Chicks Announce 'Taking the Long Way' 20th Anniversary Reissue
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- The Chicks announced a Taking the Long Way (20th Anniversary Edition) reissue out Oct. 2, featuring five bonus tracks including a demo of "Not Ready to Make Nice" and the previously unreleased "Flowers," plus demos of "So Hard" and streaming debuts for "Thin Line" and "Live Wire"
- The 2006 Rick Rubin-produced album earned five Grammy Awards after the trio was blacklisted by Nashville following their 2003 on-stage criticism of President George W. Bush — their CDs were burned, music removed from radio playlists, and band members lived under heightened security due to death threats
- The Chicks will launch a North American tour Sept. 30 in Detroit and conclude Nov. 3 in Los Angeles, with a just-announced third night added at the Dolby Theater
- The trio — Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire, and Emily Strayer — will perform the album in its entirety each evening, alongside additional fan favorites
- The album's defiant stance inspired later country artists including Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris, and Mickey Guyton to refuse staying quiet
Why it matters: Two decades on, the reissue reframes Taking the Long Way as a foundational text for defiance in mainstream country music, with the full-album tour giving fans a live ritual around it. For the Nashville establishment that blacklisted the trio after their Bush comments, the five-Grammy sweep and downstream influence on artists like Musgraves, Morris, and Guyton stand as a long-overdue industry verdict.
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