It has been four long grueling years for the Chicks since the American music-buying public had the audacity to stop wanting to hear their recordings. Forced to gut it out living simply on the royalty checks from their previous best-selling recordings Home and Wide Open Spaces, the Chicks managed to eke out an existence going from magazine cover to TV commercial to finally getting hired as the house band for the Democratic Party.

By taking the top 5 major awards at this year’s Grammy Awards, the Chicks are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Acknowledging the amount of suffering her husband and children endured, Emily Robison thanked them for hanging tough through the hard times. Although they’re still not sure how they’ll be able to pay for their next meal, it’s at least comforting to know that the Recording Academy feels sorry for them.

The Chicks have begun working on their next CD already – a recording which will focus on why their music deserves to get more air play on college radio, and the pain they’ve gone through dealing with the disorganized PR schema of that medium.