When I was growing something wild and unruly….

I miss the Dixie Chicks. The kids and I have been listening to their CD’s in the car lately and my heart just soars with every song.

I read somewhere recently that Natalie Maines said she doesn’t think the Dixie Chicks will get back together. She kind of gave up, saying their last tour wasn’t a success because they lost their huge country music fan base in the whole calling out G.W. on his shit moment, and she’d rather go out on a high note than sputter.

What about the true fans that weren’t necessarily country music fans to begin with, but were Dixie Chick fans through and through? Don’t we matter? Aren’t we enough?

Natalie?

The Dixie Chicks to me represent a time in my life when I was falling in love. Big love. It was the first time I let someone truly care for me. Cowboy Take Me Away (pharmacist, take me away…it works). I had gone back to school for nursing. I was leaving behind a lifetime of pain and starting to fly. I searched that summer for a pair of cowboy boots, and after weeks of looking, I found them. Black. Had to drive an hour to find the right ones.

The Dixie Chicks are the soundtrack of that time in my life.

Todd convinced me to stop going at a crazy pace (I was on track to become a nurse in one year through an accelerated bacclaeurate program) and enjoy our first year of being married. It wouldn’t matter down the road if I completed it in one year or two. Don’t miss our first year. I dropped back to regular time and felt totally sinful for not being stressed to the hilt. Contentment? A concept so foreign to me. I made him dinners. We spoiled our puppy. For the first time in my life, I felt relaxed, and beautiful.

Oh those early years! I loved Natalie Maines and her feisty “let it rip” in your face, attitude. I could relate to that. I loved the soulful ballads and I loved the balls to the wall songs. Hole in my Head. Sin Wagon! Their humor, Good-bye Earl. Emily with her banjo was OMG before OMG. Martie commanding emotions with her fiddle more than words ever could. Natalie’s comment a few years later on the verge of the Iraq war didn’t surprise me. I didn’t see why it was such a big deal. It just got turned into this huge propaganda moment by the war machine and the un-thinkers in the country music world. Part of me is like, So what Natalie? Where’s your fight? Why do you care? Screw them.

And part of me knows that people like Natalie, such big big personalities are often very sensitive on the inside. The toll the whole thing took on her, had to be immeasurable.

She’s given us enough already, even if she never sings another note. She owes no one anything.

But I miss them. I miss their unparalleled synergy and talent.

I took it for granted at the time.

I’ll forever be appreciative to The Dixie Chicks for accompanying that sweet blip of time in my life when my only responsibilty was to study a bit, make a nice dinner for my man, and let him love me.

 

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7 Responses to When I was growing something wild and unruly….

  1. You know — I was never a Dixie Chicks fan, but I think I might go back and listen to them. Marcus Hummon, who wrote the song that you refer to, and his wife were good friends of mine when I was married the first time and living in Nashville, TN. He even sang at my first wedding! Small world —

  2. kario says:

    I love them, too, and was completely mystified at how the Iraq war comment got so blown out of proportion. I am often amazed at how profoundly music affects each of us in such different ways.

  3. Kim says:

    Love them too.

  4. Liz says:

    “She’s given us enough already, even if she never sings another note. She owes no one anything.”

    And… there you go, encapsulating how I feel about your previous post.

    I always enjoy reading what you write, even more so when you write about yourself.

    πŸ™‚

  5. Carrie Link says:

    That’s how I’m going to feel when your blog goes away…

  6. Amber says:

    Omg, meeee tooooo!!!! All of it. Kory and I were living in our little cottage in Chico, going to college, just us and our cat… It was a time of breaking away and starting a new life. These songs always make us happy.
    I miss them.
    Did you ever see the documentary about them? It shows what an outrageous crisis the whole thing turned into for them. Death threats. Horrible things… It really bums me out.

    πŸ˜‰

  7. Meg says:

    LOVE the Dixie Chicks and it made me so sad that they were lambasted for actually having opinions.

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