The Dixie Chicks are launching a 43-city North American tour in July to promote their new album, “Taking the Long Way.”
The first show will be July 21 in Detroit, and the tour is scheduled to wrap up on Nov. 11 in Tacoma, Wash., the group announced Thursday. Stops include New York City, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto.
The Chicks are teaming up with Target stores and MSN to promote the tour.
The Columbia label CD goes on sale May 23, and fans who buy it from Target stores will get a passcode to buy four concert tickets before general sales begin in early June.
All tour information is being posted on MSN, which also will offer a behind-the-scenes look and a Webcast at http://dixiechicks.msn.com of the Dixie Chicks’ June 15 London concert.
The trio of lead singer Natalie Maines, banjo and guitar player Emily Robison and fiddle and mandolin player Martie Maguire had several hits, including “Wide Open Spaces” “There’s Your Trouble” and “Landslide,” from their first three albums.
But their music was boycotted by some U.S. radio stations after Maines told a London audience on the eve of the war in Iraq that the group was “ashamed” the president was from their home state of Texas.
The single “Not Ready to Make Nice” has been getting country-radio airplay and was listed at No. 50 on this week’s Billboard chart after peaking at 36.