Dixie Chicks aren't ready to make nice

Via Atrios, the Dixie Chicks are back again (flash song, so turn up those speakers!)

Their on-stage reputation has helped them sell over $100 million worth of concert tickets, and outspoken songs like "Goodbye, Earl" made it clear that this power trio played by nobody's rules.

And that was all before Natalie Maines's comments about a fellow Texan, President George W. Bush, during a London appearance in March, 2003 really put the Dixie Chicks in the headlines. The resultant uproar - complete with boycotts and death threats - is the focus of TAKING THE LONG WAY's defiant first track, "Not Ready to Make Nice."

I actually used to be a country music fan up until pretty much every song had to include something about killing Arabs in the name of patriotism. I guess I'm sort of an "Old Hippie" in that sense, so it's nice to see that we might eventually have country music we can listen to again soon.