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LOS ANGELES - Less than a month after they swept the Grammys, the Texas trio the Dixie Chicks were shut out of Nashville's country music awards - a sign that the traditional country establishment is no closer to forgiving the group for its public criticism of President Bush,
or to playing its songs again on the radio.
The Chicks did not pick up a single Country Music Award nomination for their best-selling album Taking The Long Way, which has enjoyed a renewed sales boost since winning all five Grammys for which it was nominated.
Although the Chicks scooped up 10 country music awards in their first flush of success in the late 1990s and early 2000s, they have not received the slightest acknowledgement since 2003.
That was the year when, on the eve of the US-led invasion of Iraq, the Chicks' lead singer Natalie Maines told a live audience in London that she was ashamed President Bush was from her home state of Texas.
When word of the throwaway line reached the United States, it sparked a furious backlash among fans and country radio DJs, who denounced the group and staged ritual CD destruction ceremonies.
The group has hardly been heard on mainstream country radio stations ever since.
Taking The Long Way was an artistic risk, pushing the Chicks in less countryfied, more rock'n'roll direction.
It also struck a tone of complete defiance with the group's critics, particularly on the album's signature track, Not Ready To Make Nice, in which Maines declared she was still "mad as hell".
The risk paid off handsomely, as the record shot to the top of the country charts - despite next to no air play - and found a whole new audience in US and Canadian cities.
The Chicks had calculated they would lose some of their fan base, but they more than made up for it elsewhere - in part because of their new-found artistic freedom.
As group member Martie Maguire put it: "I'd rather have a smaller following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith. We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do."
The country establishment's boycott of the Chicks has thus proven completely counter-productive and raises more questions about its own rigid way of functioning than it does about the Dixie Chicks or their politics.
Taking The Long Way was still number one on the US country chart last week, and shows signs of staying there for a few weeks more at least.
The awards ceremony takes place in Las Vegas on May 15.
- INDEPENDENT