After reports that country music group The Dixie Chicks planned to remove “Dixie” from their name due to racist connotations, Nashville up-and-comers The Nathaniel Bedford Forrest Girls have reportedly told their record label they “have some real soul searching to do.”
The Nathaniel Bedford Forrest Girls posted about contacting their label from their official Twitter account. Their label, Kentucky’s Mudlick Records, confirmed that the girls had spoken with them.
“Betty Bedford from The Nathaniel Bedford Forrest Girls did contact us this morning and told us essentially the same thing as the Girls tweeted. We appreciated that The NBF Girls came to us and hope that they keep us in the loop before moving forward,” Mudlick president James Crowe said in an email response to our inquiry.
The Nathaniel Bedford Forrest Girls scored a series of minor independent hits last year including “Not That Hole (We’re Not Married Yet)”, “Pig Hoot’n Holler”, and a Christmas rendition of “Away In a Manger” that reached #27 last winter.
Mudlick signed the group in April.
Just two weeks ago, guitarist Cindy Forrest came under fire for the band’s name on her personal account, with some Twitter users suggesting that the group’s name is linked to racism, and some media followers registering threats against the budding musician and her family.
“I can’t believe anyone would think anything but the best of these girls,” said Dirt Kirger, who produced “Hot Cooter”, the first single off The Nathaniel Bedford Forrest Girls upcoming album. “They’re really not intelligent enough to have any hate in their hearts.”
As of press time, Caucasian reporters from Southern US newspaper The Brown Valley Observer had failed to uncover any substantial link between the name The Nathaniel Bedford Forrest Girls and racism.
Brown Valley Observer 