The Dixie Chicks are an American all-female country music trio, comprising Emily Robison, Martie Maguire, and Natalie Maines. The Dixie Chicks got their feet wet in 1989 in Dallas, Texas. After years of hardship and changes in personnel, the group achieved large-scale country and pop commercial success starting in the late 1990s, with hit songs such as "Wide Open Spaces", "Cowboy Take Me Away", and "Long Time Gone". They became known for their lively group personae, instrumental virtuosity, fashion sense, and outspoken views. In particular, Natalie Maines' public criticism of President George W. Bush on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq led to considerable controversy for the group, causing them to lose a large part of their core country audience, but gain a new if somewhat smaller audience in the process.
The Dixie Chicks have since then bounced back to regain a large scale audience. Their most recent album, Taking the Long Way, has had major U.S. success and the first single from the album, "Not Ready to Make Nice", was released in March 2006. The album took three number one spots on May 31, 2006. It was number one on the Hot Country Albums chart, Top Digital Albums Charts, and the Billboard 200 overall chart, going Gold in its first week with 526,000 units sold. The album is now certified platinum.
During 2006, the Dixie Chicks became the first major band to hire a designated blogger to be embedded with them for their promotional activities and tour. They partnered with Microsoft and hired Junichi Semitsu, a Professor of Law at the University of San Diego, to write first-hand accounts for their Accidents & Accusations Tour at the website http://dixiechicks.msn.com