I realized that I haven’t shared any of my favorite things with you all in a while and thought I would do that today. While I was waiting for Andrew to come home on Friday, I was doing some surfing around youtube and stumbled upon one of my favorite bands – The Dixie Chicks.

I’ve been a fan of the Chicks since their first album. Not long after it came out, they were a part of the Lilith Fair tour. Andrew, Amy, Kate and I drove to Toronto to see the concert. At the time, I was the only real Chicks fan and I remember playing that album (particularly There’s Your Trouble) over and over. The concert was incredible (to this day one of my all time favorites). I was blown away by the power of lead singer Natalie’s voice and Martie and Emily’s harmonies. Andrew and Amy are now both big Chicks fans. I’m not sure if we ever got through to Kate but she was a good sport none the less.

You’d have to live under a rock (or maybe in NZ… Di?) to not know the controversy surrounding the Chicks. Two years ago, the day after the US declared war on Iraq, Natalie made her infamous statement on a London stage – “We’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.” Those words changed everything for the Chicks.

Over night, people in the US were burning the Chicks photos, throwing out their CDs, radio stations were refusing to play their music. Their musical career went down the tubes. Natalie even received a death threat.

Her offhand remark became a battle for Free Speech. The other Chicks stood behind Natalie and her remark. They fought for the right to speak out against the current administration. They are still fighting.

Recently, they released a documentary about the incident. The trailer is pretty interesting. Have a look:

This spring, after two years, the Dixie Chicks released a new album, Taking The Long Way. They don’t hide their politics or ignore what happened. In fact, in Not Ready To Make Nice, they react to the situation and tell their side of the story. While the video of Not Ready is available on Youtube, I chose this version from VH1 Storytellers because they give a bit of background to the song. Check it out:

While I’ve been playing the whole album repeatedly since Amy gave it to me this spring, and I love it all, there is one more song that really sticks out for me – Silent House. I can’t get through this song without crying (of course that’s not saying much for me because I cry at a lot of songs). It was evident the first time that I heard it, that it was written by someone whose life was touched by Alzheimer’s. I don’t know if it is obvious to those who haven’t had a loved one with this disease, but it was to me and every time I hear it I can’t help but think of my Grandmother. It is a beautiful song. I’m not going to post it here simply because I don’t want anyone who isn’t prepared, to click it and
be sad. If you would like to, you can see it, also from Storytellers here.