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Dixie Chicks Get Personal On 'Long Way'


March 10, 2006, 12:00 PM ET

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
The Dixie Chicks will re-emerge late this spring with the most personal album of their career. Due May 23 via Open Wide/Columbia, "Taking the Long Way" opens with "Not Ready To Make Nice," which addresses the controversy that ensued in March 2003 after singer Natalie Maines criticized President George W. Bush. Afterward, a number of country stations refused to play the group's music.

Lyrics for the track, which was co-penned by the Chicks with former Semisonic leader Dan Wilson, are available at DixieChicks.com. "Forgive, sounds good / Forget, I'm not sure I could / They say time heals everything / But I'm still waiting," Maines sings.

"Taking the Long Way" was executive produced by Rick Rubin and finds the Chicks backed by such musicians as Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Heartbreakers members Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell and veteran session multi-instrumentalist Larry Knechtel. In addition to Wilson, who collaborated on six tracks, Pete Yorn and the Jayhawks' Gary Louris contributed to the songwriting.

"Everything felt more personal this time," Maines says. "I go back to songs we've done in the past and there's just more maturity, depth, intelligence on these. They just feel more grown-up."

Among the album's selections are "I Hope," a co-write with blues artist Keb' Mo' that served as a charity download for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, "Everybody Knows," "Silent House" and "Lubbock or Leave It."


"Taking the Long Way" is the Chicks' first studio album since 2002's "Home," which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and has sold more than 5.8 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The group is expected to launch an all-arena trek in June, with details to be announced.

It'll be interesting how similar this sounds to "Home" or if they've decided to go in the complete other direction to further distance themselves from Nashville.

Ilph wrote:It'll be interesting how similar this sounds to "Home" or if they've decided to go in the complete other direction to further distance themselves from Nashville.

I haven't heard the new one either but you can still maintain your sound and manage to distance yourself from Nashville at the same time. Todd Snider, Guy Clark and John Prine all reside in Nashville but their records sound nothing like the crap that comes out of there these days.

Jahfin wrote:

Ilph wrote:It'll be interesting how similar this sounds to "Home" or if they've decided to go in the complete other direction to further distance themselves from Nashville.

I haven't heard the new one either but you can still maintain your sound and manage to distance yourself from Nashville at the same time. Todd Snider, Guy Clark and John Prine all reside in Nashville but their records sound nothing like the crap that comes out of there these days.

Once again I agree with Jahfin!!!

Dixie Chicks
Title TBA
Out: May 23rd

"It's more a rock record with country leanings than a country record with rock leanings," says Rick Rubin, who produced the Dixie Chicks' fifth album. "The Byrds, Tom Petty: Those are the points of reference." Rubin met with the Chicks in the summer of 2004; he had seen them perform a concert that he describes as "punk-rock country." When he first met the band, it was moving beyond the fallout over singer Natalie Maines' criticism of President Bush, which resulted in a tide of hatred from country fans. "They had a platform to talk about important stuff," Rubin says.

"We talked about personalizing the songs." Rubin introduced the Dixie Chicks to a team of co-writers that included the Heartbreakers' Mike Campbell. The band returned seven months later with seventeen songs. The most provocative is the likely first single, "Not Ready to Make Nice," a plaintive, slow-burning track in which Maines asks, "How in the world can the words that I said/Send somebody so over the edge?" Other standouts include "Baby Hold On," an acoustic rocker with John Mayer on guitar, and the roadhouse-style "Lubbock or Leave it." The group attributes the album's warm, easy feel to Rubin's production style. "Rick's very much about capturing the moment," says Dixie Chick Emily Robison. "And if the moment's not happening, you forget it and come back tomorrow." (CHRISTIAN HOARD)

Jahfin wrote:

Ilph wrote:It'll be interesting how similar this sounds to "Home" or if they've decided to go in the complete other direction to further distance themselves from Nashville.

I haven't heard the new one either but you can still maintain your sound and manage to distance yourself from Nashville at the same time. Todd Snider, Guy Clark and John Prine all reside in Nashville but their records sound nothing like the crap that comes out of there these days.

I meant that it would be interesting to see if it had a more rock sound or the pure country sound (stripped down & musicianship heavy, not the Nashville machine sound) like their last CD. Looks like it will have a heavy rock influence.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/mar/2 ... ntry_radio

Dixie Chicks return to country radio


The Dixie Chicks, from left, Emily Robison, Natalie Maines and Martie Maguire pose during a 2003 news conference in New York. The trio was banned from many country stations in 2003 after Maines criticized President Bush on a London stage. But their new single, “Not Ready to Make Nice,” is in rotation in several markets.

By John Gerome - Associated Press Writer

Nashville, Tenn. — Country radio may be ready to make nice with the
Dixie Chicks.

The grudge dates back to 2003 when many country stations stopped
playing the popular trio after lead singer Natalie Maines criticized
President Bush.

But the Chicks' new single, "Not Ready to Make Nice," is now in
rotation in several major markets, pushing it to No. 36 on Billboard's
country singles chart after its first full week of airplay. Other
stations, however, have been slower to embrace it.

"I think a lot of people are in a wait-and-see mode," said Wade
Jessen, director of Billboard's country charts. "The next couple of
weeks are really going to tell the tale."

Maines told a London audience on the eve of the war in Iraq that the
group was "ashamed" the president was from their home state of Texas.

Back in the U.S., their music was boycotted and the Chicks said they
received death threats, leading them to install metal detectors at
their shows.

Maines later said she regretted the phrasing of her remark, but
remained passionately against the war.

In stores May 23, the new album, "Taking the Long Way," is produced by
Rick Rubin, primarily a rock and rap producer who also crafted Johnny
Cash's last albums. The record has been described as more
rock-oriented, featuring musicians from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and
Tom Petty's band, the Heartbreakers.

The first single, which starts with a lone acoustic guitar and then
builds in intensity, was cowritten by the trio.

It addresses the controversy head on, with Maines singing in the
chorus: "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."

She also sings, "How in the world can the words that I said send
somebody so over the edge," and "I made my bed and I sleep like a baby."

The group declined to comment for this story, but Robison said in a
statement on their Web site that "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."

Jessen said the song was played at least once on 41 of the 123 country
stations Billboard monitors to compile the chart, with frequent
airplay in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Minneapolis and Cleveland —
large markets that can strongly influence chart position.

Not all big cities are playing it, though. WIL-FM in St. Louis, which
hasn't had the Chicks in rotation since 2003, gave "Not Ready to Make
Nice" a trial run and decided against adding it to the playlist after
listeners complained with calls and e-mails.

"With the hard feelings out there, especially here in the heartland,
combined with the in-your-face lyrics, I don't think that boded well
for them," program director Greg Mozingo said.

KEEY in Minneapolis, which has been playing the Chicks' music all
along, took a different approach. Instead of running the song up the
flagpole and eliciting listener opinion, the station quietly slipped
it into rotation and has been playing it two or three times a day.

"Our thought was to do that instead of batting on the hornets nest,"
said music director Travis Moon, who estimated he's received fewer
than 10 complaints. "We wanted to put the song out there on its own
merits without the fanfare. If our listeners come back and hate it,
we'll take it off. If they like it, we'll move it up in rotation."

man, Rick Rubin sure has come along way since being DJ Double R for the Beastie Boys back in 84