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The Chicks marked the 20th anniversary of their Grammy-winning album Taking the Long Way with a candid and emotionally charged concert tour, using the performances to revisit the 2003 George W. Bush controversy that reshaped their careers. The short run of shows, which included a three-night stand at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, blended full-album playback with documentary footage and personal storytelling from all three members.
A Tour Built Around Honesty and History
The concert format was unlike a typical Chicks show. Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer sat on stools for the first half of the evening and performed all 14 tracks of Taking the Long Way in original running order. Between nearly every song, the trio offered commentary, personal reflections and behind-the-scenes context. Documentary clips, including some never released publicly, played on a large screen to illustrate what life looked like for the group during the mid-2000s recording sessions.
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The 2006 album won five Grammy Awards, including the rare sweep of album, record and song of the year. However, the tour was about more than celebrating that achievement. It also served as a direct revisit of “the incident” — the band’s internal shorthand for Maines’ 2003 London comment that she was ashamed to share a home state with then-President Bush.
New Political Remarks Draw White House Response
The Hollywood shows opened just days before the 2026 midterm elections, and the timing clearly influenced the mood on stage. At the Sunday night show on November 1, Maines addressed the crowd directly. “It was 20 years ago, and a lot has changed since then,” she said. “Now I would give George Bush a big kiss. Now we’re ashamed the President of the United States from the United States.”
Maines noted that similar remarks made earlier in the tour had prompted an official White House response. Spokesperson Davis Ingle said on October 15 that “Natalie Maines is a despicable nobody who clearly suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has completely rotted her peanut-sized brain.” The crowd of approximately 3,400 reacted enthusiastically. On Tuesday’s election night show, all three members fanned themselves with large “Fuck Trump” fans on stage.
Deep Cuts and Long-Forgotten Songs Return
For dedicated fans, the most compelling draw was the return of songs the group had not performed in years. Of the album’s 14 tracks, only four have remained regular setlist fixtures. The remaining ten had not appeared in a Chicks show for at least a decade. Several had not been played since the album’s original 2006 tour. “Baby Hold On” had apparently never been performed live before this tour, according to setlists.fm.
Strayer shared that the song referred to the three children under age three-and-a-half she had with then-husband Charlie Robison, and the search for intimacy amid that chaos. The couple later divorced. “I think I thought it was about hope, but it was probably more about desperation at that point,” Strayer told the audience. Meanwhile, Maguire explained that “So Hard” grew from scheduling IVF procedures around European tour dates, making it one of the first songs on a bestselling album to address in vitro fertilization directly.
The Album Still Holds Up
After the full-album set, the second act delivered nine fan favorites, including the mashup of “Long Time Gone” and “Daddy Issues” first premiered with Beyoncé at the 2016 CMA Awards. The only song from the past two decades was “Gaslighter,” the title track of their 2020 album. Taking the Long Way proved durable as a body of work, standing on musical merit beyond its political context. The Chicks’ willingness to revisit that difficult chapter, with humor, honesty and strong harmonies intact, made for a rare and rewarding evening.
