The Chicks!

 

Its been 14 years since the Dixie Chicks made new music and the Dixie Chicks never will make new music. but The Chicks will. Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer Robison blew into Omaha last night and were met by a 90% female audience of women and daughters and grandmas ready to become empowered by music.

After a 40-minute opener from singer songwriter Ben Harper (not my cup of tea and in fact a snooze IMO) the digital screen behind the stage played MTV videos of female rockers like Pat Benatar, Tina Turner, The Go Gos, The Eurythmics, The Runaways and finally the female rock legend Joan Jett's Bad Reputation to which the Chicks used as an opening to come to the stage and start.

Now I am not a Chicks connoisseur as I am not exactly their demo so a lot of the songs were unfamiliar to me though the experience of new music was actually thrilling because this is one helluva band. With Maines vocals, McGuire's fiddle and Strayers banjo and guitar, along with the three-part harmonies, these middle-aged moms delivered. From opening number Gaslight, a song off their new album, right up to the closing Goodbye Earl, I couldn't stop tapping my foot. I loved the song choices, the digital backdrop that featured shots of Trump floating on a lake with Putin and DeSantis floating on a rubber duck and sinking as Maines sang " you'll get what's coming to you" during a song called Tights On My Boat which I think was more directed at her ex-husband as she flipped a double bird during the song.

The hits were there. The beauty of Landslide, a song originally sung by a bleating goat (yeah not a fan of you know who) but with Natalie is a thing of wonder. Travelin Soldier, which for some reason I knew every word, Wide Open Spaces, and of course Not Ready To Make Nice and Goodbye Earl.

But the songs that I found most compelling were the ones I was not familiar with. A wonderful version of Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton's Rainbowland, a song that was banned in certain rural schools in Wisconsin cuz ya know, rainbows will turn you gay. A new song, March March, which Maines sang with a list of murdered black men showing on the digital screen. "March March to my own drum...Hey Hey I'm an army of one". For Her, another new song was also a standout to me ..."Stand up, show love, for her, for her". 

Look, Natalie Maines may be short, but she's been fighting all her life, whether its Toby Keith or George W Bush or the entire right wing smear machine along with the death threats that come from the goons it inspires, Maines truly has no fucks left to give. Never had any to give quite frankly. She says what's on her mind and she lets you know what it is. Between her defiant lyrics and the truly incredible musical talent of McGuire and Strayer, this band was meant to perform. And perform it does.

The arena was perhaps 75% full and most of it, a good majority of it, were women. Oh, there were men there, I was one, but the show was for women and their desires to be taken seriously. It was great because not once did I hear a typical Bro Country lyric about Friday nights, drinkin beer, trucks, and tight jeans. It was refreshing. I did see three men, all of whom looked like Jan 6 participants, wearing T shirts espousing the NRA, Back Rifle Coffee and one with a vulgarity regarding Joe Biden. Do these fucking idiots know where they are? That was not refreshing.