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Written by Knight Ridder
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Wednesday, 24 May 2006 |
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FORT WORTH, Texas — A few weeks ago, Chris Huff got a package from the Dixie Chicks’ record label. It was their new single, “Not Ready To Make Nice.”
As the music director for two of North Texas’ most popular country radio stations, KSCS-FM and KTYS-FM “The Twister,” Huff decides what to put on the air and what to chuck.
He quietly slid the track onto the Twister’s airwaves, instructing DJs not to introduce it but to simply announce the song’s name and artist when it was over. It was his way of testing the waters for how local listeners feel about the Dallas-bred country-music trio these days, three years after band singer Natalie Maines criticized President Bush at a London concert, which resulted in bannings and burnings of Dixie Chicks music.
Huff stood back and watched what happened. What he saw did not bode well for the Chicks.
Hacked-off e-mails filled the station’s in-boxes, and listeners called the request line with anti-requests, demanding the song’s removal.
“The negatives outweighed the positives,” Huff said. “The passions run deep on either sides, those who want to hear them and those who don’t. But ultimately, we have to listen to the majority of our audience and if the majority says don’t play them, then we don’t.”
In a matter of weeks, the song was off the Twister’s airwaves.
This is not an isolated incident: None of the major local country radio stations is playing the Chicks’ new song, and only the Twister is playing old Chicks material. “Not Ready To Make Nice,” around here at least, may as well be called “Not Ready To be Played on the Radio.”
This week, as the Dixie Chicks release their seventh studio record, “Taking the Long Way,” they will be doing two things: opening old wounds and trying to heal them, depending on your perspective. For the Chicks — Maines, fiddle player Martie Maguire and banjo player Emily Robison — this record is their opportunity to get their feelings off their chests, to address their critics and get on with their careers and lives.
For others, the Chicks are picking at an old scab, trying to get it to bleed again. “Taking the Long Way” is a record full of reaction — to the war in Iraq, to the war the Chicks face on their home turf.
Musically, it’s much like their first two efforts for Sony, full of meshings of country and pop. Lyrically, however, the band, or Maines at least, is still angry at those who are angry at her. “I’m mad as hell,” she sings on “Not Ready To Make Nice.” | Only registered users can write comments.
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