Mayor Ford fair game for the Dixie Chicks

By Graham Rockingham, Hamilton Spectator

Natalie Maines is drawn to controversy like a fly to sugar. Back in 2003, the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks made healdines telling the world what she thought of her fellow Texan, George Bush. It was the truth, but it ended up landing her and the other Dixie Chicks in a whole pile of … sugar.

So when confronted with a controversy like Rob Ford … well … Maines just couldn't resist. The punky-haired country singer delivered a couple of choice zingers toward the Toronto mayor Saturday night when the Dixie Chicks performed to a near sold-out crowd of more than 14,000 at Copps Coliseum.

The first came following the Chicks' fired-up delivery of their wife-beater revenge song, Goodbye Earl. (You can't beat three southern beauties smiling deliciously as they sing "that Earl had to die.")

Anyway, after the Chicks finished off Earl, Maines starting sharing some thoughts on the Canadian psyche, about how she had read a survey in the Huffington Post stating that Canadians are the happiest people in the world.

"You seem a lot less happy since all this stuff with Mayor Ford went down," she said. "Surprisingly, knowing that Canada has a little political controversy makes me happy."

Maines was just warming up. The real zinger came three songs later, following the Chicks' country stomper Some Days You Gotta Dance. After asking the Hamilton crowd whether we liked our own mayor – there was a definite mixed response – Maines decided to dedicate the next song to Ford.

"Wherever Mayor Ford is tonight, whatever he's smoking, we send this out to him," Maines yelled. The song was Sin Wagon. It was delivered, as you might expect, with a lot of mischievous sin.

Okay, Rob Ford is an easy target. There's not much risk in making fun of a mayor who admits to getting so drunk he finds it tough to turn down a puff of crack, or two or three. It's not like taking on the president of the United States for invading a foreign country. Mayor Ford is safe territory.

Still, Maines' little crowd tease served to remind us of why the Dixie Chicks are so vital to American country music. Everything else emanating from Nashville seems far too predictable, far too risk-free.

The Dixie Chicks' current run across Canada is called the Long Time Gone tour, an apt title for a group that has been largely in self-imposed hiatus for the last seven years. The trio – Maines and multi-instrumental sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison – chose during that time to focus on family and solo careers. Maguire and Robison have released two albums as the Courtyard Hounds while Maines recorded a solo rock-oriented CD called Mother (after the Pink Floyd title track).

Long Time Gone is pretty much a greatest hits tour, a chronological catalogue of some very fine music the Chicks have recorded over the past 15 years.

The show was stripped bare of the massive video effects and stage gimmickry that has become common place in country music. Backed by a superby five-piece band, the Chicks have the material and the talent to let the music speak for itself.

Canada provides a safe place for the Dixie Chicks to regain their road legs, and, hopefully, start thinking about some new music, perhaps even a new album. It surely has been a long time gone.

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