Two decades after releasing one of country music's most explosive albums, The Chicks are revisiting 'Taking the Long Way' with an expanded reissue that includes a demo of "Not Ready to Make Nice" and a previously unreleased track called "Flowers."
For anyone who lived through 2006, this is more than nostalgia. "Taking the Long Way" was country music's most consequential response to Natalie Maines' "we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas" comment at a London concert three years earlier. Released in 2006, the album became a flashpoint. Radio stations in red states pulled their music. Fans burned CDs. Death threats arrived. The Chicks were effectively exiled from the genre they had helped define.
The album swept the 2007 Grammys, winning Album of the Year. It proved that The Chicks' decision to stand by their convictions rather than backtrack was artistically sound. Sonically, "Taking the Long Way" moved them away from pure country into pop-rock territory, a shift that worked.
The reissue carries weight beyond anniversary marketing. In 2024-2025, with The Chicks touring again and country music's political divisions still active, revisiting this album feels deliberate. Gen Z country fans who were not born in 2003 are discovering them. Established stars like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé have cited them as influence. The Chicks' journey from pariahs to legacy artists is now the actual story.
By releasing demos and vault tracks, they are giving fans the full picture of how "Not Ready to Make Nice" came together during one of the most turbulent periods in modern country music. Every outtake documents their vindication.
The Chicks survived being blacklisted. They thrived on the other side. That is what this reissue marks.
