Will country forgive or forget Dixie Chicks?

Take the Beatles. Nine months before the release of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in 1967, John Lennon declared: "We're more popular than Jesus Christ." The statement spurred some Americans to smash Beatles albums and pull the group's music off the airwaves. True, fundamentalist Christians were never the center of the Beatles' fan base. But while some may still begrudge the Beatles' irreverence, no one doubts their musical legacy.

Jane Fonda, too, did a stint in the public doghouse. She was by far the most outspoken celebrity opponent of the Vietnam War, and some considered her a traitor for her visit to North Vietnam in 1972. But she continued to work successfully in Hollywood - even winning an Oscar for her movie, "Coming Home."

Still, many entertainers known for liberalism have kept silent on the war, buttressing Mr. Robbins's notion that "a chill wind is blowing." In a speech at the National Press Club, he contended: "A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown: 'If you oppose this administration, there ... will be ramifications.'"

In a recent speech, National Public Radio anchor Bob Edwards drew a distinction between individuals exercising their right to boycott a performer and a conglomerate pressuring its affiliates to do so. He spoke of the Red scares of the 1940s and '50s, when careers were ruined in the heat of political accusations. "Should [a radio conglomerate] have the right to ban the Chicks from [hundreds of] stations? I think what individuals do is fine - burn the CDs if you want. What industry does is another matter," he said.

But not everyone is convinced of a return to McCarthyism. "I can't imagine that any producer or studio executive ... is going to say, 'No, let's not hire Tim or Susan because of their political views,' " says Howard Suber, chair of UCLA's film and television producers program.

But Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, sees it differently. While it isn't necessarily bad for a musician or actor to come under fire, he says, it certainly isn't good. "I think there's been a lot of walking on eggshells after what happened to the Dixie Chicks."

Whatever the case, the Texas trio has spent the week before their US tour opener trying to explain themselves. Last week, they appeared on ABC's "Primetime Thursday" and this week grace the cover of "Entertainment Weekly" - wearing nothing but epithets.

While they may have lost support from their traditional fan base, industry insiders say the Dixie Chicks will continue to remain a force in country music. And if they do rebound, they may find a place alongside other, more liberal country artists - such as Steve Earle, Willie Nelson, and Lyle Lovett, who've often gotten frosty welcomes in Nashville. This US tour may be the Dixie Chicks' test.

"Lyle Lovett deserves to be played on the radio," Maines told Entertainment Weekly. "But his personality and politics ... might not fit in. That could be where we wind up. And I'm OK with that."

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