Much has been made, here and elsewhere, of the fact that the Dixie Chicks’ return from a 10-year hiatus comes during a particularly contentious election year. If frontwoman Natalie Maines could provoke the wrath of so much of modern country music’s conservative fan base with a pointed stance in the (relatively) warm bipartisan climate of 2003, then just imagine what she could say in the bitterly divided political landscape of 2016.
The trio, including Dallas-raised sisters Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire, are still not ready to make nice, something that was clear in the Chicks’ empowering, gutsy music even before they turned it into a song and calling card. A Planned Parenthood advertisement and a big screen reel of images lambasting both major presidential candidates at Friday night’s performance at Gexa Energy Pavilion showed the last decade hasn’t made the band any more willing to just shut up and sing.
But in their return to Dallas, the Dixie Chicks proved that politics take a backseat to the things that can unite thousands — the show was sold out, and very much felt like it — of adoring fans. The Texas heat in August, for one thing. (Maines’ most controversial statement of the night may have been bragging that the band had air conditioning on stage.)
The Chicks’ nearly two-hour set drove home just how good this band still is, and just how irrelevant the furor surrounding their past statements feels when you’re hearing “Wide Open Spaces” surrounded by 20,000 other people. There were plenty of those happily familiar moments for longtime fans, as many of the greatest sing-along hits were trotted out, as fresh as ever. There were also covers both old (at least three Patty Griffin songs one suspects the Dixie Chicks have been playing for years) and new (Beyonce’s “Daddy Lessons,” Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U”). Dallas audiences were also treated to hearing Maines’ father, the estimable Lloyd, on keyboard.
There will be those who will continue to tune out the Dixie Chicks for the band’s uncompromising attitude — one of the group’s greatest features, in its music and its public image. Their loss.
The Dixie Chicks still have plenty to say, and plenty of fans willing to listen.
