01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, July 23, 2006

BY MARIO TARRADELL
The Dallas Morning News

The fallout from Natalie Maines' now infamous remarks in 2003 bashing George Bush is well documented: radio boycott, CDs publicly destroyed, a sharp decline in sales, death threats, and ridicule from the country-music industry.

But what bothers Maines the most, she says, is that the American Red Cross refused a $1 million donation from the Dixie Chicks in 2003.

"It has nothing to do with being taken off of the radio," says Maines, 31, by phone from New York. "It has to do with the absurdity of death threats and the absurdity of being so awful that people won't even touch you. That the Red Cross won't take a million-dollar check from you. How can the Red Cross turn away a million dollars for charity?"

But it's not as simple as that, responds national Red Cross spokesperson Julie Thurmond Whitmer in a statement. The band would have made the donation "only if the American Red Cross would embrace the band's summer tour," she writes, referring to the group's 2003 U.S. tour after the London incident.

"The Dixie Chicks controversy made it impossible for the American Red Cross to associate itself with the band because such association would have violated two of the founding principles of the organization: impartiality and neutrality . . .

"Should the Dixie Chicks like to make an unconditional financial donation to the American Red Cross, we will gladly accept it."

Once again the Dixie Chicks roost in the fire. Half of the concerts on their current tour reportedly were postponed because of poor sales, and their shows Wednesday at the Mohegan Sun Arena and Saturday at Boston's T.D. Banknorth Garden -- though still on the schedule -- have not sold out.

Yet all of the controversy may be helping to sell the trio's excellent new CD.

Taking the Long Way was released May 23. The disc sold more than 800,000 copies in its first two weeks and was the Number One album both weeks. It's still riding high at Number Four.

"You probably won't hear a better adult pop album this year," wrote Time magazine's critic. Maines and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison have been interviewed on 60 Minutes, The Late Show With David Letterman, Good Morning America and Larry King Live.

When there were discussions about how to market the album, "we told Sony and our management, 'You cannot do the marketing plan with any dependence on radio,' " says Maines. "We have to get creative with the Internet and with all other avenues as to letting people know that this music is out there."'

And indeed, radio has turned a deaf ear. "Not Ready to Make Nice," the dramatic, orchestrated first single and video, peaked at No. 36 on Billboard's country singles chart. "Everybody Knows," which has more country flavor, dropped to No. 50 after only reaching No. 48.

Still country at heart

If the tour is suffering, it would be an artistic shame. Taking the Long Way is a mature piece of work, a 14-song cycle that examines everything from anger to Alzheimer's disease.

Rock producer Rick Rubin -- best known for his work with Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Beastie Boys and for reviving the late Johnny Cash's career -- freed Maines, Maguire and Robison to explore sonically: Southern California pop-rock of the '70s, some blues, bluegrass touches and roots rock.

But the Chicks aren't trying to divorce themselves from country music.

"The only concern I had with Rick, or with any producer, was, 'Oh here's my chance to reinvent the Dixie Chicks,' " says Maines. "We know who we are and what we do. We have banjo and fiddle."

She pauses.

"We think that forever at the Grammys we'll be in the country category. Our goal is not to be up for best pop album . . . And ultimately I don't think we care what category we're in. We still think that we are a country band."

But don't expect them to attend country music awards shows anytime soon. At the Academy of Country Music Awards in May, hostess Reba McEntire slammed the band: "If the Dixie Chicks can sing with their foots in their mouths, surely I can host this sucker."

McEntire's comment likely was retaliation for Maguire's quote in Time: "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."

And that remark obviously was a swipe at McEntire's slew of below-the-belt jokes on the ACMs in 2003, shortly after the incident in London.

"Martie regrets naming names," says Maines, of the sniping. "I couldn't even name you a Reba McEntire song, so I wasn't a fan.

"But 3 1/2 years ago when we were the brunt of all of the jokes on the show, it didn't personally bother me. It personally bothered Martie and Emily. Especially Martie, because she was a Reba McEntire fan. She was saddened and hurt by the fact that she (McEntire) said all those things about us."

Beyond the anger

So now what? How does the band move beyond the hurt, the anger, the incident?

"People want to make the battle with country radio," says Maines. She says she can't convince people that she's not trying to get back at the industry.

"Music is what we really love to do. Music is the only thing we can do. It was very liberating in making this record to not have to think about radio of any kind. We thought there would be no radio station to play our records to get it anywhere on the charts. And that is not disappointing to us or surprising.

"The anger in 'Not Ready to Make Nice' and the things that I have to get over have nothing to do with country music. I hope that that dies away. In time, that anger towards us will die away . . .

"We don't want it to be a topic on an awards show."

Dallas Morning News staff writer Emily Goldstein and the Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.

The Dixie Chicks perform at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Mohegan Sun Arena, Mohegan Sun Boulevard (exit 79A off Route 395), Uncasville, Conn. Tickets are $55 and $75.

They're at the T.D. Banknorth Garden (formerly the FleetCenter), Causeway Street, Boston, at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $47 to $75.

For tickets to both shows, call (401) 331-2211 or go to www.ticketmaster.com.