The Dixie Chicks have announced that country musicians are meanie-poos and they're going to find some new friends they are leaving country music behind and are going to pursue a rock & roll sound.

Makes sense, after all, nothing screams "rock and roll band" like the name Dixie Chicks.

But I digress. I can't say that this surprises me all that much except in timing. I've always felt that one way or another, Natalie Maines was going to go pop. Despite the upbringing of her Texas county music legend father Lloyd Maines, country music has never been her thing.

I also figured that the band itself would start moving to a more money-making less genred sound, but I figured they'd do it in the vein of Shania Twain of Faith Hill, who've both managed to become pop successes while maintaining the loyalty of most country music fans. They've done so largely by a tactic of deny, deny, deny, accept, then explain that good music comes in all shapes and sizes.

So on one hand, kudos to the Chicks for being honest about their intentions. It's also a bit gutsy when you consider that a banjo and fiddle are not typical in rock (Blue October notwithstanding).

Of course, their rationale is about as lamebrained as their sense of appropriateness:

Violinist Martie Maguire told Spiegel magazine: "We don't feel part of the country scene any longer, it can't be our home any more."

She said she was disappointed other country singers didn't back up the Dixie Chicks in their criticism of George W Bush's politics on Iraq.

"A few weeks ago, Merle Haggard said a couple of nice words about us, but that was it," Maguire complained.

"The support we got came from others, like Bruce Springsteen."

Going home empty-handed from the Country Awards ceremony also made them decide to break with the scene, Maguire said.

"Instead, we won three Grammys against much stronger competition.

"So we now consider ourselves part of the big Rock 'n' Roll family."

That's the equivalent of saying "Y'all [sorry, 'you all' in non-country speak] are mean! We're gonna go find new friends!"

On the other hand, they really were dragged through the mud by other country singers and the complaint could be considered valid to some degree. Toby Keith has had an ongoing "feud" with them predating the remarks, Mark Chestnutt and Brooks and Dunn both made disparaging remarks at the Houston Rodeo.

That said, they were not exactly supportive of Toby Keith's own political statement ("It's ignorant, and it makes country music sound ignorant. It targets an entire culture - and not just the bad people who did bad things. You've got to have some tact." she said weeks before she said she was ashamed of the President on foreign soil) and it's a bit unrealist to expect fellow musicians to take a bullet flung by their common fan base. If you're gonna dish it out, you gotta be able to take it.

Or you can do as they are and take your ball and go home.

The unfortunate thing is that unlike Kevin and Scott, I do like the Dixie Chicks music. They are (were) one of my more favored Nashville acts. Natalie's got a great singing voice and while they're song-leaches (ie don't write their own material), they tend to have pretty good taste in songs. They also bought a more unique sound to a bland town that very much needed it.

But they seem to have an air of superiority that doesn't fly in country music (unless you have Shania Twain's figure) and a sense of cultural elitism aimed at the very fans that propelled them to stardom. Tragic, but inevitable.