By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

GUAM shares in the Dixie Chicks’ victory at the 49th annual Grammy Awards, courtesy of singer-songwriter Dan Wilson, who wrote a number of tracks from the group’s winning album “Taking the Long Way,” including the song “Not Ready to Make Nice,” which captured the category for the best country performance.
Wilson, the frontman for the alternative rock band Semisonic, is the husband of Dianne Espaldon, daughter of the late Dr. Ernesto Espaldon.
“We are excited and happy. It was terrific that Dan’s music won the Grammys,” said Jun Espaldon, Dianne’s brother. “It’s a blessing for them and we’re very thankful for their winning such a prestigious award. So there are Guam ties to the Grammy and my sister feels very much part of it.”
The former Dianne Espaldon met Wilson in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when they were both attending Harvard. They are now based in Minneapolis, where Dianne is a principal partner in a national consulting firm. The Wilsons’ last visit to Guam was in August last year for the funeral of Dr. Espaldon.
“They come to Guam every now and then, especially during Christmas,” Jun Espaldon said.
Wilson is best known as the lead singer and songwriter of Semisonic, the group behind the transcontinental hit “Closing Time.”
Along with the three Dixies—Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines and Emily Robinson—Wilson co-wrote “Not Ready to Make Nice.” It was the Texas country trio’s unapologetic response to the brouhaha set off in 2003 when the group picked a fight with President Bush. Maines made an off-the-cuff anti-war remark during a concert in London where she said, “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”
In “Not Ready to Make Nice,” Maines responded to critics with the lyrics: “And how in the world/Can the words that I said/Send somebody so over the edge/That they’d write me a letter/Saying that I better shut up and sing/Or my life will be over.”
The Grammys took a rare step into the political arena by handing Dixie Chicks the awards for all five of the categories in which they were nominated.