouters.
In truth, the Dixie Chicks turned their backs on country, too. They traveled to Los Angeles to make their "Taking the Long Way Home" album with veteran rock and rap producer Rick Rubin. The result had more to do with southern California rock than country.
Dixie Chick Emily Robison called it a strange place to be, as artists without a genre.
"We wouldn't have done this album without everything we went through, so we have no regrets," Robison said. "I thank everyone who voted for us."
