Natalie Maines: Please, I must be hated more

I never got why the whole Natalie Maines thing was a big free speech deal: She can say whatever she wants, other people can tell her she's full of it and continue to refer to her as "the fat one." So what?

So now, full of umbrage over the whole controversy, she decides to attack her hometown and compare herself to Buddy Holly:

In "Lubbock or Leave It," Natalie Maines', a native of this West Texas city, sings: "I hear they hate me now/Just like they hated you./Maybe when I'm dead and gone/I'm gonna get a statue, too." (From the AP)

On the Dixie Chick's web site, she claims to be attacking all small, hypocritical towns, not "just Lubbock," which I'm sure makes it all better.

First off, as Holly's family says in the article, no one in Lubbock ever hated Holly. I imagine Maines made the statement based on the last trip that Holly made to Lubbock, right after he made it big. And, like a lot of people who make it big in a new art form, he discovered when he came home that people didn't really know what to make of him. Then he up and died before things could settle down.

So he didn't get the reception he deserved. He didn't face any hostility, either. (His wife, Maria Ellena, on the other hand, was ignored in several stores because she was hispanic, and hasn't really thought much of Lubbock since.) Holly had said several times that he wanted to come back to Lubbock one day and establish a recording center.

Anyway, comparing herself to Holly is a bit of stretch. As far as white guys who popularized Rock, Holly's second only to Elvis. The Dixie Chicks popularized a Texas/Nashville sound with a poppy, granola edge. There's a difference.

I doubt that this came up without the band knowing what they were doing: It's an attempt to appeal to a new audience by dissing the one that's already given up on you. I just wish they'd take a lesson from Willie. He probably has the same political views as Maines, but has managed to avoid repeatedly pissing off his hometown folks.