The Chicks marked the 20th anniversary of their Grammy-winning album “Taking the Long Way” with a concert built around the record’s 14 songs and the events surrounding its release. At the group’s Nov. 1 show at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer played the album in its original order, sharing commentary between many of the tracks.
The concert took on added political resonance as it coincided with the 2026 midterm elections. Maines compared the current president with George W. Bush, recalling her 2003 remarks that she was ashamed to share a home state with Bush. She told the audience that, after two decades, she would now give Bush “a big kiss,” before criticizing the current president. The crowd also responded to her comments about visiting the Obama museum and to a later lyric about the cost of gas, electricity and medical care.
The first portion of the show used documentary footage and personal stories to revisit the making of “Taking the Long Way” and the fallout from Maines’ Bush comments, which the band has sometimes called “the incident.” Before performing “Not Ready to Make Nice,” Maines recalled rejecting the idea of writing an apology song. The track became a defiant response to the backlash, including death threats and criticism from media figures.
The album’s full performance also brought back songs that had rarely appeared in the group’s live sets. “Baby Hold On” was reportedly performed live for the first time on this tour, while “So Hard,” “I Hope,” “Bitter End” and “Voice Inside My Head” had not been played since the album’s release year. The members shared personal context for several tracks, including Maguire’s experience with in vitro fertilization, which informed “So Hard.”
After an intermission, the trio switched to a nine-song hits set featuring “Goodbye Earl,” “Wide Open Spaces,” “Cowboy Take Me Away,” “Travelin’ Soldier” and “Sin Wagon.” They also performed “Gaslighter,” the title track of their 2020 album, and a mashup of “Daddy Lessons” and “Long Time Gone.”
The Los Angeles engagement was scheduled to run for three nights, with the Wednesday show replacing a performance canceled because of an unspecified illness in the band. The tour’s format gave the group room to revisit the album’s history while bringing its less frequently performed songs back to the stage.
Sources: Variety.