Review: Dixie Chicks take the long way around (and a shot at Rob Ford)

By Elisha Dacey Metro

Even the Dixie Chicks couldn’t resist cracking a joke at Rob Ford’s expense Tuesday night.

The trio of country superstars were at the MTS Centre for their (aptly named) Long Time Gone tour to a mostly female and mostly sold out appreciative crowd. Still, it took six songs before frontwoman Natalie Maines finally said hello to Winnipeg, and one more song before the crack jokes began.

"Oh, and I forgot to make fun of that Toronto mayor, Rob Ford," she grinned, before laughing off mic. "I’ve got to get it out of my system before we go to Toronto.

"How’s your Winnipeg mayor?" she then asked. Not sure if Mayor Sam Katz was in the crowd to hear the chorus of derisive boos.

Mayor jokes aside, the show was a stripped-down and laid back retrospective of the Chicks’ past four albums. It took a while before Maine’s voice was truly warmed up and settled down, but she proved her distinctive country voice was more than the warm alto early fans may be used to.

They started the night with I Can Love You Better before breaking into their breakout hit Wide Open Spaces. Sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire were dead-on for their backup vocals, and Maguire certainly impressed with her fiddle work, drawing cheers normally reserved for a lead singer.

The night only got better for fans who have followed them for the past 15 years, as the Chicks ran through 19 of their more well-known songs from album Wide Open Spaces all the way through Fly, Home and Taking the Long Way. There were a few technical problems – most notably Maine’s mic was often too hot, while Maguire and Robison could barely be heard singing backup – but they weren’t a major detriment.

Sadly, they just HAD to do the fake encore thing – a huge pet peeve of mine – but it was Maines’ vocals on the angry and heartbreaking Not Ready to Make Nice that brought the crowd spontaneously to its feet – and made my companion for the night cry. Again.

(One last thing, Chicks – what the heck was with the playing of Robin Thicke’s entire Blurred Lines, in the dark, before you came on stage? To warm up the crowd? Seems an odd choice for a group that has courted controversy…. or then again, maybe not.)