Dixie Chicks

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dixie Chicks
Dixie Chicks performing at Frank Erwin Center on December 4, 2006 in Austin, Texas during the Accidents & Accusations Tour.
Dixie Chicks performing at Frank Erwin Center on December 4, 2006 in Austin, Texas during the Accidents & Accusations Tour.
Background information
Origin Dallas, Texas, United States,
Genre(s) Country
Folk
Bluegrass
Country pop
Years active 1989–present
Label(s) SonyBMG/Open Wide/Columbia
Website DixieChicks.com
Members
Natalie Maines
Martie Maguire
Emily Robison
Former members
Laura Lynch (1989–1995)
Robin Lynn Macy (1989–1992)

The Dixie Chicks are a multiple Grammy-award winning country[1] band and are the highest-selling female band in any musical genre, having sold over 36 million albums as of March 2008.[2] [3] With hit songs and diamond albums, the women are known for their independent spirit, instrumental virtuosity, thoughtful song compositions, fierce loyalty, and outspoken comments on controversial subjects, including politics.

Contents

[edit] Early incarnations

The Dixie Chicks were founded by the sisters Martie and Emily Erwin, Laura Lynch and Robin Lynn Macy in 1989. The Erwin sisters have since married and changed their names to Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, respectively.[4] All four women played and sang; however, Maguire and Robison provided most of the instrumental firepower for the band while Lynch and Macy leaned more on shared lead vocals. Maguire primarily plays fiddle, mandolin, and viola, while Robison's specialties include the five stringed banjo, and dobro. The sisters harmonize with one another in the band with backing vocals, and are multi-instrumentalists; both women play the bass, and guitar, and Robison also plays the accordion, papoose, and sitar. However, within the band, Lynch's specialty was the acoustic bass, while Macy played guitar.

The band played bluegrass and released their first album Thank Heavens for Dale Evans (named after the pioneering, multi-talented female performer Dale Evans) on independent label Crystal Clear Sound in 1990. The album included two instrumentals, showing the group's strength; Maguire had won second place in the National fiddle championships in 1987 and taken third place in 1989, in Winfield, Kansas. The Chicks began building up a fan base, winning the prize for "best band" at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and opening for established country music artists, including such big country names as Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, and George Strait, but found little airplay outside of public radio.

The Chicks released a 45 rpm. vinyl Christmas single "Home on the Radar Range" in late 1991, and a second independent album, Little Ol' Cowgirl, in 1992. Professional Steel guitarist Lloyd Maines was one of the session musicians who played on both of these, and portions of the second album contained a more contemporary country sound as the women enlisted the help of sidemen to bring forth a richer sound. The band continued to appear at various events, primarily bluegrass festivals and small clubs, traveling as far as Washington, D.C., playing the trendy Birchmere club in the Virginia suburbs of the Capitol, but still were unsuccessful in gaining a large fan base outside the Texas and Nashville areas.

Robin Lynn Macy left in late 1992 for a "purer" bluegrass approach and remained active in the Dallas music scene.

Without Macy, Lynch found herself in the role of sole lead singer. With the release of their third album in 1993, their sound was more country, and Shouldn't a Told You That pushed bluegrass to the background. Despite constant touring and appearances at higher-profile events such as President Bill Clinton's Inauguration[citation needed][2] and the national television show CBS This Morning, no hit song emerged and a commercial breakthrough eluded the Chicks.[5]

[edit] A new singer and commercial success

Laura Lynch was replaced in late 1995 by Natalie Maines, the daughter of producer, steel guitar player, and former Chicks' session player Lloyd Maines. Within the next year, Sony scouted the Chicks and signed them to the newly revived Monument Records label. The new Dixie Chicks lineup consisted of group leader Martie (Erwin) Siedel (who had married in 1995) on (fiddle, mandolin and vocals), Emily Erwin (guitar, dobro, banjo and vocals), and Natalie Maines (Tarabay) (lead vocal and in concerts, guitar). Natalie added a strong and distinctive voice to the sisters' musicianship and harmony vocals, and the combination clicked.

