Friday, October 27, 2006

They Get Up and Do Their Thing

"Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

The year was 2003. The setting was a country music concert across the pond in London. 
Dixie Chicks concert. And that was the statement that Natalie Maines, the lead singer of the then-very popular trio from Texas, offered to the crowd at the start of the band's sold-out international tour.

The quip was delivered on the eve of the American invasion of Iraq, and although it drew cheers from the decidedly anti-war, anti-George W. Bush British crowd, it also led to the (irrational) ire of countless so-called patriots back home.


Boy, did the boys silence the Dixie Chicks – or tried to, anyway.

Now, three years later, the Dixie Chicks are not ready to make nice. And 
their new documentary, Shut Up & Sing, is ready to revisit the statement heard 'round the world, the one that cut some folks so deep, the ladies went from national-anthem-singing darlings to pariahs, basically overnight.

This ought to be one of the most riveting, and controversial, films of the season – one that I trust will invite a good amount of dialogue and reflection.

Photo: The Weinstein Company.

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