Posted on 27-8-2002

Dixie Chicks Fly Coup
By BILL FRISKICS-WARREN, NYT, 26 Aug02

(Photo shows The Dixie Chicks, from left: Martie Maguire, Emily Robison and Natalie Maines)

In the early 1990's, the Dixie Chicks were a cowgirl revival troupe playing
for tips on the Texas dance hall circuit. By the end of the decade, they
were Nashville, and pop, superstars. Their albums "Wide Open Spaces" and
"Fly" sold more than 10 million copies each. They won a clutch of Grammys.
Their 2000 tour grossed more at the box office than those of Bruce
Springsteen and Britney Spears. Most striking of all, the Dixie Chicks
achieved success not by cleaving to the conservative dictates of the
country music industry but by taking risks that could just as easily have
been big mistakes.

The three women — Natalie Maines and the sisters Emily Robison and Martie
Maguire — cultivated their own sense of fashion, favoring post-punk,
neo-hippie styles over the more conventional ensembles worn by their female
counterparts. They insisted on playing their own instruments instead of
employing the usual session musicians. They played banjo (Ms. Robison) and
fiddle (Ms. Maguire), instruments often dismissed as quaint by country
radio programmers. They sang about dicey topics like "mattress dancing" and
doing away with an abusive spouse. Displaying a "love it or leave it"
attitude like that of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and the other
"outlaws" of the 70's, the Dixie Chicks reinvigorated the moribund
Nashville music scene of the late 90's.

"Home," the album they'll release on Tuesday on their new Open Wide Records
label, an imprint of Sony Music, is likely to shake up and challenge the
Nashville establishment further, suggesting that it has lost touch with its
roots. Most of the record's 11 tracks will no doubt be deemed too long for
airplay, some running as long as six minutes. There are no drums on this
bluegrass-steeped album, something that is virtually unheard of in
commercial country music, and "Long Time Gone," the record's first single,
includes a punning jab at radio playlists. Written by the Nashville
singer-songwriter Darrell Scott, "Long Time Gone" all but dares country
stations not to play it. "We listen to the radio to hear what's cookin',"
goes one line. "But the music ain't got no soul/ They sound tired but they
don't sound Haggard/ They got money but they don't got Cash."

The Dixie Chicks insist they weren't trying to force the hands of radio
programmers by releasing "Long Time Gone" as a single. "I don't look at the
song as a political statement," said Ms. Maguire, seated on a wraparound
sofa with Ms. Robison and Ms. Maines in a Tuscan-style bed and breakfast
off Nashville's Music Row. Ms. Maguire, 32, who was born in York, Pa., and
Ms. Robison, 30, who was born in Pittsfield, Mass., spent their early
childhood years in southeastern Pennsylvania, where they studied the violin
using the Suzuki method of learning by ear. Ms. Maines, the lead singer,
who will be 28 in October, was born and raised in Lubbock, Tex. Her father
is Lloyd Maines, an esteemed producer and steel guitarist best known for
his work with the charismatic roots rocker Joe Ely. "We've had a lot of
controversy in our career, and it's never been intentional," Ms. Maguire
continued. "We didn't release `Goodbye Earl' " — a comic tale of revenge
akin to "Thelma and Louise" — "to get back at wife beaters. We're more
lighthearted than that. Everyone has their own opinion about what should be
on the radio, and I think there's room for all different people."

The Dixie Chicks also maintain that the bluegrass arrangements on "Home"
don't constitute that much of a departure from the bold, expansive music on
their last two albums. "We still have our core sound," Ms. Robison said.
"We've peeled back a few layers, but I think people will still recognize it
as us." Indeed, in contrast to the Appalachian cast of the soundtrack to "O
Brother, Where Art Thou?," which despite sales of six million received a
lukewarm response from country radio, the music on the Dixie Chicks' new
album evinces both traditional country and modern pop sensibilities.

Doubtless some will view the success of "Long Time Gone," which was No. 2
on the Billboard country chart this week, as a sign that the strictures of
country radio are loosening a bit. The Dixie Chicks' next single, a cover
of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" done in the ambient bluegrass style of
Alison Krauss and Union Station, will certainly test that notion. But
country stations can't afford to ignore any record the Dixie Chicks put out
at this point. While Garth Brooks was feigning retirement and Shania Twain
was off having a baby, the trio sold 21 million albums, doing more than any
of their peers to see country music through its recent slump in sales. "Do
we have a choice not to play the Dixie Chicks?" asked Darren Davis, a
program director for the Infinity Broadcasting network. "Sure, we have a
choice, but one also has a choice to cut off one's nose to spite their
face. The Dixie Chicks are the biggest of the big right now. We play their
music as often as we can get it on the air."

Lon Helton, the Nashville bureau chief for the trade magazine Radio and
Records, said he believes the ascendancy of the Dixie Chicks has as much to
do with the integrity of their musical vision as with any demands of the
market. "The Chicks have to be given tremendous credit for knowing who they
are musically, for saying, `This is what we do; anyone who wants to do so
is free to play it,' " Mr. Helton said.