A single "I Can Love You Better" was released in October 1997, and reached the Top 10 on American country music charts. Their first album together as a trio followed quickly behind. Wide Open Spaces was released in January 27, 1998. Over the space of a year, the next three singles from Wide Open Spaces reached first place on the Country charts: "There's Your Trouble," "You Were Mine", and the title track, "Wide Open Spaces"; a song reflecting youthful yearning for independence. Wide Open Spaces went on to sell more than 30.5 million copies, becoming one of the 50 best-selling albums in American history. In 1998 the Dixie Chicks sold more CDs than all other country music groups combined.[6] By the summer of 1999, Dixie Chicks served as the opening act for Tim McGraw's concert tour.

Dixie Chicks further proved themselves with another hit album, Fly in 1999. Nine singles emerged from it, including country No. 1's "Cowboy Take Me Away" and "Without You." Fly went on to sell over 10 million copies, a rare repeat diamond album. Already performing in arenas, the band also staged the Fly Tour, their first as the headlining act.

The source of Dixie Chicks' commercial success during this time came from various factors: they wrote or co-wrote about half of the songs on Wide Open Spaces and Fly; their mixture of bluegrass and mainstream country music with touches of blues and pop songs appealed to a wide spectrum of record buyers; their visual image, which changed from the cowgirl look with the addition of Maines to a variety of styles of dress, which further enhanced their general appeal; and lyrically, the Chicks' ethos struck a resonance with the public:

She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes

This romantic, adventurous sense of independence was a major theme in the first two Dixie Chicks albums featuring Maines as the lead singer. Focus on romanticism is also strongly evident in "Cowboy Take Me Away," another of their signature songs.

The Chicks also delivered gleeful revenge epics such as "Goodbye Earl," the tale of a woman who murders her abusive husband and gets away with it, or raucous, ribald numbers such as "Sin Wagon," a concert staple rave-up. Both of these tracks contained thematic elements that led to some radio stations removing the Chicks from their playlists, but the group was consistently unapologetic.

[edit] Continued success with a "non-commercial" sound

Dixie Chicks debuted their quiet, unadorned song "I Believe in Love" on the America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon following the September 11, 2001 attacks. It was a harbinger of a change in musical direction.

The Dixie Chicks became involved in a dispute with their record label regarding royalties and accounting procedures. After the trio quit in disgust, Sony sued the group for failure to complete their contract. The group countersued.[7]

During the time that the two parties worked to reconcile their differences, the three women found themselves home, in Texas, with each happily married, and they began writing songs closer to their origins without the usual pressures of the studio technicians from the major labels. The result was that Home, independently produced by Lloyd Maines, was released in 2002. For tracks not written by the group, outside songwriters were solicited for personal songs that were considered "uncommercial". Unlike the Chicks' two previous records, Home was recorded without drums and is dominated by very up-tempo bluegrass and pensive ballads, hearking back to earlier days before Maines joined the band. Emmylou Harris added her vocals to one song. In addition, the lyrics of the opening track and first single, "Long Time Gone," explicitly attacked contemporary country music radio, accusing it of ignoring the soul of the genre as exemplified by Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, and Hank Williams.

"Long Time Gone" became the Chicks' first top ten hit on the U.S. pop singles chart and peaked at #2 on the country chart, becoming a major success. Over six million copies of Home were sold in the U.S.[8]

In 2003, they gave a performance of The Star-Spangled Banner at Super Bowl XXXVII.

The group's independent spirit was alive and well in their cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide," which duplicated the top ten country and pop achievements. However, a key track from Home contrasted with past albums; a rendering of Patty Griffin's "Top of the World," for which the subsequent tour was named.

Home dominated the 2003 Grammy Awards by winning four awards, including:

Tickets for the associated Top of the World Tour often sold out within hours.

