Album anniversary tours are, by nature, nostalgic affairs – warm, rose-tinted walks down memory lane about the good old days. That’s not quite the case for The Chicks’ current anniversary tour for Taking the Long Way, which came out 20 years ago in the wake of an almost career-ending controversy. Their crime? Criticizing President George W. Bush as the United States prepared to invade Iraq over false claims that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction and its then-leader Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11. “We’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas,” singer Natalie Maines told a London audience on March 10, 2003.
The backlash was swift and brutal. Country radio stations dropped their then-hit singles from playlists, conservative media pundits rushed to decry them as unpatriotic “bimbos,” fellow country artists told them to shut up and so-called fans barraged them with death threats.
Taking the Long Way, produced by Rick Rubin and preceded by the pointedly titled single “Not Ready to Make Nice,” was the trio’s first album since what Maines referred to Monday (Oct. 12) night at the Beacon Theatre in New York City as “the incident.” On one hand, it was a helluva comeback: it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and won the 2007 Grammy for album of the year, as well as country album of the year. Plus, “Not Ready to Make Nice” hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and nabbed three Grammys, including song of the year and record of the year. On the other hand, that single peaked at No. 36 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart – a noticeable drop for a band accustomed to going top 10 on that tally. While the pre-controversy Chicks scored six Hot Country Songs No. 1s and 15 top 10s, the Chicks haven’t gone higher than No. 20 (“Gaslighter” in 2020) since then. All of which is to say that while the controversy hardly cost the Chicks their career, they never returned to pre-incident levels of dominance in Nashville.
But enough history lessons. Because while The Chicks’ current tour finds them playing that classic 2006 LP start-to-finish before offering up a rollicking ‘best of’ encore, this tour feels vibrant, vital and relevant.
Here are seven of the best moments from the band’s first show at Manhattan’s Beacon Theatre.
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Forever Is Enough
Breathtaking in its simple beauty, “Lullaby” isn’t just one of the album’s highlights but one of the band’s best songs. Incredibly, hearing it live in 2026 doesn’t sound much different from hearing it on CD back in 2006 – the group’s gentle, organic harmonies remain mesmerizing.
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On Second Thought…
After a vintage video montage of political pundits and everyday folk losing their minds over the idea that someone might not be a fan of a sitting president, Maines declared she will “never” submit to the “shut up and sing” brigade. “We thought that was the worst it could get,” she recalled of 2003. “Now I’d give George (W.) Bush a big wet kiss,” she laughed. “’Cause now we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from the United States.” Call it preaching to the choir, but the cheer that went through the theater was almost as loud as the applause when the Chicks first took the stage.
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Christmas Boycott
The tour’s setup is a bit VH1 Storytellers, with the band sharing stories behind the writing and recording of the album throughout the show. Ahead of “Bitter End,” Maines talked about how the song’s “last verse is about all those people we thought were our friends — we know it’s just industry, but still” she said of fair-weather friends who “had a good time / drinking all of our wine / after the show.”
“I remember Christmas. The year before I had all these Christmas cards from other artists,” Emily Strayer recalled of the band’s pre-incident days. “’Oh, that was nice. Travis Tritt sent me a Christmas card.’ And he didn’t send me a Christmas card the next year,” she added with a smirk. (Tritt was one of the more vocal critics of the Chicks after Maines’ comment; he also expressed outrage at the CMA Awards when they hosted a collaborative performance between the Chicks and Beyoncé in 2016.) “My little ribbon with all my Christmas cards was very thin (that year),” she said.
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Thanks, Obama
The Chicks did have a positive thing to say about one former president. They shouted out the Obama Presidential Center — which they visited while in Chicago earlier this month — for “all the positive things they did and continue to do.” Added Maines: “So different than the deranged nut job we have right now. Very bizarre times.”
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They Say It’s Your Birthday
The group’s Martie Maguire, who remains one of the most emotionally expressive fiddle and viola players in country music, celebrated her birthday the same night as the Chicks’ first Beacon Theatre show. Maines had intended to lead the audience in a “Happy Birthday To You” sing-along toward the end of the show, but the crowd beat her to it, serenading Maguire with the birthday song before even half of the album had been played. For good measure, Maines still led the theater through another round of the tune in the show’s hit-filled second half.
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Gassed Up
After “Goodbye Earl” (which they killed) and “Wide Open Spaces,” they rocked through “White Trash Wedding.” For those who urged Maines to “shut up and sing,” well, she accommodated them in a fashion by making a comment on the current state of the economy during the song: “Cant’ afford no dreams ‘cause gas prices are too high!” she hollered.
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Whole Lotta Rosie
In lieu of an opener, the Chicks are preceded by video footage from the 2006 documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing as well as rare footage from the vault. The fly-on-the-wall footage is worth getting there early to check out. NYC audiences got an extra preshow treat on Monday night thanks to one famous fan; Rosie O’Donnell entered the Beacon Theatre to rapturous applause, and she generously chatted (and took photos) with fans who stopped by her aisle seat before the concert got underway.
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