It's hard to say which fell faster and crashed harder in 2003: the bombs being dropped over Iraq by U.S. warplanes, or the Dixie Chicks' career after singer Natalie Maines openly criticized George W. Bush, the commander-in-chief directing the attacks. Once the sweethearts of the country-music charts, the trio went from smash records to smashed records in just a matter of months, when radio stations like Louisiana's KRMD-FM hosted CD destruction parties for irate former fans, parties that got the stations as much good press as the group got bad.
"Thank you, Dixie Chicks," a snarky DJ said of his station's national-media exposure. "We love you here at KRMD."
A dozen years later, however, the same country stations that once both literally and figuratively brought an end to the group's music may now be ready to show the Dixie Chicks some genuine, non-ironic love. Earlier this week, the group surprised fans by announcing its first U.S. headlining tour since 2006. Perhaps even more surprising, however, is that country radio is not ignoring the news; in fact, stations across the nation are actually promoting it.
News of the Dixie Chicks' 2016 summer tour slipped quietly into news and social-media outlets on Monday, appearing with no fanfare in the midst of recent rumblings of several other possible high-profile nostalgia tours for next summer, including potential reunions of DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (Will Smith) and the long-dormant original lineup of Guns 'n' Roses. But while Smith largely abandoned the music industry for Hollywood, and Axl Rose and his original Guns 'n' Roses bandmates abandoned each other completely, the Dixie Chicks are returning to the stage having abandoned neither their fans nor their principles. In fact, if anything, they were the ones left behind when fans, radio, and corporate sponsors all quickly distanced themselves from the once-chart-topping trio.
Facing economic pressure from advertisers bowing to fans' anger over Maines' on-stage statement at a 2003 London show that she was "ashamed" that she and Bush hailed from the same state, country radio stations abruptly dropped the Dixie Chicks from their playlists in the midst of their Top of the World tour, a ban still unofficially in place today. Proving that country-station program directors have a long memory, you're about as likely to find a Dixie Chicks song on the radio in 2015 as you were a decade ago.
Still, from Los Angeles' Go Country 105 to Minneapolis' K-102, Dallas' New Country 96.3 to Indianapolis' Hank FM, stations added Dixie Chicks onsale information to their web sites earlier this week, featuring next summer's shows alongside concerts featuring contemporary country stars who were just learning to strum a guitar the last time the Dixie Chicks were actually played on any of these stations. Thus far, few are actively promoting the shows via ticket giveaways, and none seem ready to move the group back into their on-air rotation. But the mere mention of the group on country-radio web sites is a significant step toward potentially welcoming the Dixie Chicks back into the country-music fold.
For both sides, the timing for a détente couldn't be better. The Dixie Chicks deserve a homecoming after being hastily cast aside by radio stations more interested in appeasing people who compared them to communists and, in at least one extreme instance, threatened their lives. Their one post-boycott record, "Taking the Long Way," won five Grammy Awards in 2007 but was largely ignored by country radio, a format the group refused to pursue for help promoting the album upon its release. After selling more than 30 million records as ambassadors for the genre, the Dixie Chicks deserve to have their music heard and celebrated by country fans.
On the other side, radio stations would be wise to take advantage of the timing of the group's tour announcement and reintroduce the Dixie Chicks to audiences for the same reason they dropped them in the first place: to satisfy demand. The gender divide in country music is perhaps greater now than ever before - Billboard's current Country Airplay chart shows only four female performers in the top 30. Its Top Country Albums chart is even more lopsided, with only two of the top 25 spots held by females (one of which is Little Big Town, a group comprised of two men and two women). Embracing the Dixie Chicks, and fully getting behind their 2016 tour, would be smart business for a genre whose increasingly male-centric focus is bound to eventually drive away listeners hoping for some variety.
Like any act that has sat on the shelf for nearly a decade (apart from a handful of one-off performances and an opening-act slot on the Eagles 2010 U.S. tour), the Dixie Chicks can probably use as much help as they can get promoting their 2016 concerts, most of which will be played in large outdoor amphitheaters. Maines has long refused to try to appeal to country stations, though, and still holds resentment toward everyone she feels abandoned the group. The first step, then, would need to be taken by radio.
It is possible that fans will buy tickets even without radio stations promoting the shows. The group's social-media push for presales and a new fan club have already begun moving seats on their own. But having the endorsement of radio promotion can't hurt, especially if the group is sold properly to fans. Today - an age when country fans have shown an appreciation for tough women who refuse to be pushed around, seen in the popularity of songs like Miranda Lambert's "Gunpowder and Lead" and Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" - may be the perfect time for a strong female group to claim its well-deserved spot in country music, and regardless of what the Dixie Chicks or radio stations did a decade ago, no one loses if everyone now decides they're finally ready to make nice.
While not all country stations' web sites are acknowledging this week's onsale information, those that are have taken an important first step in regaining the group's goodwill, re-establishing within country music what was once its most popular act, and providing the genre with a critically needed female presence. It may not be much at the moment, but after 12 years of mutual bitterness, we may at long last be seeing the beginnings of the Dixie Chicks, radio stations and country fans starting to let those old hard feelings be a long time gone.