They made a guest appearance on The Simpsons in the episode, Papa Don't Leech.

[edit] Political controversy

Main article: Dixie Chicks political controversy

The Dixie Chicks were mired in political controversy after comments made by Natalie Maines about the 2003 invasion of Iraq war and George W. Bush. The aftermath led the band to suffer severe backlash.

[edit] Not Ready to Make Nice: The Chicks return

On March 16, 2006, Dixie Chicks released the single "Not Ready to Make Nice" in advance of their upcoming album. Written by all three Chicks alongside Dan Wilson, it directly addressed the political controversy that had surrounded the group for the past three years:

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and I don’t have time to go 'round and 'round and 'round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

and, in criticism of the death threats the women (particularly Maines) received,

It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better
Shut up and sing or my life will be over

In a press release, Robison said, "The stakes were definitely higher on that song. We knew it was special because it was so autobiographical, and we had to get it right. And once we had that song done, it freed us up to do the rest of the album without that burden." She also added a comment that writing the song had become their "therapy", since they'd had to hold in so many stored emotions for so long.

The question of how the group's new record would fare commercially attracted intense media interest. The Chicks' new album, titled Taking the Long Way, was released in stores and online May 22, 2006. The album was produced by Rick Rubin who had worked with Linkin Park, Metallica, Slayer, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Danzig, System of a Down, Slipknot, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, and the Beastie Boys among others and was publicized to be more rock-intensive than country-oriented.[9][10] All 14 tracks were co-written by the three Chicks, alongside various other songwriters, including Neil Finn of Crowded House, on "Silent House". The album contained additional tracks that seemed to indirectly reference what the group called "The Incident", and the group remained defiant. For instance, in the May 29 issue of Time, Maguire said, "I'd rather have a smaller following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith. We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do." Maines also retracted her earlier apology to Bush, stating, "I apologized for disrespecting the office of the President, but I don't feel that way anymore. I don't feel he is owed any respect whatsoever."[11]

Despite little airplay, Taking the Long Way debuted at number one on both the U.S. pop albums chart and the U.S. country albums chart, selling 526,000 copies in the first week (the year's second-best such total for any country act) and making it a gold record within its first week. The Chicks became the first female group in chart history to have three albums debut at #1.[12]

In Europe, both singles from Taking the Long Way were well received by country radio, remaining on the European Country Charts for more than 20 weeks each: Not Ready To Make Nice peaked at #13 and Everybody Knows at #11.[13]

The group's Accidents & Accusations Tour began in July 2006. Ticket sales were strong in Canada and in some Northeastern markets, but notably weak in other areas. A number of shows were cancelled or relocated to smaller venues due to poor sales, and in Houston, Texas, tickets never even went on sale when local radio stations refused to accept advertising for the event.[14] In August, a re-routed tour schedule was announced with a greater emphasis on Canadian dates, where Taking the Long Way had gone five-times-platinum. The tour's shows themselves generally refrained from any explicit verbal political comments, letting the music, especially the central performance of Not Ready to Make Nice, speak for itself. At a Nov. 5, 2006 concert in Calgary, Alberta the Chicks received a thunderous ovation when the song was over, and the band held up a handwritten sign from a fan that read "Nobody likes a nasty Bush."[citation needed]

During 2006, Dixie Chicks became the first major band to hire a designated blogger to be embedded with them for their promotional activities and tour. They partnered with Microsoft and hired Junichi Semitsu, a Professor of Law at the University of San Diego, to write first-hand accounts for their Accidents & Accusations Tour at the website http://dixiechicks.msn.com.[15] MSN broadcast an entire live concert, called "Scene of the Crime", of Dixie Chicks' return to Shepherds Bush, London, the site of "The Incident". Toward the end of the concert, Natalie said from the stage, "And all week, the only thing people keep asking is, 'What are you gonna say? Do you know what you're gonna say?' As usual I didn't plan anything, but I thought I'd say something brand new and just say, 'Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.' " which was met with thunderous applause and cheers.

