The Dixie Chicks and their management team have bestowed me with a new title: Management Assistant.

They've bequeathed this position to me to ensure that I gain access to all events. But from my perspective, there are other benefits to having this official occupational nomenclature.

For starters, "Management Assistant" sounds much better than "creepy Asian guy who keeps following the Dixie Chicks around with a notepad."

The title also empowers me to ask for more things to do. I often feel guilty that I'm the only one in the Dixie Chicks entourage who doesn't do much of anything.

Most of all, I'm excited because my new title, "Management Assistant," is naturally abbreviated as "Man Ass."

I can imagine the future encounters:

Security: Excuse me, who are you with?

Me: I am the Man Ass for the Dixie Chicks.

Mindi, the Chicks' Road Manager, and the Chicks have definitely started to embrace my new Man Ass position, or ManAssiness. Thus far, I've bought coffee, reheated coffee, carried purses, and held chewed gum. I missed out on a chance to buy tampons, but word has it that I might get another opportunity in 28 days.

I hope to work my way up to changing diapers, designing tour merchandise, introducing the Chicks at their concerts, and then eventually songwriting duties.

Before I get bombarded, I'm ordering my business cards now.

Man Ass for the Dixie Chicks. This is a title I can definitely get behind.

MSN is streaming the entire album "Taking the Long Way" at http://dixiechicks.msn.com.

Since the press has focused only on the lyrics of the Dixie Chicks' new single, "Not Ready to Make Nice," I'll begin by scrutinizing the music.

First, "Not Ready to Make Nice" is definitely not "Ready to Run." Ain't no bluegrass shuffle or dueling banjos up in this track. One might consider this the strongest evidence that the Dixie Chicks are experimenting with leaning away from country, if not altogether engaging in foreplay with rock 'n roll.

Second, the song's sonic density bears the hallmarks of a Rick Rubin production. The first chord of the song - a brooding E flat minor strum, grounded with the hyperamplified bass of the piano - practically sounds like a sample from Johnny Cash's American Recordings series, which Rubin also produced.

Third, the influences are as scattered as birdshot from a sawed-off shotgun. In my opinion, the song combines the anthemic lyrical qualities of Bob Dylan with the therapeutic crescendo of Tori Amos and the genre-transcending intimacy of Emmylou Harris.

But for whatever ballyhoo there may be over their new direction, this song is still quintessential Dixie Chicks. The song builds on the tradition of their patented vocal harmonies, the layered riffs, Natalie's distinct twang, Martie's fiddle, and their combined buckets of attitude.

This reminds me of the Texan saying, "You can stick a pair of boots in the oven, but that don't make 'em biscuits."

As a native Californian with immigrant parents, I have no idea how or when to use that phrase, but it feels appropriate here.

Now on to an excerpt of the lyrics for "Not Ready to Make Nice" ...

Click here to listen to the song!

Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I’m not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I’m still waiting

I’m through with doubt
There’s nothing left for me to figure out
I’ve paid a price
And I’ll keep paying

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

I know you said
Can’t you just get over it
It turned my whole world around
And I kind of like it

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

1. Let's Make Nice Tour
2. The Time to Back Down Tour
3. Women Should Shut Up and Sing Tour
4. Tour to Demonstrate That Your Death Threats Changed Our Minds
5. We'll Do What You Think We Should Tour
6. The "Four More Years!" Tour
7. The Tour That Goes Round and Round and Round
8. The Dissent is Un-American / Mea Culpa Tour
9. The Hello Earl Tour
10. An Evening with Treason

Initially, I wished the defiance was more affirmative instead of tentative. Instead of a melancholic tone, I wanted the Chicks to be outright ready to rumble.

But upon further consideration, I think the intimacy and catharsis of this recording would have been overshadowed by any kitsch self-righteousness or bumper sticker didacticism. (If you read carefully, the song is not about or addressed to the President, or to people who simply disagree with the Chicks' politics.)

Had this single worn the rebellious sentiment of F.U.T.K., which Natalie once infamously sported on a T-Shirt at the Academy of Country Music Awards, it would have made me smile, but never return for repeated listens.

Similarly, had the Chicks gone too far away from their country roots -- e.g., metal guitar solos, turntable scratches, bhangra beats -- I would have considered the single a form of surrender.

Of course, I will be thoroughly amused if the Chicks, by the end of the tour, changed the lyrics from "Not Ready to Make Nice" to "So Ready to Kick Ass."

The music video adds to the raw and bold sentiment of the song.

Sophie Muller, who directed "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers and Coldplay's "Fix You" videos, stages the video like a dramatic play about witch hunts, using editing techniques and lighting effects reminiscent of R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion." In fact, I think that the creepy extras from that R.E.M. video were brought back out of retirement for this video.

My favorite part of the video is where uptight Victorian-era teachers command Natalie to make like Bart Simpson and repeatedly write the following message on the chalkboard:

"to talk without thinking is to shoot without aiming"

This brilliant line would be the perfect title of their follow-up single, if it weren't already the inevitable title reserved for Dick Cheney's autobiography.

Speaking of the Bush administration, the video's references to it seem ubiquitous, what with gushing oil in the background and petroleum stains that look like the Dixie Chicks shot the video on the Exxon Valdez.  But apparently, this wasn't intentional.

The string-heavy climax of the video brought a distinct chill down my spine. It certainly would have made the hairs on my arm stand up if my arms had hair.

Of course, I can't claim to be truly objective. It's probably much easier to absorb the emotion and catharsis from the song when Natalie Maines is sitting right behind you. Now that's Surround Sound!

While the single probably won't be a fan favorite, it's undeniably a bold statement, no matter what your politics or how you feel about the Dixie Chicks. And the Chicks say that it's the song of which the they are proudest.

Some country stations have yet to put the song into their regular rotation. Radio programmers are apparently waiting for the next single since the forthright lyrics have ruffled the scarred feathers of rabid listeners who are still upset at the Chicks.

Ironically, "Not Ready To Make Nice" is a good anthem for them, too.