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Dixie Chicks
Shut Up & Sing
(Genius/Weinstein)
First Appeared in
The Music Box, February 2007, Volume 14, #2
Written by John Metzger
When Natalie Maines, lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, stood in front of a
London audience in March 2003 and made a statement against the impending war in
Iraq, she certainly didn’t expect the story to gain the sort of momentum that
would place the future of her band in jeopardy. Tracing a narrative arc, which
begins with an appearance at the Super Bowl as the best-selling female group in
history, and ends with the troubled staging of its recent international tour, Shut Up & Sing initially might seem as if it merely was rehashing a tale
that has played so publicly that there’s little point in revisiting it so soon.
That assumption, however, would be wrong. Throughout the 90-minute film,
directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck dig deeply into the details as they
examine the full-scale repercussions of Maines’ offhand remark. By uncovering
the many nuances and side treks that quickly were lost amidst the rhetoric, the
resulting film is transformed into a depiction not only of how corporate
coercion has become the new tool for squashing Americans’ constitutional rights
but also how controversy impacts an ensemble’s decisions and personal
relationships.
The first 10 minutes of Shut Up & Sing perfectly set the stage for
everything that follows. An uncomfortable tension and a feeling of uncertainty
cloud the 2005 studio sessions in Los Angeles that formed the basis for the
Dixie Chicks’ recent album Taking the Long Way. Likewise, the subsequent
flashback to 2003 paints a more complete picture of the environment in which
Maines’ remarks were made. As the lies used to justify an American attack on
Iraq spewed from the mouths of Bush administration officials, Londoners poured
into the streets in what became the biggest antiwar protest in U.K. history.
Clearly unnerved by what was happening around them, Maines along with Emily
Robison and Martie Maguire prepared to launch their tour at London’s Shepherds
Bush Empire. Caught up within the emotion of their chart-topping single Travelin’ Soldier, Maines half-jokingly blurted out an innocuous comment
that was designed to elicit a cheer from the audience. It succeeded, but the
backlash from the conservative corners of the U.S. was swift and furious.
Inflammatory statements made by talk show pundits Pat Buchanan and Bill
O’Reilly further fueled the flames. Under dictums handed down from the corporate
headquarters of Cox Radio and Cumulus Broadcasting, supposedly autonomous
country radio stations across the nation, particularly in the South, embarked
upon an unstated but full-fledged boycott of the Dixie Chicks’ material. Even
President Bush took the time to take a few jabs at the band. Everything, of
course, was designed primarily to squelch the Dixie Chicks’ constitutional
rights by removing its primary forum for promoting its products. Apparently,
freedom of speech is fine when it’s couched in the exchange of dollar bills, but
the use of words is unacceptable when it goes against the desires of those in
power. Rather than backing down, however, the ensemble — which initially had
made an attempt to mitigate the uproar by contextualizing Maines’ comment —
stood its ground, in spite of the mounting pressure that stemmed from the
receipt of a death threat as well as from the concerns that were outlined by its
tour sponsor Lipton Tea and its record label Sony.
It’s here that the more human side of Shut Up & Sing comes to light.
As the members of the Dixie Chicks reconvened in a hotel room to discuss how to
respond to the growing firestorm of protest against them, Maines tried to assume
full responsibility for what she said, while Maguire stepped away from the
controversy by stating, "If anybody asks me personally...hey, I didn’t say it.
Talk to her." At the insistence of manager Simon Renshaw, the Dixie Chicks
collectively made a statement, which effectively averted a rift from forming.
Still, it’s hard to ignore the notion that trouble was brewing. At least
initially, Maines was alone, nearly isolated from the group that she had helped
to propel to stardom.
Considering that the Dixie Chicks was formed by Robison and Maguire, who also
are sisters, and that Maines was hired as a replacement for Robin Lynn Macy,
it’s not surprising that she was destined to be an outsider. Indeed, the debate
that she sparked very well could have been her undoing. Yet, over the course of
Shut Up & Sing, as the ensemble struggles to redefine itself, her
perseverance becomes the Dixie Chicks’ rallying cry, and she eventually obtains
the complete respect of her bandmates. Tearfully addressing the camera, three
years after the altercation, Maguire says, "I’d give up my career for her to be
happy, to be at peace." It’s a touching moment, and it highlights the strength
of the friendship that formed in the face of less than ideal circumstances.
Unlike most documentaries, Shut Up & Sing doesn’t come to a proper
conclusion, though that entirely is due to the fact that its story is so fresh
that its history still is being written. The Dixie Chicks continues to be
shunned by the Right, and both NBC and CW recently faced charges of censorship
when they refused to air advertisements for the film because it was "disparaging
to the President." Likewise, the problems posed by sluggish ticket sales never
were addressed fully by the ensemble; instead the tour simply was rerouted to
more hospitable climates. Despite its recent slate of Grammy victories and the
many accolades that it received, Taking the Long Way was nothing more
than a transitional effort on which the Dixie Chicks laid the groundwork for the
next phase of its career. In short, how many of its new fans truly are converts
remains to be seen. One thing that Shut Up & Sing does make clear,
however, is that the creative spark that nearly had been extinguished by the
group’s mammoth success has returned. Fueled by the desire to prove itself once
again, the Dixie Chicks just might achieve the happy ending that it so justly
deserves. 
Shut Up & Sing is available from
Amazon.com. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2007 The Music Box
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