Uniquely talented, The Chicks (they dropped the word ‘Dixie’, of course, back in 2020, due to the word’s association with slavery), make great records (generally), perform brilliant live shows and have been no strangers to controversy during their career to date. The band first came into being in 1989, back when the four-piece lineup consisted of multi-instrumentalists and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer (both née Erwin), singer and guitarist Robin Lynn Macy, and upright bass player Laura Lynch. The band released three albums without much commercial success (in 1990, “Thank Heavens for Dale Evans“, 1992’s “Little Ol’ Cowgirl” and, as a trio, following Macy’s departure, 1993’s “Shouldn’t a Told You That” billed as Dixie Chicks Cowgirl Band. Following Lynch’s departure in 1995, Natalie Maines was drafted in as singer and guitarist; her father, Lloyd Maines, had played on the band’s second and third LPs and recommended Natalie. With Maines on board, the band’s career took off; they signed a record deal with a major label (Sony) and, in 1998, issued their fourth record, “Wide Open Spaces“, which became their breakthrough album.
You wouldn’t describe the band’s output as prolific; there have been a total of eight studio album releases since 1990.
Can’t Live With It: “Fly” (1999)
Don’t misinterpret this; “Fly” is most definitely not a bad album, containing some good tunes, some very good tunes, and the barnstorming live favourite ‘Goodbye Earl‘. In reality, it’s a record I could live without, as opposed to an album I can’t live with; however, both “Fly” and “Wide Open Spaces” could be labelled as country pop and, whereas “Wide Open Spaces” could get away with being very immature; a ‘fun’ record, filled with youthful exuberance (Maines was only 21 years old when she joined the band), in my view, by the time “Fly” emerged, I wanted something different. As it turned out, “Fly” was pretty similar in approach to “Wide Open Spaces“, and, as far as I was concerned, something of a letdown.
The record opens with ‘Ready to Run‘, which features in the 1999 movie “Runaway Bride“; the song is okay, but I find the penny whistle a little distracting. ‘If I Fall You’re Going Down with Me‘ (written by Matraca Berg and Annie Roboff) only seems to really get going in the chorus, while ‘Cowboy Take Me Away‘, which is about one of Strayer’s romances that led to marriage, is a little insipid.
A highlight on the album is definitely the cheeky ‘Sin Wagon‘; it’s an uptempo number, written by Maines, Strayer and Stephony Smith. This song has a link to the 1978 movie “Grease“, of which Maines is a huge fan. The film contains a scene where the characters Danny (played by John Travolta) and Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) go to the drive-in movie, where Danny makes moves to become amorous towards Sandy, who pushes him away from her, gets out of the car and says “You think I’m gonna stay with you in this…..this sin wagon?“.
The song about the wifebeater who gets his comeuppance, penned by Dennis Linde (who also wrote ‘Burning Love‘ a huge 1972 hit for Elvis Presley) ‘Goodbye Earl‘ is as good as just about anything The Chicks have recorded; it’s another uptempo song, again with some humour, as the hapless Earl became “…a missing person who nobody missed at all“.
Following the release of “Fly“, I drifted away from the band somewhat to the extent that by the time “Home” was released (2002), it wasn’t on my radar at all; sure, I was aware it was due, but I took little interest in its release.
Fate then intervened; I was browsing in a local record store when I became aware of the music being played through the shop’s audio system (often I view music in this context as simply aural wallpaper, and I mentally switch off from it), and it grabbed my attention. I knew instantly what I was listening to; it was the latest release from (Dixie) Chicks. I went and found the album in the racks, purchased it on the spot and have never since regretted doing so.
Can’t Live Without It: “Home” (2002)
There are periodic discussions among the staff writers at AUK Towers about the scores we award to LPs in our regular album reviews, specifically whether we are being too generous, not generous enough, or inconsistent, and particularly about the awarding of the Holy Grail, a 10/10 score.
My take (as someone who has yet to break their duck in respect of a 10/10 score) is that, were I to award a 10 and eventually come across something that I feel is superior, where could I go with my scoring? I couldn’t give the superior record an 11 as it would break the process. In my view, a 10 record is one with absolutely zero songs that you might ever want to skip; an album where every song is exquisite; I guess it would be the ‘perfect’ album. On thinking back, I can’t bring to mind very many americana albums that fit those criteria according to my taste; however, “Home” would quite possibly be such a beast as far as my ears are concerned. Having said that, given my earlier musing about “where I could I go from there?” I would probably end up wanting to give it 9.5/10 and settle for a solid 9.
