Cash, Chicks Kept Country in the News

Billboard / Reuters ^ | December 20, 2003 | Deborah Evans Price and Phyllis Stark

[buzzyboop]

NASHVILLE (Billboard) - It's usually considered a good thing when country music and artists make headlines.

But two stories that kept country in the news this year -- the death of icon Johnny Cash and the incredible media scrutiny that accompanied a radio and fan backlash against the Dixie Chicks -- were events the industry could have done without.

After his Sept. 12 death, mourners from every facet of the entertainment business attended Cash's funeral. A subsequent tribute concert featuring Hank Williams Jr., Sheryl Crow, Marty Stuart, Kid Rock and numerous others became one of Country Music Television's highest-rated specials.

Cash died just a few months after the May 15 passing of his wife, June Carter Cash. She rose to prominence as a member of the legendary Carter Family and met Cash when the two began touring together in 1961.

The divisive Dixie Chicks controversy started in March on the eve of the war in Iraq, when singer Natalie Maines told a London concert audience she was "ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas," home to all three of the group's members.

When U.S. media outlets picked up the comment, Maines issued an apology. But that didn't stop stations from dropping the group's records and at least one station from hosting an event in which listeners' Chicks CDs were crushed with a steam roller.

Cumulus Broadcasting issued a ban on Chicks music across its 42 country stations. Cox Broadcasting canceled Jones Radio Networks' syndicated "Lia" evening show, which aired on six of its stations, because the show's producers initially were unwilling to stop airing Dixie Chicks music. Jones later began offering a Chicks-free version of the show.

Coming on the heels of the top-selling album "Home" and just weeks after the Chicks had nearly sold out their Top of the World tour dates, the controversy threatened to permanently derail the group's sky-high career. While the tour went off without a hitch and sparked virtually no protests, it remains to be seen what the long-term impact of the incident will be on the group's record sales.

For the chart week ending Dec. 7, 40 of Billboard's 128 monitored country stations did not play any Chicks songs.

In contrast to that brouhaha, country artists who released patriotic songs during the war in Iraq tended to fare well. The biggest beneficiary of country's openness to these songs was Darryl Worley's pro-war anthem "Have You Forgotten?" The tune topped the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart for multiple weeks and sparked sales of his album of the same name to 214,000 units in its first week.

FRESHER MATERIAL

It was a year that saw more lyrical variety return to the country airwaves. The politically correct, sanitized country of the '90s gave way to music with more substance that explored a wide range of life experiences and a "neo-traditionalist" sound.

Songs with a spiritual flavor also found a home on country radio. Among them were Josh Turner's "Long Black Train," Sherrie Austin's "Streets of Heaven," Buddy Jewell's "Help Pour Out the Rain (Lacey's Song)" and the most successful, Randy Travis' hit "Three Wooden Crosses."

The Country Music Assn. and the Christian Country Music Assn. named "Crosses" -- penned by Doug Johnson and Kim Williams -- the song of the year. It gave Travis his first No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Singles & Tracks chart since 1994.

There also was a return to meatier lyrics, with artists who had actually lived such stories doing the singing. DreamWorks' Jimmy Wayne, Mercury's Billy Currington and RCA's Jeff Bates delivered singles that drew from their often painful, true-life experiences that included an alcoholic father (Currington's "Walk a Little Straighter"), dysfunctional families (Wayne's "I Love You This Much") and adoption (Bates' "Rainbow Man").

SLIP SLIDING

In 2002, country music album sales totaled 76.9 million albums, an increase of 12.3% over the 68.4 million sold in 2001. But as 2003 draws to a close, country album sales from January to the week ended Dec. 7 were 58.6 million units, down 10% from 65.1 million in the same period in 2002.

Reuters/Billboard

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[buzzyboop]

The two fawning authoresses of this believe that because the Tricky Chicks' tour "went off without a hitch", that they're home free. Of course, the fact that nearly all their tickets were sold prior to their foot-in-mouth attack had nothing to do with it.

[Hildy]

I don't see where they are fawning. She was just reporting about the tour and she said that the fate of their career remains to be seen and that many stations have not played one Dixie song for the week reported. I don't see where this is biased reporting at all.

[Hildy]

In fact, she states the the tour was sold out BEFORE the comments were made. There's enough to be made at in this world. The writing of these two women doesn't make the cut.

[KellyAdmirer]

I think the fact that a third of country stations don't play their songs at all any more, new or old, is the telling fact of importance, and the authors wouldn't have mentioned that if this was a whitewash. But then, they are no longer country artists according to them, so no big loss for the Chicks, right?

[Liberty Valance]

Alison Krauss and James Taylor have a great new duet out called: "How's the world treating you". From the new tribute album "Songs of the Louvin Bros". Makes a handy Christmas gift. :o)

[Indie]

I won't buy JT music. He is a flaming liberal. Don't tell me Alison is too...it'll break my heart.

[SwinneySwitch]

I won't buy JT's music
he's just a flamin' liberal.
Don't tell me Alison is too
'cause it'll break my heart...

There's a song in here somewhere, Indie!

[NYCVirago]

While the tour went off without a hitch and sparked virtually no protests, it remains to be seen what the long-term impact of the incident will be on the group's record sales.

Could these idiots bother to, oh, maybe check the Billboard charts to see how the Chicks' live album is doing? I checked it, and after only four weeks on the chart, the album is down to 44. Sounds like a pretty big long-term impact to me.

[Liberty Valance]

Yes, JT's a liberal. The foreign press tried like hell to get him to dis Bush and the war on his Australian and European tour. He stated that he did not feel it was right for an American artist to bash his country while on foreign soil. I can respect that. If i had to toss all the music i love because the artist is a liberal i'd have almost nothing to choose from. Alison has made no political statements that i have seen. Great music has a way of breaking down barriers between people who wouldn't normally have anything to say to one another. Just my humble opinion. :o)

[Indie]

Methinks you're right! LOL.

[CAR913]

Having been a liberal myself once, I generally try to be forgiving of entertainers' liberal politics, except in extreme cases (e.g., Barbra Streisand).

[ConservativeMan55]

Bump!

[Indie]

Yes with me it's just the loud mouths, Babs, DixieSlu**, and Tim Mcgraw is slowly pushing the envelope, along with a few openly militant abortionist alternative rock groups and of course David Crosby.

[cherry]

what's Mcgraw done?...not that I'm a fan....

[Fledermaus]

Having been a liberal myself once,

Welcome back into the real world. Hope it's working well for you.