Post by erik on Jul 1, 2023 19:07:45 GMT -5
Love 'em or hate 'em, The Dixie Chicks made an impact on the worlds of music and politics, starting at the tale end of one century and continuing into the next. In this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight is the title track of their 1998 album that helped establish bot them and their independent streak.
WIDE OPEN SPACES (The Dixie Chicks; Monument; 1998)—It was a far more innocent time that the trio of sisters Emily and Martie Erwin and Natalie Maines, collectively known as The Dixie Chicks, found themselves in at the end of 1997 and the start of 1998. Emily and Martie had begun the group with a far different line-up back in 1989; and with their old-fashioned, arguably even square, dresses and faux-Western swing sound, they weren’t exactly ready for prime-time, not even in their native Texas, let alone the country music world as a whole. It was in 1995 when one of their sidemen, world-famous pedal steel guitar virtuoso Lloyd Maines, who had worked with Texas music legend Joe Ely, among others, recommended his feisty daughter Natalie for a tryout. Though, incredibly, Natalie wasn’t completely keen on country music as a whole, she was hired on the spot for the Chicks; and by 1997, they had their first truly large-scale success with Wide Open Spaces. While unavoidably based in traditionalist country and bluegrass (Emily being a master at five-string banjo, and Martie a fiddle virtuoso), with Natalie becoming their lead vocalist, there was also a decided rock and roll edge, given that Natalie’s vocal influences included Alanis Morrisette, Pat Benatar, and Linda Ronstadt among others. The title track of Wide Open Spaces was written by Texas songwriter Susan Gibson, inspired by her first visit back home to Texas after having enrolled at the University of Montana’s forestry school. The thoughts of a young girl needing space to grow into an adult, and all the mistakes that it all entailed, resonated with a large segment of the country music world, at a time when female artists and/or groups were turning that genre totally upside down. “Wide Open Spaces” spent four weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Country singles chart in the fall of 1998, pretty much establishing the Chicks as a force to be reckoned with and, following Natalie’s denunciation of then-president George W. Bush onstage in London in March 2003, also one not to be trifled with either. Significantly, it also peaked just underneath the Top 40 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart at #41 on October 5, 1998. Despite the horrible setbacks of what came to be known as “The Incident”, a long hiatus following it, and snipping off the “Dixie” in their name, the Chicks continued to tour into the third decade of the 21st century.
WIDE OPEN SPACES (The Dixie Chicks; Monument; 1998)—It was a far more innocent time that the trio of sisters Emily and Martie Erwin and Natalie Maines, collectively known as The Dixie Chicks, found themselves in at the end of 1997 and the start of 1998. Emily and Martie had begun the group with a far different line-up back in 1989; and with their old-fashioned, arguably even square, dresses and faux-Western swing sound, they weren’t exactly ready for prime-time, not even in their native Texas, let alone the country music world as a whole. It was in 1995 when one of their sidemen, world-famous pedal steel guitar virtuoso Lloyd Maines, who had worked with Texas music legend Joe Ely, among others, recommended his feisty daughter Natalie for a tryout. Though, incredibly, Natalie wasn’t completely keen on country music as a whole, she was hired on the spot for the Chicks; and by 1997, they had their first truly large-scale success with Wide Open Spaces. While unavoidably based in traditionalist country and bluegrass (Emily being a master at five-string banjo, and Martie a fiddle virtuoso), with Natalie becoming their lead vocalist, there was also a decided rock and roll edge, given that Natalie’s vocal influences included Alanis Morrisette, Pat Benatar, and Linda Ronstadt among others. The title track of Wide Open Spaces was written by Texas songwriter Susan Gibson, inspired by her first visit back home to Texas after having enrolled at the University of Montana’s forestry school. The thoughts of a young girl needing space to grow into an adult, and all the mistakes that it all entailed, resonated with a large segment of the country music world, at a time when female artists and/or groups were turning that genre totally upside down. “Wide Open Spaces” spent four weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Country singles chart in the fall of 1998, pretty much establishing the Chicks as a force to be reckoned with and, following Natalie’s denunciation of then-president George W. Bush onstage in London in March 2003, also one not to be trifled with either. Significantly, it also peaked just underneath the Top 40 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart at #41 on October 5, 1998. Despite the horrible setbacks of what came to be known as “The Incident”, a long hiatus following it, and snipping off the “Dixie” in their name, the Chicks continued to tour into the third decade of the 21st century.
