Whistling Dixie

So, there was Trump over in Europe trashing the United States judicial and political process, calling the Special Counsel investigation a "witch hunt."  And trashing the First Amendment by calling CNN "fake news" and trying to "punish" their reporter Jim Acosta by not calling on him, and trying to claim that MSNBC reporter Kristen Welker is a liar -- and all I could think was 2003 when the Dixie Chicks, at the time far-and-away the most wildly popular country music group in America, were touring in England and said (and this is all they said) that they were ashamed that President George Bush was from Texas, they were crushingly vilified for criticizing America on foreign soil and basically had their career ruined.

Radio airplay on country music stations stopped.  And for a long while, so did their touring as a group.  And group albums.  Happily, they've continued to make music -- though generally not as a trio, but either solo or paired together, touring and recording.  And then in 2013 (six years after their last tour together as a trio), the full Dixie Chicks reformed and toured Canada.  Three years later, they had their first European tour in a decade, which they in turn extended into North America with 40 shows.  And they even had a wonderful documentary made about them -- more on that in a moment.

So, I just decided I wanted to post some Dixie Chicks.  

For starters, here's their song that was sort of a response to it all.  "Not Ready to Make Nice."

As I said, there is a terrific documentary about the Dixie Chicks and this whole controversy, Shut Up & Sing, which is available here on Neflix.  It's well-worth checking out -- thoughtful, fun, infuriating and ennobling, co-directed by Barbara Kopple (who made the Oscar-winning Harlan County, U.S.A) and Cecilia Peck (daughter of Gregory, and who also directed the recent well-regarded documentary, Brave Miss World).

And just because they deserve the attention -- most especially compared to what Trump just did (and beyond), here's some more, one of their fun tunes, "There's Your Trouble."
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And as a bonus, here are the Dixie Chicks teaming up with Beyoncé at the 2016 CMA awards, on her song "Daddy Lessons."  And yes, it shouldn't surprise you that the performance was met by country music fans with racist hate.
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