Dixie shines in Grammys

The Dixie Chicks comprising of the Texas trio completed a defiant comeback on Sunday night, winning five Grammy awards after being shunned by the country music establishment over the group's anti-Bush comments leading up to the Iraq invasion.

As they accepted the honours, the Dixie girls, Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines and Emily Robinson did not use the stage this time as a platform for its well-known opposition to the war in Iraq.

But by the time the group accepted the evening-closing album-of-the-year award for Taking the Long Way, singer Natalie Maines who is the firebrand in the group said that members of the Recording Academy were clearly using their votes as a show of support, if not political expression, in favour of a band that has received death threats after its initial criticism of the U.S. President at a concert in Britain in early 2003.

Even amidst the bitter partisan political divide, freedom of expression protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, does seem to prevail.