If there was any question about the relevance of The Chicks in the current day and age, one simply needed to survey the concertgoers gathered on the Garrison Grounds. The crowd was awash in denim shorts, cowboy hats and colourful cowboy boots; the excitement was palpable for Natalie, Martie and Emily.
The inaugural Halifax Music Fest featured a testosterone-laden lineup of Nickelback, Big Wreck and the Glorious Sons; it brought out an equally testosterone-laden crowd. Year 2 was certainly the inverse of the Nickelback crowd, as it was a crowd loaded with mothers, daughters and sisters. The opening night of Year 2 featured a significantly less raucous lineup of Barr Brothers, Blue Rodeo, Shaboozey and The Chicks.
The Barr Brothers kicked off the proceedings for night 1. The Montreal-based band are no stranger to the region, having performed as part of Halifax Pop Explosion, The TD Halifax Jazz Fest, as well as headlining The Light House Arts Centre. The band brings an ethereal indie-folk sound to the stage, with a distinct folk sensibility. Those in attendance who are familiar know how special the band’s music is, but it’s safe to say it won’t be starting any parties. To hear “Even The Darkness Has Arms” on the famed concert grounds was a treat, especially with a warm summer breeze blowing through. During their performances, there is a moment when Brad Barr brings out this well-loved guitar and, during the performance, showcases a technique called a string bow, where Barr pulls a single string that is coiled around one of the guitar’s strings, producing a long sliding note. As good as the performance on stage was, it was lost on the folks who were there pre-gaming before The Chicks. It is always a treat to see the Barr Brothers when they are in town.
Next on the bill was the legendary Cdn rock outfit Blue Rodeo. The band are a mainstay on Halifax stages, having played a range of venues and stages in the region throughout their career. There is little in this world that is better than being on the Garrison Grounds on a warm summer night and singing your heart out to a litany of classic cuts such as “Trust Yourself”, “Bad Timing”, and “Try”. The entire band shone brightly, with Jim and Greg trading lead duties as they have done throughout their partnership, but the scintillating guitar duel between Colin Cripps and Jimmy Bowskill dropped many a jaw in the crowd; the smiles on both their faces conveyed their mutual admiration. Out of all the talented musicians on the stage Friday night, keyboardist Mike Boguski levitated off of his stool during “Head Over Heels” as he ripped off a fierce solo of his own. As many times as Blue Rodeo has been in the city, the classics don’t lose an ounce of their charm. “Lost Together” has been the closing number for quite some time, and on this night, local buds Adam Baldwin and Jenn Grant were welcomed to the stage to help close out the set.
Third on the bill was none other than Shaboozey, an artist who hit the charts with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”, which interpolated the lesser-known, early 2000s hip-hop bop “Tipsy” by J-Kwon. That track has been a mainstay on the pop and country charts since its release, and certainly veered the up-and-comer towards one-hit wonder territory, but he’s had some impressive co-signs in his burgeoning career, from Beyoncé, who included Shaboozey on two tracks from her Cowboy Carter album, as well as Jelly Roll, who duetted with him on the track “Amen” (from Shaboozey’s Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going: The Complete Edition). Personally, it was the track “Good News” that proved the Virginia-based singer-songwriter was more than a flash in the pan.
You could see the excitement in the crowd when the towering artist strode onstage in Halifax, especially one fan on the barrier, who clung to the hopes of an autograph and a copy of Shaboozey’s latest album. Fortunately for that fan (who did ultimately get that album signed), the set drew largely from Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going, including the key cuts “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”, “Good News” and “Amen”. A definite highlight from that set was a countrified version of “Knocking On Heaven’s Door”, which was more of a nod to the Bob Dylan original, whom Shaboozey cites as an influence on his songwriting. It was a fantastic showing for the talented singer-songwriter, who appeared to be having a great time on stage, and sent the Halifax crowd home happy, especially another super-fan in the crowd, a porch goose named Shagoozey who left the porch for an exciting night out.
In recent years, genres have become quite fluid, and at times indistinguishable. Those formerly firm and decisive delimitations between genres have eroded. As such, listening habits have changed, with pop music giving way to grunge and alternative rock, which in turn gave way to hip-hop and rap, and in recent years K-pop has stormed onto the scene, and an increasing number of crossovers between genres are occurring (I’m looking at you Shaboozey). However, if you talk to most music fans, you hear a familiar sentiment, “I listen to everything except country music”, which happens more than you would expect. Country music has enjoyed a renaissance in the past number of decades, spawning several subgenres, many of which have eschewed the twang of yesteryear and moved into a familiar classic rock sound rather than the new-country sound of the 90’s.
This writer also subscribed to that “everything but Country” mindset for many years, but it wasn’t until Garth Brooks landed at the Halifax Metro Centre (Scotiabank Centre) stage in 1996 that he punched a hole clean through that cliché. Much like a rivulet, Garth Brooks’s performance showed me the error of excluding an entire genre from my listening. Around the same time, another iconic Country act was starting on its own path to superstardom. The Chicks were that band (formerly known as The Dixie Chicks), and at that time, the band was in the midst of its own evolution with the addition of lead vocalist Natalie Maines, who brought a rock- and blues-centred style that helped them adapt to the burgeoning “New Country” sound.
Since the addition of Natalie Maines, The Chicks have released 5 studio albums, with the latest Gaslighter dropping in 2020. The Chicks’ momentum was disrupted in the early oughts when the outspoken Maines publicly criticized then-President George W. Bush, resulting in the band being blacklisted by country radio. Having that sort of spotlight shone directly on you and your music might result in a public apology and some backtracking, but The Chicks firmly held their ground. The band would not return until 2006, when they released Taking the Long Way, an album that served as their response and included the iconic single “Not Ready to Make Nice”, a track that was a middle finger to the industry that turned its back on the band.
The band continued to proudly state its politics when, in 2020, the band dropped the Dixie from its moniker after the killing of George Floyd and the weeks of anti-racism protests that followed, severing any possible reference to the Confederacy and would then be known only as The Chicks, leaving Dixie in the dirt.
While it might have been 6 years since the Chicks’ last new album, it was of little consequence as their fans turned out in droves to see the band perform here in Halifax. The opening track “March March” served as a slow-burn opener, but with the band in gear, the ladies launched into a one-two punch of “The Long Way Around” and “Wide Open Spaces,” and we were off and running. Natalie, Martie and Emily took the Haligonian crowd through a career-spanning set, with a couple of notable covers worked in for good measure. The first cover was that of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide”, which was the first time I actually heard the depth contained within those lyrics, about watching your kids grow up, while accepting the fact that you are also growing older, and rest assured, more than a few tears were shed on the concert grounds between parents and their offspring. That cover also likely hit close to home for Natalie Maines, as her son Slade performs in The Chicks’ touring band.
It was also fun to see the band include a modern cover such as Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild” in the set; it was a fun bit of levity in a set that carried a ton of emotional weight. Much like the way in which the show really kicked into gear, it wound down in the same fashion with an incredible tandem of fan-favourite gems in the cathartic “Not Ready to Make Nice” and “Goodbye Earl”. This was a show that will be indelibly etched on the hearts of a legion of Halifax women for years to come, as The Chicks showcased that they are as relevant today as they were 20 years ago. It was a fantastic way to wrap up the first night of the 2026 Halifax Music Fest.