“Home” brought me very much back into The Chicks’ fold, somewhere I’ve stayed ever since. Where “Fly” was immature, “Home” was a very grown-up record; the country-pop style had given way to bluegrass (bucking the then-trend in country music), and the album was littered with songs, playing and production of very high quality. As usual, the trio are supported by an array of fine musicians; here you’ll find people such as Glenn Fukunaga and Byron House (bass), Bryan Sutton (guitar), mandolin maestro Chris Thile and Lloyd Maines (guitar).
The record features two songs written by one of The Chicks’ favourite writers to cover, Patty Griffin; Griffin recorded the songs “Truth No. 2” and “Top of the World” in 2000, for her album “Silver Bell“; however she then had a dispute with her record label and the LP remained unreleased until it finally saw the light of day in 2013 (though she did re-record a version of ‘Top of the World‘ for the 2004 release “Impossible Dream“).
“Home” opens with Darrell Scott’s ‘Long Time Gone‘; it’s strong on melody and catchy hooks and appears have a bit of a downer on the state of the country music scene of the time, with lines such as “Now they sound tired, but they don’t sound Haggard, They got money, but they don’t have Cash“. This is followed by a masterpiece; a perfect bluegrass version of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Landslide‘ (a song that first appeared on the rock band’s 1975 eponymous LP); it’s a bold claim, but I would suggest that The Chicks’ version is as good as (albeit different to) the original, sounding fresher; certainly Maines’ vocal delivery is at least the equal of Stevie Nicks’.
‘Travelin’ Soldier‘, a sad song written by Strayer’s then brother-in-law Bruce Robison, is about a young couple who keep in touch through letters when the male half of the couple has gone to fight in Vietnam and ultimately fails to return. ‘White Trash Wedding‘ is a humorous romp; starting slowly with harmony vocals, the song quickly gets into its stride. Written by The Chicks, it’s inspired by the situation before Maguire’s second wedding, when her fiancé spent several hours at a blackjack table in Las Vegas to garner the funds to buy her a wedding ring. See if you can sit still while listening to this.
Then we enter a section of the record that features songs that are a little quieter, with beautiful melodies; ‘A Home‘, ‘More Love‘ and ‘I Believe in Love‘ (written by Maguire, Maines and Marty Stuart) before the tempo lifts again for ‘Tortured, Tangled Hearts‘ (another Maguire, Maines and Stuart composition).
‘Godspeed (Sweet Dreams)‘ is a Radney Foster song, written for his son when Foster and his wife divorced, his wife relocating to France with custody of the boy. It’s proper lump-in-the-throat time, listening to lyrics that go “Godspeed, little man, Sweet dreams, little man, Oh, my love will fly to you each night on angels’ wings“. Emmylou Harris contributes backing vocals (as she did on Foster’s original version).
The record closes on an absolute high, with Griffin’s second song contribution, ‘Top of the World‘. It’s very dramatic, with strings prominent, and coming in at a touch over six minutes long, the song builds to a peak, then fades out.
“Home” demonstrates a band very much at the top of their game; the singing (solo and two- and three-part harmony), playing, arrangements and the song choices are all exemplary.
Of course, lots of things happened following the release of “Home“, not least “The Incident“, as it’s termed, where Maines spoke out from a London stage about the Iraq invasion and President George W. Bush’s approach. Maines’ statement resulted in widescale hostility towards The Chicks and Maines, especially, with public condemnation, country music radio blacklisting their records, people burning their records in the streets and Maines receiving death threats. The band took some time out, during which Strayer and Maguire formed a band and released two albums under the name of Court Yard Hounds (the pair wanted to continue touring, but Maines did not): 2010’s eponymous debut and 2013’s “Amelita“. Maines herself released an excellent solo album (working closely with Ben Harper) entitled “Mother“, which was released in 2013.
Having resumed recording and touring together, the studio records that The Chicks have issued since “Home” have been the very good “Taking the Long Way” in 2006 and the brilliant 2020 release “Gaslighter” which sees the trio take on more of the songwriting duties but often with external parties, some of whom are noted songwriters, including Annie Clark, better known as musician St. Vincent. These records have seen The Chicks grow further and adopt different musical styles, in fact in the case of “Gaslighter” particularly, one may ask “But is it country?” to which the answer is probably a resounding “No” but certainly in the view of this writer, “If it’s as good as this, who cares?”
