Grammy Awards Won't Help the Ditzy Chicks With Country Fans

Although the big news out of the Grammys was the five wins by the Ditzy Chicks, including best Country album, don't expect that country fans or country radio will be "ready to make nice":

Country radio still isn't ready to make nice with the Dixie Chicks.

With a haul of Grammys Sunday, the Texas trio topped their comeback from their 2003 Bush-bashing comment that turned them from superstars to pariahs - but Music Row isn't welcoming them back into the country- music fold.

"Most country stations aren't playing the Chicks, and they aren't going to start now," said Jim Jacobs, owner of WTDR-FM, a country radio station in Talladega, Ala.

The awards might have the opposite effect, sparking another radio backlash against the group. Country broadcasters said Monday that the group's five Grammys show how out of touch the Recording Academy is from the average country fan.

"I think (the listeners) are outraged," said Tony Lama, program director for KXNP in North Platte, Neb. "This is rural, conservative America. They are just disgusted."

The Grammys have a history of being out-of-touch the the fans of a particular genre, especially if it's a non-rock category.

The Grammy for best country album almost never goes to a mainstream Nashville act.

Bluegrass siren Alison Krauss and Union Station won the award last year for "Lonely Runs Both Ways," and Loretta Lynn won in 2005 for "Van Lear Rose." Neither got airplay on country radio.

The last time a country album won album of the year was 2002, for the movie soundtrack to "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" - a collection of old-time country that didn't fit the Nashville formula.

Johnny Cash won best country album in 1998 and then made headlines when his record company took out an ad showing a much younger Cash flipping his middle finger and thanking "the country music establishment in Nashville."

Wes McShay, program director of KRMD-FM, in Bossier City, La., said country fans understand that the big stars don't win Grammy awards.

"If you're talking about who's selling out 15,000-seat auditoriums, those acts are not awarded at the Grammys year after year," McShay said.

Consider the Country Music Association awards handed out a few months ago in Nashville: Entertainer of the year went to Kenny Chesney; the other big winners were radio favourites Brooks & Dunn, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts.

That the Chicks weren't even nominated for a CMA award shows how narrow-minded and parochial Nashville's Music Row can be, Maines said.

I've noticed the same thing for years in the gospel music categories. It seems that if any artist from another genre is nominated for a gospel album, even though it's the only gospel work they've ever done, they inevitably win. I remember Andy Griffith winning a couple of years ago, and this year Randy Travis won in the Best Southern/Country Gospel album category. Memo to people in other genres: If you want an easy Grammy, record a gospel album. If you're nominated against full-time gospel artists, you'll win.

Although the Chicks may be reveling right now, their Country radio airplay is almost nil and their tours through flyover country have suffered and probably won't get any better even with the statuettes.