Monday, May 22, 2006
It’s A Chick Album… Literally
The Dixie Chicks’ new album will be out soon and I for one am looking forward to it. I’ve like the Chicks for some time now- and no, not just because they’re kind of easy on the eyes, so is Jennifer Love Hewitt but I’m not going to buy her piece of crap album, I like them because they’re good.
Really good.
Being shunned by music row and traditional country stations probably isn’t much of a big deal for them as they really stepped themselves out via their music long before the controversy. The last album “Home” with its heavy bluegrass, dark overtones and ultra-layered musicianship really made it impossible to be marketable to the Kenny Chesney crowd. Yet, none the less it sold well, and I’ll be willing to bet “Taking the Long Way” will do the same.
Seems to me like it has been put together very well, from the Boston Globe-
(Rick) Rubin assembled a feisty band that includes Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and Heartbreakers Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell, and the Chicks — whose records, for all the outspoken commentary, seem to err on the mild-mannered side — responded in kind. Collaborators such as former Semisonic frontman Dan Wilson, singer-songwriters Pete Yorn and Neil Finn, and Sheryl Crow help fill the disc with folk-rock hooks that place the Dixie Chicks circa 2006 closer to the Indigo Girls than the Judds.
Pete Yorn and Neil Finn huh? Interesting.
Finn’s distinguished fingerprints are all over ‘‘Silent House,’’ an elegant heartbreaker about Maines’s grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s disease. Likewise, Crow has had her wistful, winsome way with ‘‘Favorite Year.’’ And yet the Dixie Chicks — who share songwriting credits on every track — stamp each song with humble, clear-eyed harmonies, signature fiddle and banjo, and plain-spoken sentiments. It requires at least as much courage to deliver the emotionally naked lyrics to ‘‘Voice Inside My Head’’ as any loaded political barb; you can practically hear Maines steeling herself at the start of each verse and collecting herself at the finish. That transparency is only one of the ways the Dixie Chicks set themselves apart from, and above, their country music brethren.
I have to say, I’m very interested to see where they take this. I’ll keep ya posted.
