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Down The Hill.
Give Truth where it is due, the Dixie Chicks new release, did fairly well against weak competition.

It went Gold the first week with over 500k in sales, hit about 750k the second.

Amazingly for an album whose previous single releases bombed bigtime, Taking the Long Way, first hit the Top Amazon sales, then Billboard 200 and Billboard Country album #1 and even 1st place in Walmart's Top 100 CDs.

so now about 3 weeks or so after it's release how fare the Chicks?

Well they are STILL in Amazon.coms #1 spot but they have been replaced by AFI on Billboard and slipped to the number spot #2.

AFI burns past Chicks

By Ken Barnes, USA TODAY
Bay Area emo-goth rock outfit AFI sweep the Dixie Chicks off their No. 1 perch on the Billboard album chart, selling 182,000 copies of Decemberunderground, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
The Chicks maintained strong sales (175,000) at No. 2, ahead of the debuts of rappers Yung Joc and Ice Cube, holdovers High School Musical and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the debut of the Cars soundtrack, Rascal Flatts, Rihanna and Now 21.

Other prominent debuts included Miami's DJ Khaled's Listennn ... The Album compilation at No. 12 and two disparate tour collections, Blue Collar Comedy at No. 19 and Warped at No. 27.

Shakira's Hips Don't Lie reigns for a second week on top of the track-download chart, selling 165,000. Track downloads are up 77% over last year, and the year-to-date total of 247.8 million slightly exceeds total CD sales (241.2 million, off 3% from last year).

Who, might you ask are this group which knocked a 30 million disc selling group out of the #1 Billboard spot after such a short time?

AFI Burns Brightly With No. 1 Debut

June 14, 2006, 11:10 AM ET

Katie Hasty, N.Y.
AFI's "Decemberunderground" opens at No. 1 on The Billboard 200, the first chart-topper of the band's career. The Tiny Evil/Interscope set moved 182,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the rock group's best one-week tally. AFI's previous album, "Sing the Sorrow," entered at No. 3 in 2003 with 96,000.

After holding down No. 1 for two weeks straight, the Dixie Chicks' "Taking the Long Way" (Columbia) falls to No. 2 with 175,000 copies, a 36% sales decrease

So it would seem that a Latino Punk Revivalist group, which until now has never had a Billboard 200 top hit but 3 years ago did make it to the #4 on the Billboard 200 and also the #5 position in Top Independent Albums, other than that their Billboard 200 ratings on other albums have been #88 and #174 position, has taken 1st place away from the Chicks.

So still at the top on Amazon, on the way down on Billboard, and last but not least how fare they on Walmart?

Of course the Bluenoses of the Bluestates will turn their noses up and grind their teeth at the very mention of Walmart, but the truth is, America Shops there.

With it's typical customer in the $30,000 to $40,000 range we are talking about the Median Income American Family. Every week, 138 million shoppers visit Wal-Mart's 4,750 stores; last year, 82% of American households made at least one purchase at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart also is Hollywood's biggest outlet, accounting for 15% to 20% of all sales of CDs, videos, and DVDs. So if a vote were to be taken, to shop or shop not Walmart, the snobs would lose.

So back to my question, how do the Dixie Chicks fare in America's retail Behemoth?

I just LOVE this! They have been replaced in first place on Walmart's Top 100 CDs by, doesn't this warm the cockles of your heart?

The Blue Collar Comedy Tour:
One For The Road (2CD)

Note: Monday June 19, 2006 while Walmart is promoing the Comedy Tour on it's CD page here it has slipped back to #3 and the Chicks are back to #1 will update this as things change

I am going to have to admit, I find that to be poetic justice.

In most of the reviews printed lately about the Dixie Chick and Taking the Long Way, the events in London of 3 years ago are hashed, rehashed and served regurgitated in the same manner a mother bird feeds her Chicks.

How the Chicks survived their scrap with Bush

Adam Sweeting assesses how the Dixie Chicks have weathered a political storm

When Maines made her comment on March 10 2003, 10 days before Operation Iraqi Freedom unleashed "shock and awe" over Baghdad, the Dixie Chicks were probably the biggest act in country music. Yet within days, their music vanished from the charts and the airwaves, apoplectic rednecks crushed piles of their CDs with tractors, and the FBI was feverishly monitoring death threats against the trio. It was the most heinous pop-star outrage since Ozzy Osbourne urinated on the Alamo.

It was the bullying and the scare factor," shudders banjo and guitar player Robison. "It was like the McCarthy days, and it was almost like the country was unrecognizable."

A couple of quick notes. I don't recall Bush saying much against the CHICKS, I seem to recall the rhetoric was pretty much all one sided. McCarthyism was government mandated, a spontaneous reaction by individuals enmasse is a different thing, in some respects, it's called Democracy?

The Chicks can't hide their disgust at the lack of support they received from other country performers. "A lot of artists cashed in on being against what we said or what we stood for because that was promoting their career, which was a horrible thing to do," says Robison.

"A lot of pandering started going on, and you'd see soldiers and the American flag in every video. It became a sickening display of ultra-patriotism."

So it would seem that the CHICKS have a right to make statements and take actions in support of their political views, but no one else can?

What they say is derived from heartfelt beliefs and not pandering to an elite intelligentsia, if others do the same for their views they are disingenuous and pandering to the ignorant masses who should do and think what their betters tell them to.

We have arrived at the truth of the matter, it is not just that they disagreed with Bush on the Iraqi War, it is that the Chicks find patriotism sickening.

"The entire country may disagree with me, but I don't understand the necessity for patriotism," Maines resumes, through gritted teeth. "Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country? I don't see why people care about patriotism."

As far as I am concerned what happened 3 years ago is in the Past and could have been left in the Past. The consensus I have read from the Country Western Music Industry before the release of this last album, was let's just focus on good music and leave all that rancor behind us.

But when the main song of a new album is "Not Ready to Make Nice"? That kills that dead. Everything that has happened in the last few weeks has been different renditions by the Chicks to their Former Fans of "We don't Need you, We don't Want you, We don't even LIKE you, as a matter of fact you DISGUST us".

Is it any surprise that those sentiments are returned?

I will close with a few observations on these words by Natalie Maines.

The entire country may disagree with me, but I don't understand the necessity for patriotism," Maines resumes, through gritted teeth. "Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country? I don't see why people care about patriotism."

I believe her totally, she really has no idea what patriotism is, or why it is.

There can be no rational explanation of how Maines's remark came to drive a red-hot poker into America's divided soul, but it's only now that some of the poison has begun to dissipate.

It is apparent that the author the above statement does not understand patriotism either, nor loyalty for that matter.

Why should I care about her when she does not care about us?

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