It's Getting Political In Here

Yesterday was all about promotion as The Boss did 3 radio interviews to promote the string of Montana gigs this weekend. Our first stop was a station with super nice people, and one of them informed us that the station hadn't played the Dixie Chicks since "The Incident" in 2003. Talk about a grudge. I AM NOT EVEN going to get into whether anyone thinks it was right, whether anyone thinks with hindsight it was right, whether it was geographically right or timed right yadda yadda. I have come around to the fact that most of the artists I respect have some of the same and some different opinions than I do, and that's fine. Radio, however, seems to hold a grudge for a while, maybe even to the point where the reason for the grudge is long gone and it's a simple matter of, "We don't play them." Anyway, I was wondering how the fact that the writer of one of the Chicks' biggest hits was standing in their "No Dixie Chicks Zone" was going to affect anything. But everyone was super nice and the DJs told Susan how that song affected them at various points in their life, which is always cool to hear. So it was open arms for the songwriter, for sure. I was relieved about that, but it made me wonder where the disconnect comes from for some of these long term haters. A songwriter writes it, studio musicians with families to feed play on it, publicists from Oklahoma, or Washington, or Vermont promote it...the artists tour with it, and in this case the songwriters tour with it, too. The merch girls sell CDs from it. It's a giant ecosystem and to blacklist the Chicks for exercising their free speech seven years ago affects a lot more people down the line than those 3 women. It's like boycotting Arizona Iced Tea which is made in New York because you don't like Arizona. Blah. So there's as political as I'm going to get. I don't dwell on politics too much. It wastes my mind space, and it's a better job for other people with other dispositions. I am a big fan of being aware of who and what your actions affect, though...and thinking a little bit ahead past your kneejerk biases. Real people's jobs are at stake here. We're all trying to make a living by working hard, which is about as American as I can define. Switching gears, it was over to Montana Radio Cafe for a lovely hour on Scott's front porch. Scott broadcasts with his own station from his gorgeous farm outside Bigfork, MT. You can stream his station live online right here. Scott plays great stuff! We play The Raven right along the shore of Flathead Lake tonight, and it's a full moon! Should be fun. And long live the Dixie Chicks.