ROEBUCK, Ala. - Thanks to a good friend who supports the objectives of this independent news Website, I got my hands on a copy of the Dixie Chicks’ CD “Taking The Long Way Home” as I took the long way home last night from using a remote wireless location to update the Website.

The Dixie Chicks at the Grammys

We drank a toast to the chicks for their brave, early stand against President Bush and the war in Iraq, a stand we shared at that time and still do as we watch the U.S. House of Representatives on C-SPAN today debate Bush’s proposed escalation of the war with more troops.

If you have not picked up a copy of the album, go out and do it today - and not just to support this group who had the guts to take a stand. Turn it up loud and listen closely. The lead song and the title song will send chills up your spine and bring tears to your eyes.

And, this just proves something else I’ve been saying for a long time about art: Put your heart and soul into it and it just might pay off.

The Dixie Chicks completed a defiant comeback on Sunday night, capturing five Grammy awards after being shunned by the country music establishment over the group’s anti-Bush comments leading up to the Iraq invasion, according to the Associated Press.

The Texas trio won all the biggest categories, including record and song of the year for the no-regrets anthem “Not Ready to Make Nice.” They also won best country album, which was especially ironic considering they don’t consider themselves country artists anymore.

“I’m ready to make nice!” lead singer Natalie Maines exclaimed as the group accepted the album of the year award. “I think people are using their freedom of speech with all these awards. We get the message.”

The Dixie Chicks won all five awards they were nominated for, sweet vindication after the superstars’ lives were threatened and sales plummeted when Maines criticized President Bush on the eve of the Iraq war in 2003. Almost overnight, one of the most successful groups of any genre was boycotted by Nashville and disappeared from country radio.

With “Taking the Long Way,” the women relied on producer Rick Rubin’s guidance for an album that was more rock and less country. (Rubin, who also produced “Stadium Arcadium,” was honored as producer of the year.)

The standing ovations the Chicks received Sunday illustrated how much the political climate has changed regarding the Iraq war - and President Bush.

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“Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud. There is always something.”
- Willie Stark, as Huey Long, in All The King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren

If you don’t know what that means, you should read the book, and see the original movie, and then see Sean Penn play Willie Stark in the new movie. We’ll have reviews up soon, when the moon is shining less bright on the bayou of the Tensaw Delta…

“If you don’t vote, you don’t matter…”

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I’m not much of a country music fan, but if there is a country band I would support and like to interview, it would be The Dixie Chicks. They are not backing down from their comments critical of President George W. Bush and the Iraq War. You can listen to some of their new album “Taking The Long Way” here, including the cut “Not Ready to Make Nice.”

A veteran of 40 years of demonstrations, the American folk singer’s latest campaign involves camping in a tree to save a 14-acre farm from the developers.

Read the full story at the UK Independent.

The songs on “Living With War” are straightforward and single-minded, setting aside the allusive, enigmatic quality of Mr. Young’s rock classics, including one song sure to draw fire from the right, “Let’s Impeach the President.”

“These are all ideas we’ve heard before,” he said. “There’s nothing new in there. I just connected the dots.”

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