There's old country. There's new country. Then there
are the Dixie Chicks.
Natalie Maines, Martie Seidel and Emily Robison have taken the Texas-bred sound
of a fiddle, banjo, dobro and crystal-clear vocal harmonies into whole new
territory. They are the rare act that comes along a few times in a generation
that is destined to shake things up, rewrite the rules and become the new
musical trendsetters.
The public has certainly noticed. The Dixie Chicks' first Monument album Wide
Open Spaces has become the biggest selling album ever by a country duo or group
- racking up some 6 million sales by the time their second album, Fly, was
completed. The tremendous sales only demonstrates that
while the Dixie Chicks have established themselves as a true country music act,
they have also won over audiences outside the country genre. In a music field
routinely known for selling to the conservative 30 and over crowd, more than
60% of the Dixie Chicks sales have been to consumers under the age of 25. Their
concert audience is as likely to be comprised of entire rows of young women in
their early teens and twenties as it is to include middle age couples and
entire families complete with pre-teen girls dressed like their musical idols
and singing every Dixie Chicks' song word for word.
The press has certainly noticed. Publications from Rolling Stone, Entertainment
Weekly and People to Harper's Bazaar, In Style, Seventeen and TV Guide have
documented how the Dixie Chicks are bending the music world to their will and
making country music more 'hip' than ever. With the wrap-up of 1998, numerous
national publications named them the "Breakout Act of the Year" and
recognized Wide Open Spaces as one of the "Best Of" albums of the
year. USA Today credited the Chicks with single-handedly returning the banjo to
country radio and Rolling Stone summed it up when they called them "the
badass queenpins of country." At a time when much of the press on country
music has lamented the 'sameness' of the sound and the artists, no less than
the Los Angeles Times conceded that "the Dixie Chicks are the perfect
antidote."
The music industry has certainly noticed. The Dixie Chicks' fellow musicians
and industry peers, in particular, have overwhelmingly acknowledged their
contribution. In a year's time, they have been honored with two Grammy Awards
(Best Country Album and Best Country Vocal Performance Duo/Group), two Country
Music Association Awards (Group of the Year and the Horizon Award), plus three
Academy of Country Music Awards (including Album of the Year), one American
Music Award and two TNN Music Awards. On
.
The Dixie Chicks came out of the chute with enough sass and confidence to adopt
slogans like "Chicks Rule" and "Chicks Kick Ass." Months
later, with chicken foot tattoos on their feet signifying their No. 1 singles
and gold and platinum successes as well as a vast array of awards, it appears
that they were right from the beginning.
So how do the Dixie Chicks follow up? The obvious temptation would be to stick
with what's worked and produce more of the same. But that safe approach to
their art just wouldn't be what made the trio unique in the first place. When
the three got together to plan their second Monument album, Fly, following the
status quo is exactly what they did not want to do. This time, instead of
contributing one song on their album, the Dixie Chicks wrote or co-wrote five
new tracks. But more than that, they were determined to push the envelope and
themselves as far as they could go in terms of instrumentation, production,
vocals and - above all - spirit. The end result is an album that shines with
artistic growth on every level.
"We didn't want to remake Wide Open Spaces," says Emily, "so we
had to go back to that nothing-to-lose feeling. I definitely think we've grown.
It's been a couple of years since we recorded Wide Open Spaces and I think that
shows. We're not as scared to let the harmonies come through or take extra time
to have an awesome solo. The only rule this time around was that there were 'No
rules'."
Natalie agrees, "We didn't want to be afraid to try something different. So
we didn't go into it scared. We went into it thinking that we're just going to
make the album we want to make and if people like it, great. If they don't, we
wouldn't be happy about that, but at least we made the album we wanted to make.
The three of us sound better together and have become even better friends and
that makes for better music. We grew as writers and all of our abilities just
grew from playing so much and being around each other so much."
You can hear the band's confidence from the opening bars of the album. It
doesn't start with a guitar lick or even a vocal hook, but with an Irish jig,
played by Martie's fiddle, which melds into the first track and the first
single "Ready To Run." And then, within a few lines, you can hear
something else, the sound of personal independence that is a constant theme
throughout the album.
The songs on Fly are all about women defining themselves their way. While they
long for and cherish true love, they will look for it on their own terms, thank
you very much. Stand By Your Man, it's not.
