"The Long Way Around" is a country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

–pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 song written and recorded by the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 all-female trio

All-women band

An all-female band is a musical group composed of female musicians exclusively. A distinction is made here with a girl group, in which the members are solely vocalists, though this terminology is not universally followed.-1920s-1940s:In the Jazz Age and during the 1930s, "all-girl" bands such as...

 Dixie Chicks

Dixie Chicks

The Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...

 for their seventh studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

, Taking the Long Way

Taking the Long Way

-Public reception:On May 31, 2006, the album took three number one spots on the charts of Billboard magazine. It was number one on the Hot Country Albums, Top Digital Albums, and on the Billboard 200 chart, going Gold in its first week with 526,000 units sold....

(2006). The song was released as the third physical single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 from the album in late 2006.

Song information

The song is the opening track of Taking the Long Way and provides the album its title, which derives from the chorus

Refrain

A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...

. The song, just like "Not Ready to Make Nice

Not Ready to Make Nice

"Not Ready to Make Nice" is a country pop song co-written and performed by the American all-female band Dixie Chicks for their seventh studio album Taking the Long Way...

", also refers to the controversy Natalie Maines

Natalie Maines

Natalie Louise Maines Pasdar is an American singer-songwriter who achieved success as the lead vocalist for the female alternative country band, the Dixie Chicks...

 caused when she said that the band is ashamed that the United States President George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 is from their home-state of Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. The line "Well I fought with a stranger and I met myself" is a reference to the public feud Maines had with Bush. Many people think that the line speaks of Toby Keith, but the writing of that line was discussed in "Shut Up & Sing." Also the line, "It's been two long years now, since the top of the world came crashing down." refers to their public problems with the concert where their notorious statement was made during their "Top of the World Tour."

Comments about the song by band members

This is what band members Emily and Natalie commented about the writing process of the song :

• Emily: "That's a journey song, about the different stages in our lives. A recap of where we've been, where we're going - and it was nice to remind ourselves of all that."

• Natalie: "We've always written songs that are about other people. It's so much harder to put yourself out there and be honest with your emotions and your beliefs, but the songs are so much better and mean so much more when you can let yourself be vulnerable."

Critical response

On December 8, "The Long Way Around" was elected the 20th best song of 2006 by the Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

magazine. It was declared in the magazine that it is "a heart-tugging guitar anthem for small-town girls with big dreams -- and the best ersatz Springsteen song in a year that was packed with them."