The Dixie Chicks, or The Chicks as they’re now recognized, have been going robust within the nation scene since 1995. Regardless of dealing with backlash for his or her political beliefs throughout the early aughts after talking out towards then-president George W. Bush’s plan to invade Iraq, The Chicks powered by means of the hurdles of their approach. However the place are they now?
After founding member Laura Lynch handed away on Dec. 22, 2023, those that haven’t been following The Chicks may suppose the band is completed touring for good.
The previous “Dixie” Chicks and their historical past
Shaped in 1989, the unique lineup featured Martie Maguire, Emily Strayer, Robin Lunn Macy, and Laura Lynch. The band had a way more nation sound and magnificence than it could have in later years. Lynch and Macy left the band within the early 90s, leaving a gap in lead vocals. Natalie Maines stuffed the spot, and along with her, she introduced a up to date attraction that broadened the band’s horizons.
Inside a yr, the band was signed by Sony’s Monument Information, and their first single, “I Can Love You Higher” exploded onto the nation music scene, securing a spot on the Prime Ten listing for American nation music. By 1998, the Dixie Chicks had offered extra CDs than all different nation artists mixed. The next yr the band launched the album Fly, from which their songs, “Cowboy Take Me Away” and “With out You,” dominated the Grammy Awards.
The 2000s noticed a slew of successes marred by controversy for the band. The Chicks sued Sony for abusive accounting practices, finally profitable their freedom from the label. Their departure allowed them a foray into pop with “Lengthy Time Gone,” and by 2002, the band was repeatedly invited to carry out for tv specials. In 2003, nevertheless, The Chicks have been derailed after being blacklisted for talking out towards the upcoming allied invasion of Iraq.
Political activism and blacklisting
Throughout a efficiency on the Sheppard’s Bush Empire in England, simply earlier than the band performed “Travelling Soldier” Lead singer Natalie Maines advised the viewers, “Simply so , we’re ashamed the President of the US is from Texas.” The remark received the band blacklisted from hundreds of nation music stations, and the band members have been issued loss of life threats. Maines apologized for the “disrespectful remark,” however by 2006 she rescinded the apology, saying that Bush “deserved no respect.”
Regardless of the hit to gross sales, The Chicks persevered. The band participated in a number of not-for-profit occasions, from elevating funds for these impacted by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita to working with MoveOn.org and Vote for Change and campaigning for LGBTQ rights.
Their 2006 album, Taking the Lengthy Means, offered greater than 500,000 copies within the first week, launching it to golden file standing — regardless of their continued blacklisting from nation music stations. Although the American market refused to endorse the album for greater than a yr after its launch, the 2006 Grammy Awards noticed sweeping wins for the band, and by the next yr, they have been populating American charts as soon as once more. Mockingly, when the band tried to launch a documentary about their political cancellation, it too was blacklisted from airing on most main networks.
Maines took a hiatus from the band after embroiling herself in controversy as soon as once more in 2008 after she spoke in help of the West Memphis Three, however her bandmates continued to work below the identify The Courtyard Hounds. By 2010, Maines was again, and the band collaborated with massive names like Beyoncé, Steve Martin, and Taylor Swift over the next years.
The Chicks launched Gaslighter — their first album in 14 years — in 2020. That very same yr, they carried out on the Democratic Nationwide Conference, solidifying their dedication to by no means backing right down to political pressures.
Why did they alter their identify?
In 2020, The Chicks introduced their intent to vary their identify after listening to the accomplice flag described as “a accomplice swastika.” The phrase “Dixie” had come below hearth for its connotations of American slavery, and after the George Floyd protests, they felt it “lit a hearth in us to be on the appropriate facet of historical past.”
Although the band has come a great distance since its authentic members set down its basis, when December 2023 introduced with the tragic loss of life of Laura Lynch, The Chicks got here ahead to mourn her passing and proudly acknowledged that it was their former vocalist’s “plain abilities” that put them on the map and allowed them to cease “busking on road corners to levels all throughout Texas and the mid-West.”