In 2006, Taking the Long Way was the ninth best-selling album in the United States. It won the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Album, Best Record, and Best Song (for "Not Ready To Make Nice") - 14 years since one artist or group last swept those three awards[16] - and Best Country Album on February 11, 2007. After their Grammy win, Dixie Chicks album Taking the Long Way hit #8 on Billboard 200 and #1 on the country album charts and the Song of the Year-winning Not Ready to Make Nice re-entered the charts at #4 on the Hot 100.

The music video for "Not Ready to Make Nice" was nominated for the 2007 CMT Music Video Awards in the categories of "Video of the Year" and "Group Video of the Year," however, the video did not win in its nominated categories.[17]

Dixie Chicks were nominated for the 2007 Country Music Association's award for Top Vocal Group, their first nomination from the CMA Awards since 2003.[18] The trio lost to Rascal Flatts.

Al Gore announced on April 2, 2008, that the Dixie Chicks and fellow country artist, and at one time stark opponent of the Chicks, Toby Keith, will appear side-by-side in a commercial spot to promote Gore's "We Campaign" initiative to raise awareness about climate change and what Americans can do to help the environment. According to Keith's publicist, the filming date and location have not yet been determined. [19]

On April 13, 2008 the Dixie Chicks appeared on an episode of "The Simpsons" called "Papa Don't Leech", in which they performed a song called "America's Back." Aside from serving the plot, the song served as a satirical comment on the earlier controversy: "We said some things that came out wrong / but now we've got a brand new song / 'cause freedoms need curtailing now and then."

[edit] Shut Up and Sing

An ad for Shut Up and Sing, a documentary about the furor over Maines's comment, was turned down by NBC on October 27, 2006, citing a policy barring ads dealing with "public controversy". Ads for the documentary were rebuffed by the smaller CW network as well; local affiliate stations of all five major broadcasters, including NBC and CW, ran promotional spots for the film in New York and Los Angeles, the two cities where it opened that day. "It's a sad commentary about the level of fear in our society that a movie about a group of courageous entertainers who were blacklisted for exercising their right of free speech is now itself being blacklisted by corporate America," the film's distributor Harvey Weinstein said in a statement.[20]

Shut Up and Sing's title was taken from "Not Ready To Make Nice", which in turn took the phrase from a threatening letter received by the band.[21]

[edit] Discography

Actual set list from Dixie Chicks concert on the Top of the World Tour: Madison Square Garden, June 20, 2003.
Actual set list from Dixie Chicks concert on the Top of the World Tour: Madison Square Garden, June 20, 2003.
Main article: Dixie Chicks discography

[edit] Albums

Initial Lineup:

With Natalie Maines:

[edit] Top-ten singles

Year Song Chart Positions
US Country US Hot 100 CAN Country
1997 "I Can Love You Better" 7 77 3
1998 "There's Your Trouble" 1 36 3
"Wide Open Spaces" 1 41 1
1999 "You Were Mine" 1 34 3
"Tonight the Heartache's on Me" 6 46 4
"Ready to Run" 2 39 3
"Cowboy Take Me Away" 1 27 1
2000 "Goodbye Earl" 13 19 5
"Cold Day in July" 10 65 7
"Without You" 1 31 -
2001 "If I Fall You're Going Down With Me" 3 38 -
"Some Days You Gotta Dance" 7 55 -
2002 "Long Time Gone" 2 7 -
"Landslide" 2 7 -
2003 "Travelin' Soldier" 1 25 -
2006 "Not Ready to Make Nice" 36 4 17
"The Long Way Around" - - 4

[edit] Awards

[edit] American Music Awards

  • 2003: Favorite Country Band, Duo or Group
  • 2003: Favorite Country Album - Home
  • 2001: Favorite Country Band, Duo or Group

