The Chicks used a network late‑night stage to mark a milestone: the trio performed "Not Ready to Make Nice" on Jimmy Kimmel Live in honor of the 20th anniversary of Taking the Long Way.
Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer appeared in matching all‑red outfits for the television spot, and Maguire took a lead role on fiddle while sharing vocal lines. The short set landed like a reminder — not a nostalgia trip — of an album that won five Grammys and reshaped the group's public profile.
The performance carried weight because Taking the Long Way is the record the band released in 2006 as the Dixie Chicks; it was their seventh studio album and swept major categories, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The song itself has remained prominent: respected music critics listed "Not Ready to Make Nice" among the standout tracks of 2006, praising its tough, Springsteen‑tinged heart and singalong urgency.
That history is the reason the television moment mattered. "Not Ready to Make Nice" was written and released in the aftermath of the group being blacklisted after public comments about President George W. Bush and the Iraq War — a backlash that defined the band's public life for years and gave the song its blunt, defiant tone. Presenting it now, two decades on, converted a late‑night set into a short act of reclamation.
The performance also served as a reminder that the Chicks' work remains connected to pushback as much as to craft. Maines has not retreated from blunt commentary in recent years; she verbally attacked former President Donald Trump over a controversial slush fund for his allies, using a coarse epithet that made headlines. That mix of political edge and songwriting remains an unsettled part of the story Taking the Long Way tells.
Beyond the broadcast, the appearance was a prelude: the Chicks will mount a 16‑show fall tour celebrating the album's 20th anniversary. The run is mapped as a string of intimate‑theater dates, set to begin in Detroit, include multiple engagements in Chicago, New York and San Antonio, and close with two nights in Hollywood, California. For fans who got a glimpse on Kimmel, the late‑night set doubled as a teaser for the live shows.
What the band has not yet supplied is the full calendar. The itinerary lists cities and the structure of the run, but specific show dates for the 16 stops have not been published, leaving the exact timeline of the tour — when it starts in Detroit and which nights in Hollywood will close it — as the next unanswered item for ticket‑seekers. The Kimmel performance made one thing clear, though: the Chicks are framing the fall shows as a chance to revisit an album that was both commercially triumphant and politically combustible, and they intend to do it on their own terms.
