The Dixie Chicks Clean Up

At last Sunday's Grammy Awards, my old fave the Dixie Chicks won all 5 of the awards for which they were nominated, including the big 3 of Best Album, Best Record, and Best Song.  Their wins in the country categories were well deserved and should not have been a surprise.  After all, every single studio album that they've released since adding Natalie Maines has won the Grammy for Best Country Album. 

But those big 3 wins are surely a function of their big GWB controversy.  And not just because the winning album and song were a direct result of, a response to, the brouhaha.  But also because the music industry wanted to send their own little message.  Fine for them.  Awards shows have been political for years.  There's a certain, quaint elitism to it.  And i don't think its just moneyed elitism, but a we're-gonna-stick-it-to-all-those-jocks-and-cheerleaders-who-razzed-us-in-high-school-for-being-music-dorks-and-now-look-who's-laughing flip-off.  I'm not talking about the Dixie Chicks, but about the whole of the Grammy voters.  Again, fine for them.

That said, I was very impressed with the Dixie Chicks' acceptance speeches. A good blend of humor, humility, perspective, self-awareness, and grace.  I was very happy to watch Marti & Emily (the 2 sisters) reach what must have felt like a culmination, an affirmation, and a chance to make a fresh start. (Even Natalie cracked that she was "ready to make nice.") To have followed their careers for 20 years, through the long toil of playing county fairs and honky tonks, of the quirky little cowgirl band with the cactus standup bass, it was nice to see this pinnacle.

P.S. I have wondered how the sisters felt being dragged along into Natalie's mess. They publicly stood behind their friend and bandmate, as they should have, but you wonder if they weren't "mad as hell" about the dustup. They worked for so long and so hard, and there must have been moments when it felt like it was all going to crash and burn. For good. And it had to have been tremendously hard on their families, to which they alluded in the final speech.