The Dixie Chicks weren't made to feel at home last night at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas. Performing live via satellite from their hometown of Austin, Texas, the trio was greeted with boos during their introduction. The audience also booed when presenter Vince Gill listed the group's name among the nominees for the Entertainer of the Year award.

Gill, one of the few people in the country music industry to speak out in support of the Chicks during the controversy stemming from Anti-Bush comments they made in London in March, asked the hecklers to "Stop it, stop it. You know who gets blessed when you forgive -- you."

The eventual winner in the Entertainer of the Year category was Toby Keith, a performer whose support for Bush has been as explicit as Dixies singer Natalie Maines' dissenting comment that the band was ashamed the president was from their home state. Keith, whose big hit this year was "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)," led all nominees for ACM award this year with eight.

The Dixie Chicks failed to collect on any of their three nominations. They were also up for Album of the Year, for Home, and Top Vocal Group.

Alan Jackson won Album of the Year honors for Drive, which also features a political song -- "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning," a reflective ballad about September 11th.

AUGUSTIN SEDGEWICK
(May 22, 2003)