Still “Not Ready to Make Nice” With the Dixie Chicks?

The Grammy Awards usually don’t make me sit up and whistle. But this whole Dixie Chicks controversy makes me wonder how music became so murky – people are questioning whether or not the band’s sweep at the Grammy Awards last night was “politically motivated.”
Couldn’t the same be said for the boycotting of the band’s music by country radio stations ever since Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines expressed embarrassment about President George W. Bush? Wasn’t that boycott politically motivated? Also, why do we look for the ugly side of conflict instead of simply taking joy in the prettiness of its outcomes?
Last night, the group won each of the five categories in which it was nominated. One of the songs in the album is titled “Not Ready To Make Nice,” a resilient follow-up by Maines to the criticisms following her 2003 comments.
Now, I haven’t listened to the Dixie Chicks, although I did consider going to see “Shut Up and Sing,” the documentary about their (almost inadvertent) rise to political statement. I am not writing this in support of the Dixie Chicks, but in support of “chicks” (if you will pardon the term) who don’t shut up. And in support of speaking out, or singing out, or shouting out, or sloganeering out.
Art has always been a happy place for activism. I wonder what Bob Dylan, that veteran of songs that socked it to the establishment, would have to say about the possible backlash against the award-winning singers. After all, how many roads must a woman walk down? Interestingly, Dylan himself was nominated for the best album award that the Dixie Chicks walked off with. I wonder, in fact, what Joan Baez would say.
Actually, I can’t help but think of the words in a song by another country music artiste, Lee Ann Womack –

When you come close to selling out
Reconsider
Give the heavens above
More than just a passing glance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance

Did Ms. Womack come out in support of the Dixie Chicks? Her song would imply that she'd champion their cause.
Well, whether the three young women are now dancing all the way to the bank or standing up a little taller, I know that we can all do a little jig for what the Grammy Awards did for reclaiming the freedom of expression.
Here’s what some others are feeling – reports say that the Grammy victory will cause a backlash against the Dixie Chicks. MSNBC quotes Jim Jacobs, owner of WTDR-FM, a country radio station in Talladega, Ala., as saying, “Most country stations aren’t playing the Chicks, and they aren’t going to start now.”
If you can’t already tell, I like country music. It reminds me of India. Go figure. But, right about now, I wouldn’t mind boycotting country music stations. Because, the way I see it, they just don’t get music.