Spring Cleaning, Part.2: Hey, Remember These Chicks?

Ol' OBG continues his spring cleaning. And well, the Jimmy Eat World Bleed American project wasn't the only trilogy I never completed. When I initially posted Fly, the Thriller of mainstream country albums back in May 2024, the idea was that I'd post its two equally good follow-ups in the next weeks, maybe months. And then it took me ten months to post Home, and now it's been a year since I posted that one. What is this, James Cameron's Avatar movies? The album title turned out prophetically, Taking The Long Way indeed. But now that the spring cleaning crew (i.e. me) has found the Chicks' 2006 bounce back album, time to complete one of the best album trilogies by any artist or band, ever. 

"Forgive ? Sounds good. Forget? I'm not sure I could / they say time heals everything, but I'm still waiting..."

Of course, Taking The Long Way wasn't just an album, it was an event, for reasons both obvious and really, truly fucked up beyond repair. The backlash and blackballinng of the Chicks after Natalie Maines' off the cuff comments about George W. Bush at a London concert was some truly shameful shit. It looked already absolutely atrocious at the time, but it looks even worse in hindsight. Looking back on it, it's pretty clear that the outrage and outright banning of the Chicks Of course, Taking The Long Way wasn't just an album, it was an event, for reasins both obvious and really, truly fucked up beyond repair. The backlash and blackballinng of the Chicks after Natalie Maines' off the cuff comments about George W. Bush at a London concert was some truly shameful shit. It looked already absolutely atrocious at the time, but it looks even worse in hindsight Looking back on it, it's pretty clear that the outrage and outright banning of the Chicks had as much to do with misogyny as t did did with (fake, fabricated) ill-advised patriotism. The Chicks, but really mainly lead siner Natalie Maines was an opinionated youg woman. She had a mouth on her, something not everybody in the country music industry loved, but had to put up with considering the Chicks' drawing power for the five preceding years. So when there was an opportunity to shut Maines and her bandmates up and 'put these women into their place', boy, did they ever.

Well, let's talk about the music for a bit, shall we? Because while it's nice to become, somewhat against their own will, unlikely symbols of free speech, you still gotta have something to say. And the Chicks do.
This is their first album in which all three Chicks are credited on all songs, usually with a veteran quality songwriter to put these songs in shape: Semisonic's Dan Wilson, The Jayhawks' Gary Louris, Neil Finn, Mike Campbell, Sheryl Crow, and on the lasr track,  the previously issued charity single "I Hope" ,Keb' Mo. But it's clear tht the Chicks are in control pf this album - "six strong hands on the steering wheel' as Maines intones on the opener and title song.

That song, "Taking The Long Way" deliberately recalls (and references) Home's opener "Long Time Gone", functioning as a sort of sequel, thematizing the Chicks' choices along the way. "Wouldn't kiss all the asses they told me to / but I could never follow" after a quick breather with wonderful ballad "Easy Silence", Maines & Co. put the war paint on with "Not Ready To Make Nice", the single that details their ordeal and the defiant stance they took, or were forced to take. Wilson had come in with, as Maines recalls, "an idea that was some sort of concession, like a 'can't we all get along?' and I said nope, I can't say that, I can't do that". And so Wilson's idea, initially tentatively titled "United" became the Chicks' big, therapeutic fuck off to their detractors. You don't need to know the back story to feel the song's power, but it helps if you do.

Whether the song is an acknowledgment of their new-found notoriety like "Everybody Knows" or a simple old-fashioned barn burner like "Lubbock Or Leave It",  the Chicks are in control throughout the 14 track album, which runs maybe two tracks too long, but is objectively the third killer album in a row. It won four Grammies in what was widely considered a political gesture, of the pop world embracing the Chicks after the country world burned them so badly. But it deserves those Grammies, including song of the year for "Not Ready To Make Nice", and I say that as someone who, like any real music fan, is highly suspicious of these folks and their decision-making.

Sadly, things wouldn't turn out okay, despite the brave faces the Chicks put on here. They couldn' get over it and they are still waiting on full healing. So the band went on hiatus for a decade. Maines especially was so disgusted by the way the country music scene had treated her that she made a rock'n' roll solo album far away from Nashville in 2013, otherwise raising her family. The remaining Chicks, sisters Emily and Marti meanwhile formed acoustic country-bluegrass  duo Court Yard Hounds. Gaslighter, the Chicks' 2020 comeback album, heavily influenced by Maines' bitter divorce from actor Adrian Pasdar, is a pretty good pop album, though not a patch on the Chicks' trilogy from 1998 to 2006. 

The real loss, one could argue, is to mainstream country music, which is a lot poorer without the Chicks in it. With Home they had pushed a stealth trad country/progressive bluegrass album over into the mainstream, and while that probably wasn't sustainable, it showed an interest in country roots that have been waxed  over by barely disguised stadium rock and soft pop with a steel guitar flourish, in a scene subsequently dominated by boorish country bros. The MAGA-fication of the Nashville country scene was a bit hesitant during the first term of Donny the Disgraceful, but - like its leader - has been less shameless in the last years. If my reaction at the time was 'Fuck the Nasgville music complex and their minions', I can't say that my opinion has changed positively in the meantime...

Writing about this album as another dubiously timed and even more dubiously planned US-started war rages reminds us how history can repeat itself, and how we'll always need people who are not ready to make nice - in the entertainment industry, and everywhere else., especially as a crackdown on dissident voices is in full effect. In the meantime, play Taking The Long Way, enjoy some top notch country rock and keep sane, everybody...