Songoftheday 1/2/24 - Two days past eighteen, he was waiting for the bus in his army green...

 

 

"Travelin' Soldier" - The (Dixie) Chicks

from the album Home (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #25 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 5

 

Song of the Day is back with the country music trio that now go by the Chicks, whose album Home had already spun off a pair of hit singles that both reached #2 on Billboard magazine's Country Songs chart and #7 on the all-inclusive Hot 100 with "Long Time Gone" and their cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide".  While the latter was reaching its heights on pop radio, their latest single was making its way to the top of the country chart. "Travelin' Soldier", written by Bruce Robison (the then brother-in-law of member Emily Erwin Robison) and produced by the group with Lloyd Maines (lead singer Natalie Maines' father), the song was a neo-traditional folk ballad that dealt with the tragedy of our youth during a time of war, but instead of using the current "war on terror" situation, placed it back in the Vietnam era. The lyrics follow the correspondence between a young boy and his girl he just met before leaving for bootcamp then Asia. There was always hope in her mind, even when he said he wouldn't be able to write for a while. But that third verse just kicks you in the gut when they announce his name at a football game in a list of the fallen as she (in her marching band uniform no less) is crying under the bleachers. It's a vivid and strikingly emotional picture that's painted for you in your head, and it's told with no sense of maudlin grief but rather resigned sorrow. The production is simple and stark in its sonics, letting the trio's voices shine through the record. It's no wonder it struck a chord with country listeners at first, which helped the song go to the top of the Nashville radio list. But as that was happening, real life issues arose. In March of 2003, as the group was touring England, Natalie made an impromptu aside that she was ashamed that she was from Texas, the state then-president George W Bush hailed (after he was silver-spoon born in Connecticut). Word got back quickly (though not as quickly as if the internets were what they are now), and with the fever of jingoism at full flame, people flooded the phone lines of radio to rid themselves of the women from the airwaves. And in short time, that did come to pass, and "Travelin' Soldier" fell right off the chart (as did "Landslide"). But for a little while, the Chicks enjoyed their last big country radio success. But the saddest thing was, this is the heart of country music, that for a long while was squashed by torch-bearing ostracism. The music video was taken from their performance of the song back in January of 2002, months before its appearance on CD, though radio even started playing the live version back then...

While "Travelin' Soldier" did manage to climb to #1 on Billboard's Country Songs airplay chart, by the time it crossed to the Hot 100 it fell out after five weeks in the top-40 just as the furor was fuming that March of 2003. 

When the Home album was released in September of 2002, two other albums tracks got enough airplay in its initial week to reach the Country Songs chart. The comic "White Trash Wedding" spent a week at #56, while the uptempo snipe of "Tortured Tangled Heart" popped in at #58. 

But by the time to release a follow-up to "Travelin' Soldier", the somber dirge of "Godspeed (Sweet Dreams)", in May of 2003, the blacklisting was in full force, and the song stalled down at #48 on the Country Songs list. They toured (much more successfully than the "machine" hoped) and during that time they quietly released "Top Of The World" (the Patty Griffin cut that named their tour) as a final single, but radio completely shunned them. However the song in its live album incarnation won the women the Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance in 2005 (fitting beating out dickweasel John Rich's Big & Rich act). 

But like a phoenix, the Chicks will be back to this series.

(10/10)

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Here's the haunting album version of the song...

and lastly, the Chicks on their triumphant MMVXI tour in 2016...

 

 Up tomorrow: This New York rap icon begs your pardon.