Twenty years ago, The Chicks were at a very strange point in their career.
They’d already sold millions of records.
Won major awards.
Filled arenas.
And become one of the most successful country groups of their generation.
But their relationship with country music had become complicated.
Very complicated.
So they made an album.
And instead of trying to recreate the sound that made them famous, they decided to do something different.
The result was Taking the Long Way.
Released in 2006, the album became one of the most talked-about records in country-music history.
And this Thursday, October 15, The Chicks are bringing it back to Nashville.
They’re performing the entire album.
Every song.
In order.
As part of their Taking the Long Way 20th Anniversary Tour. MusicRow.com
The concert takes place at The Truth, Nashville’s brand-new concert venue that opened earlier this month with Miranda Lambert.
And the setting is interesting.
Because this isn’t an enormous arena tour.
The Chicks are deliberately playing smaller theaters and concert venues.
More intimate rooms.
The kind of places where an album can become the focus of the entire evening.
And this particular album has quite a story.
Let’s go back to 2003.
The group was still known as the Dixie Chicks.
Natalie Maines made comments during a concert in London criticizing President George W. Bush and the Iraq War.
The reaction back home was enormous.
Some country radio stations stopped playing the group’s music.
Fans protested.
Others defended them.
And suddenly one of the most successful acts in country music found itself at the center of a national political controversy.
Regardless of where people stood on the comments, the impact on the group’s career was undeniable.
Then came Taking the Long Way.
The Chicks worked with producer Rick Rubin, who had helped artists ranging from Johnny Cash to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
And instead of recording another collection of straightforward country hits, they made something considerably more personal.
There were songs about relationships.
Friendship.
Disappointment.
Family.
And figuring out how to move forward when life doesn’t go the way you expected.
The most famous was “Not Ready to Make Nice.”
The song directly addressed the controversy and the emotions surrounding it.
And while the lyrics were deeply personal to the group, listeners found their own meanings in them.
That’s one of the interesting things about music.
A song can be written about one very specific situation.
Then somebody thousands of miles away hears it and thinks:
That’s exactly how I feel.
The album also included “The Long Way Around,” “Easy Silence,” “Everybody Knows” and “Lubbock or Leave It.”
And the gamble paid off.
Taking the Long Way went on to win five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.
“Not Ready to Make Nice” won both Record of the Year and Song of the Year. AP News
Those are enormous accomplishments.
Especially for a group whose future had seemed so uncertain just a few years earlier.
Now, two decades later, Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer are revisiting the entire project.
Not simply playing the two or three biggest songs.
The whole thing.
And that’s what makes this anniversary tour different.
Most artists celebrate an anniversary by adding a few old favorites to the set list.
The Chicks are taking audiences back through the complete record.
The tour began September 30 in Detroit and includes stops in New York, Nashville, Texas, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The Nashville performance is scheduled for Thursday, October 15, at 8:30 p.m. Live Nation Newsroom
There’s also a new anniversary edition of the album featuring previously unreleased material, giving longtime fans another opportunity to revisit the recordings.
And perhaps introducing them to people who weren’t even listening to country music in 2006. People.com
That’s the part I find interesting.
Twenty years is a long time.
People who were teenagers when Taking the Long Way came out are now in their late 30s.
Some of the people attending these shows probably discovered the album through their parents.
Others may be hearing it for the first time.
But the songs are still there.
The harmonies.
The fiddle.
The emotion.
And the sound of three musicians who decided to make the record they wanted to make.
Thursday night, they bring those songs back to Nashville.
The city where country music has always been about telling stories.
Even the complicated ones.
