James Taylor/Dixie Chicks Concert was packed with Kerry supporters

[RamboLiberal]

I posted this cause I had a great experience tonight. I was on the street handing out flyers on Going Upriver for the Pittsburgh for Kerry group. I struck up a conversation with a guy from Atlanta(didn't know till I read the above story he's a minister). I was kidding him that Zell gave his state a bad name, and he was commiserating on "spitball Zell". I told him Texas was more ashamed a village was missing their idiot. And then Tom Query gave me a ticket and said enjoy the show. And I did! The ticket was in the peanut gallery, and still it was a $75 ticket. Coming two days after my birthday and the day after that fabulous debate victory I was pumped.

The reviewer however is an idiot, claiming the Dixie Chicks were "severely damaged" by their Bush bash. And it was bullcrap the song dedicated to the troops "barely got a response".

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04276/389314.stm

Perhaps it was inevitable for a third-party, independent, political-action committee holding a concert to raise funds for another third-party committee, but last night, before the show, a Presbyterian minister was outside Heinz Hall(Pittsburgh) scalping tickets.

"I'm going into the concert. I bought two extra tickets so I'm trying to get rid of them," explained the Rev. Tom Query. He flew from Atlanta to Pittsburgh yesterday for the Vote for Change Concert, one of a series of shows featuring top-name artists supporting Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

<snip>

"We're here from Cincinnati. We hate him so much," said Mary Kucynski. That's all it took. Kucynski and her husband, Ron, spilled out their feelings about Bush.

"He's not pro-female," she said.

"The cocky look on his face," said Ron.

"He goes by physicality," she said, nodding at her husband. "He thinks there's something going on in his looks."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04276/389346.stm

Art and politics intersected at last night's Dixie Chicks and James Taylor concert. One of the coolest concerts of the year, it was a mass of contradictions.

Appropriately housed at Heinz Hall, the "concert" was a political fund-raiser, not for a candidate or party, but for a soft-money collection agency. The two headliners didn't play separate sets, they alternated -- flip-flopped, if you will -- every several songs. Instead of performing with their regular bands, both acts played with the same six musicians, a pickup band culled from the Chicks' and Taylors' road bands and a few extras, who read the score from music stands.

The Chicks, whose career was severely damaged by their political statements, kept mostly mum on the Bush-bashing, leaving it to the laid-back adult-contemporary Taylor to turn the political dagger.

Even the crowd was a contradiction. Obviously there for the message instead of the music, they responded to slight political jibes with standing ovations instead of the customary titters. And when the Dixie Chicks dedicated their hit "Travelin' Soldiers" to "the troops," a sentiment that normally draws huge applause from their fans, barely got a response from this audience.

And my response to Mr. Hayes.

Dear Mr. Hayes

Were you at the same concert I was at? I was seated up in the gallery and I heard enthusiastic applause for the dedication of "Travelin Soldier" to the troops. I was in tears during the Dixie Chick performance of the song and I heard great applause following. I think your are trying to spin the liberal crowd as unpatriotic!

And the Dixie Chick careers were not "severely damaged" by their political statements. In fact their album sales never flagged despite the hoopla from mostly Clear Channel radio stations.

I'm a Kerry supporter (who incidentally was a lucky recipient of a free ticket from Tom Query (Dennis Roddey article). I greatly enjoyed the show and thought the crowd very pro Kerry.

God Bless the Dixie Chicks and James Taylor for standing up for the right to speak our beliefs in the United States.