[edit] Billboard Music Awards

  • 2002: Country Duo/Group of the Year

[edit] Country Music Association Awards

  • 2002: Vocal Group of the Year
  • 2000: Album of the Year - Fly
  • 2000: Entertainer of the Year
  • 2000: Vocal Group of the Year
  • 2000: Music Video of the Year - "Goodbye Earl"
  • 1999: Single of the Year - "Wide Open Spaces"
  • 1999: Vocal Group of the Year
  • 1999: Music Video of the Year - "Wide Open Spaces"
  • 1998: Horizon Award
  • 1998: Vocal Group of the Year

[edit] Grammy Awards

[edit] Juno Awards

  • 2007: International Album of the Year - Taking the Long Way[23]

[edit] MTV's Rock the Vote

  • 2004: Patrick Lippert Award for "protecting freedom of speech".

[edit] People's Choice Awards

  • 2002: Favorite Musical Group or Band

[edit] Other Awards

  • 2006: ACLU Bill of Rights Award[24]
  • 2002 CMT Johnny Cash Visionary Award [25]
  • 2000 Flameworthy Award [25]

[edit] Tours

[edit] As an opening act

[edit] Benefits

[edit] Festivals

[edit] Headlining tours

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Style analysis on All Music Guide
  2. ^ Retrieved 9 May, 2008 RIAA Official Assessment Site
  3. ^ Media Consolidation Couldn’t Kill the Dixie Chicks, Adelaide Mail (Australia): Not Ready to Make Nice, [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/06/15/bmdixie15.xml How the Chicks survived their scrap with Bush, The Telegraph, June 15, 2006
  4. ^ Front Page publicity Dixie Chicks
  5. ^ Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing
  6. ^ Elle Magazine.com Retrieved 30, May, 2008Dixie Chicks Biography
  7. ^ The Boston Globe - October 7, 2001
  8. ^ http://www.riaa.com/gp/database/search_results.asp
  9. ^ Barger, Al (2006). "Single Review: Dixie Chicks - 'Not Ready to Make Nice'" Blogcritics.com (accessed April 13, 2006)
  10. ^ (2006). "Dixie Chicks: 'Taking the Long Way'" MSN.com (accessed April 13, 2006)
  11. ^ Tryangiel, Josh. "In the Line of Fire", Time Magazine, May 29, 2006. 
  12. ^ "Dixie Chicks New Album, Taking The Long Way, Debuts At #1 On Billboard Top 200", Open Wide/Columbia Records (Press Release), May 31, 2006. 
  13. ^ European CMA
  14. ^ "Radio, promoter each blames other for cut in Chicks tour", Houston Chronicle, August 15, 2006. 
  15. ^ "Chicks Magnet", Washington Post, June 19, 2006. 
  16. ^ Grammy Sweep by Dixie Chicks Is Seen as a Vindication - New York Times
  17. ^ CMT Music Video Award Nominees
  18. ^ Awards Database: Artist Detail: Dixie Chicks
  19. ^ [1] "Dixie Chicks and Toby Keith campaign for climate", Country On-Demand
  20. ^ NBC rejects TV ads for Dixie Chicks film
  21. ^ "Shut Up And Sing", High Notes, Melora Koepke, Hour.ca, November 2, 2006, accessed April 7, 2007
  22. ^ Home was also voted the Best Recording Package, an award for art directors.
  23. ^ CMT News in Brief
  24. ^ ACLU News: ACLU/SC Honors Dixie Chicks, 'Crash' Oscar Winner, Top Music Executive, and Courageous Navy Lawyer
  25. ^ a b CMT Award

[edit] Further reading

  • Dickerson, James L. (2000). Dixie Chicks: Down-Home and Backstage. Taylor Trade Publishing. ISBN 0-87833-189-1.

[edit] See also

Country Music Portal

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Official
Other

[edit] Archived news articles


v • d • e
Dixie Chicks
Natalie Maines · Emily Robison · Martie Maguire
Laura Lynch · Robin Lynn Macy
Studio albums:
Live Videos:
Live Albums:
Documentary:
Tours: