If you want someone at a Colorado radio station to talk about why nobody plays the Dixie Chicks anymore, most of the time you’ll have to call New York or L.A.
There are strict rules about such sensitive corporate communications, after all. Everybody has to stay on message. Everyone must defer to the same boobs who suggested stations stop playing the John Lennon classic “Imagine” after 9/11 because it was about peace.
Off the record, on deep background, skittish local deejays and program directors responded to the question about the Dixie Chicks with gibberish.
“They’re not country anymore,” said a guy from a country music station.
“They’re too country,” said one from a rock station.
Scott Arbough, program director at KBCO, struggles with the Chicks dilemma, too, but after 21 years at the station, at least he’s not afraid to talk about it.
“They’re not in our regular rotation,” he said, though Bret Saunders has played “Not Ready to Make Nice” a few times.
“But we’re not a country station,” Arbough said, “and the Dixie Chicks are still perceived as country artists” even though their new album, “Taking the Long Way,” clearly rocks.
KBCO and other rock stations play music from others perceived as country artists, such as Lyle Lovett, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Steve Earle, though, so go figure.
Arbough insisted that the Chicks haven’t been censored.
“We don’t have any kind of issues with the Dixie Chicks based on their political stance,” he said.
Maybe not, but that makes KBCO an exception.
Since lead singer Natalie Maines told a London audience in the days before the start of the Iraq war in 2003 that “We’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas,” the band has been blackballed by corporate radio.
Dozens of stations nationwide not only boycotted Chicks songs, they invited listeners to bring their CDs to the stations to be destroyed. Sales of CDs and concert tickets tanked, at least for a while.
Then last spring, “Taking the Long Way” sold a million copies in its first three weeks of release despite the radio boycott. And while it may never hit the colossal 30 million sales mark that “Top of the World” reached or 100 million like “Wide Open Spaces” – which got heavy airplay on country radio stations before 2003 – steady sales continue.
The release of “Shut Up and Sing,” the documentary about the Dixie Chicks controversy, surely hasn’t hurt.
At the Chicks’ concert at the Pepsi Center on Monday night, most of about 12,000 fans sang along with every word on “Not Ready to Make Nice,” a song that may have been played only three or four times in Denver since its release in May.
Still, for all those who never heard a peep about the concert because of the radio blackout, there’s disappointment.
Here’s what you missed:
The Chicks delivered less twang and more attitude than in their pre-2003 concerts, clearly reaching out to the crossover audience. But the bluegrass- tinged instrumentals were still thrilling, and the talented threesome stalked the stage with feline intensity.
Two or three people held protest signs, but nobody picketed or booed. When Maines suggested that people wave their glowing cellphones during “Lullaby” – because her little boy just loves that – the audience eagerly complied, transforming the cavernous hockey arena into a faux-candlelit concert hall.
Sure, a bit of anti-war sentiment bubbled forth in the roar of applause when the Chicks gigged their critics by arriving onstage to the sound of “Hail to the Chief.” And there were cheers when Maines gently tweaked the Bushies.
But it was hardly Woodstock.
I mean, jeez, even Gov.-elect Bill Ritter was there in the crowd, boogying down – sort of – in his cowboy boots.
So go ahead, Denver, defy the corporate goons and play the Dixie Chicks again.
Be as subversive as the next governor.
I dare you.
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 303-954-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com.