In Natalie and Emily's song Don't Waste Your Heart, the woman straight out
tells the man trying to snag her that "It's funny how the girls get
burned, but honey as far as I'm concerned, the tables have turned." Another
Natalie/Emily contribution, Sin Wagon, notes how "He's lived his life now
I'm gonna go live mine" before proceeding to live a wild night on the town
arriving on a 'sin wagon'. On Ready to Run which Martie wrote with Marcus
Hummon, the woman in the song fully realizes that she should be ready to settle
down but instead decides "all I wanna do is have some fun/What's all this
talk about love?"
"The album mirrors our lives," says Natalie. "If we're all
happily married and we settle down and have kids, we'll have an album that
reflects that. We're going through a lot of stages in our lives right now and
that's what we relate to, think about, talk about and write about."
One song that is sure to have journalists writing and politicians pontificating
goes even further. Goodbye Earl is a surprisingly upbeat-sounding tune about a
woman called Wanda who is repeatedly beaten by her husband Earl. Eventually,
she and her best friend Marianne decided that the only way to stop Earl from
hurting Wanda anymore is to take Earl out of Wanda's life - terminally.
"It's pertaining to wife-beaters, not men in general," says Emily,
reassuringly. "It's not putting the finger to guys. It's putting the
finger to abusive guys."
Besides, the music on Fly is really universal. Women will identify and men will
get a great glimpse into how many of today's young women feel but the songs are
not gender specific emotions. As Martie explains, "Just about everyone can
relate to songs about needing the freedom to chase your dreams or dealing with
a broken heart or falling in love or even just wanting to be a little wild and
crazy every now and then."
She adds, "Women today are stronger and healthier than ever before but
that can make male/female relationships better. When you're younger so much of
life revolves around men and male acceptance that it's hard to know who you
are. Then you reach this point in your life where you discover girlfriends
provide so many things that you forget about men a little bit. We're all three,
married or not married, focusing a lot on female relationships and singing
songs that reflect our confidence as women. It's not a negative thing because
you have a better relationship when you don't depend on the man in your life
for your whole identity."
It can be a little intimidating for a man when coping with female stardom on
the level the Dixie Chicks have attained. "Men have definitely got to be
strong to deal with it, and to have their own exciting thing going on,"
says Emily. But none of the band is complaining about the pressures of success
- they can all remember the alternative.
For years, the Texas-trio booked their own dates, hired equipment and carted it
to and from gigs themselves. Originally performing on a street corner in
Dallas, the band's combination of bluegrass, cowgirl music and western swing
earned them $300 in their very first hour and soon led them to barbecue joints,
corporate gigs (including private parties for Ross Perot), and regional
nightclubs. Early stints even included a nursing home, the produce section at a
grocery store and a funeral! With 10-years of paying their dues, there's
nothing they don't know about empty rooms, indifferent audiences and
flea-bitten motels. "We'd all three stay in the same room and flip a coin
to see who'd sleep with Emily because she's a cover hog," jokes Natalie. "Even
when we got our own rooms we were still in sleazy motels - the kind that have
the little machine by the bed to drop quarters in and make the bed shake."
Nowadays, things are different. "Our lives are very weird and
un-normal," says Natalie. "But it is fun. We get a lot of perks now
that we didn't get before but I don't think money is that important to any of
us. None of us have made any extravagant purchases. Where I used to have to
count my money all the time, now I just know I can eat the $5 M&Ms out of
the hotel mini-bar and it's okay."
Which leaves just one question: Why is the new album called Fly?
"It's the whole Chicks thing. We've kind of earned our wings,"
relates Martie. "The first album was like the mama bird, the record
company, pushing us towards the edge so we could learn to fly. And now we're
doing it on our own. We've always stood up for what we believe in. But now we
have more confidence and ability to soar and fly. Our career has really taken
off. Natalie was flying from a situation she didn't want to be in. Emily's
flying to a better place with someone she loves, and I'm experiencing the
musical flight that I've waited so long to take. When I said to the girls,
'What about Fly for the title of our album?' we started to see how many
references there were to flight, birds, or wings in the songs. There are so
many meanings to it. It was like a sign."
But this is only the beginning of the Dixie Chicks' musical legacy, and their
legacy of shaking things up. To some of the more conservative members of the
But anyone who thinks the Dixie Chicks might mellow with time and fame has
another thing coming. As Natalie proudly declares, "I have a feeling that
if we're around for 20 years, there will still be things we do that scare
them."
It's a safe bet, however, that the thread that will run constant through the
Dixie Chicks' career will be that Chicks will continue to rule. And they'll
keep kicking ass!