\n<\/p>\n
\n\tFor years, it was hard not to wonder if the Chicks<\/a> could ever move past it. The incident, that is \u2014 when Natalie Maines told an audience<\/a> in London, England, during a show in 2003 that she was \u201cashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.\u201d Would it always overshadow the music, and define the band?<\/p>\n \n\tThe Chicks\u2019 Oct. 15 show at Nashville\u2019s new venue the Truth proved that wondering so is maybe asking the wrong questions. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of their Rick Rubin-produced, Grammy-sweeping LP Taking the Long Way <\/em>(and accompanying reissue<\/a>), there was no shying away from the event that shaped that album\u2019s storytelling. But, then again, shying away from their convictions has never been what the Chicks \u2014 Maines, Martie Maguire, and Emily Strayer\u00a0\u2014 are about anyway. <\/p>\n \n\tYou could see it on the stage curtains, upon which archival footage was projected you could hear it in the music, with the band playing the album front to back (joined, at one point, by Sheryl Crow<\/a>, who was part of the original recording). You could see it on the merch, with \u201cstill not ready to make nice\u201d sweatshirts and \u201cwe\u2019re ashamed the president of the United States is from the United States\u201d tees for sale. This is part of the Chicks\u2019 story. It\u2019s just not the only story.<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019d be a crime to overlook the band\u2019s sheer musicianship. Performing songs like album opener \u201cThe Long Way Around,\u201d \u201cBitter End,\u201d and \u201cFavorite Year,\u201d alongside the equally outspoken Sheryl Crow<\/a>, there were more country instruments onstage than probably anywhere else in Nashville that night \u2014 and most of them were played by the Chicks themselves. Throughout the evening, Strayer tackled the banjo, guitar, and dobro, with Maguire on fiddle and mandolin, while Maines\u2019 explosively powerful vocals (hopping on guitar, tambourine, and autoharp as well) anchored the gorgeously written songs, particularly the aching emotion she captured on Taking the Long Way\u2019s <\/em>centerpiece, \u201cNot Ready to Make Nice.\u201d Scorching solos, intricate finger picking, and inventive interplay have always defined their approach to making music, honoring the country and bluegrass roots that shaped them, but on their own terms \u2014 terms that always made purists uncomfortable, even before the London incident.<\/p>\n