The Hartford Courant’s rock critic examines the rising trend of protest albums and music coming out against the Iraq war, including from Mark Erelli, who just played Londonderry’s Tupelo Music Hall for a CD release party for his "Hope and Other Casualties."

Many musicians aren’t happy about the war and are not afraid of any backlash about speaking their piece.

I’m most fascinated by the turn of events swirling around Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, who recently rescinded her apology for comments in 2003 about being ashamed that President George W. Bush was from Texas.

I don’t think she should have apologized in the first place because as truly cheesy as even I know it sounds, freedom of expression is what makes our country great, and to me, her words ring a bit hollow now. If an artist chooses to be outwardly political, to use his/her chosen medium as a platform to express rage or frustration or sorrow over our political state of being, there should be an expectation that they might experience a degree of backlash. But if it is truly what they believe, they should accept the backlash and stand behind their words. I think waffling back and forth takes away some of their credibility. I have to wonder — does she really believe she was right to criticize in the first place or is it just that she feels it is safer now and more commercially acceptable to speak her mind?

I understand it must be difficult to stand alone. But it is also very brave. To me, being an artist is all about being brave enough to put your soul out and hope people understand you or find beauty, pleasure, discomfort, anger — some sort of emotion and meaning in what you have to say. If you apologize for their reactions, you are are undercutting your message and changing who you are to please others.

As someone who is often accused of apologizing too much, I see how hard it may have been for Natalie to avoid smoothing things over when her fans’ feathers got ruffled, and from the business end of the spectrum, I certainly understand why her record company or agent or whoever may have pressured her to do so.

What do y’all think?