Latest Poll Results: Out of 1108 votes from 8/31 through 2/3/1999, the percentage of visitors who knew the Dixie Chicks before the breakout single I Can Love You Better was released has increased to a little over 25%, up from 24% of the 521 visitors who voted before the site moved to dixiechicks.com. Add your vote!

And if you find me feeling lonesome
Don't be ashamed to call my name
And if I seem a bit uneasy
You know that I've only got myself to blame
-- Dixie Chicks, "I've Only Got Myself To Blame", on the CD "Shouldn't A Told You That"

One's choosin', and one's cruisin' down the highway of her dreams
While songs are sung, the dream's begun, and she thinks of what it means
To live through her voice -- she made her choice -- but neither one is free
Am I a lot like her, or is she just a bit like me?
-- Dixie Chicks, "Just A Bit Like Me", on the CD "Little Ol' Cowgirl"

Other sites with the full Chick History

• In March 1998, as There's Your Trouble began its rise to the top, local alternative newsweekly The Dallas Observer took a rather scathing look at the subject of the "New Chicks" vs. the "Old Chicks." Interesting reading, although they sometimes miss the point... nobody in Nashville was buying into the frills 'n lace thing.

  But at least the Observer still remembered the "Old Chicks." The legal troubles encountered by All-Inclusive's Sound Samples pages sparked the magazine to write a feature article on the Dixie Chicks' history... or rather, the way that they and their label were trying to "rewrite history with an eraser."

• Earlier, shortly before the surprise hit album Wide Open Spaces was released, the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram penned an article (dated 1/18/98) with some honest info about the group's evolution. Natalie is quoted as being concerned about the "sophomore scare thing"... Hey, Dixie! That was two albums ago!

  Unfortunately, this article is no longer included in their online archive, and this link will take you to an error page. I'll transcribe the article from library archives and add my own comments in the margins when I have time to visit the Ft. Worth library.

• An particularly NO vote was registered by Bill Gates (or at least by his close friend not! Michael McCall), as Microsoft's Music Central declares in a one-paragraph review that "someone has body-snatched the personalities of the once charming Dixie Chicks and replaced them with country-music clones." But the reviewer is guilty of the very sin he decries, by focusing on the new look before listening to the music. By the way, it takes longer to bring up this site than it does to read the pointless review.

• Canada's Jam! Country Music, part of a large online Canada-oriented showbiz site, has archived several insightful articles on the Dixie Chicks and their concert at the June 1998 Calgary Stampede, and they're all available in a convenient package at the Jam! Dixie Chicks Archive. Jam!s interviews delve deeper into the history and evolution of the group than any US interviewer to date, asking specific questions about the changes in the Chicks' look and sound. Highly recommended!

• Dallas/Ft. Worth's Young Country 105.3 features bio's of all the top stars of Country, and of course, that now includes The Dixie Chicks! They also detail the full story (and include a link to this site! Thanks, Katie!)

And you're out there on your ginger mare
You're not prayin', so I do
Not so much a prayer for rain as a desperate prayer for you...
-- Dixie Chicks, "Thunderheads", on the CD "Thank Heavens For Dale Evans"

Other Useful Dixie Chicks Links

• Crystal Clear Sound, the Dixie Chicks' original label.

• Sony Music Nashville, or more specifically, Monument Records, is the Dixie Chicks' major label benefactor. Each Sony country group has its own page... it's just that the Dixie Chicks' is the cutest! Also keep an eye on Sony's Appearances page, because the Dixie Chicks are often featured here -- everybody wants to see them!

  By the way, it's not listed on the Sony site anymore, but the Dixie Chicks' email address is still active at dixiechks@aol.com.

• Buy the breakout album, "Wide Open Spaces" at CDnow, the Internet's number one music store. Don't even think of trying ktel.com -- they do not have the CDs and won't tell you so until the rest of the order has shipped!

  Update: The All-Inclusive Dixie Chicks Page has been selected as one of CDnow's Dixie Chicks Web Links! Here's a big "Howdy!" to my visitors from CDnow.

• Love the title cut from Wide Open Spaces? Well, it's been recorded before... by unsigned Amarillo-based group The Groobees, which includes the song's writer Susan Gibson. The site includes audio files and pictures -- even a picture of a surprise visit by the Dixie Chicks! Check out their tour schedule at www.groobees.com -- it bears a striking resemblance to the Chicks' schedule in 1992 (see the Summer 1992 issue of Chick Chat).

  The Groobees were on Dallas country station 99.5 The Wolf in March 1999, on the weekly Front Porch program. If you have the RealPlayer installed, you can listen to the whole two-hour show, or use these special links to hear the highlights:

  • Last Of His Kind, from the Wayside CD. Susan Gibson on lead vocals. Wayside is a hard-to-find indie release -- Miles Of Music is your best bet to buy it.
  • Wide Open Spaces, played live. Includes an additional verse that didn't make the cut in the Dixie Chicks' version. Also on the Wayside CD. from the Wayside CD.
  • Cheap Trucker's Speed, from the new CD scheduled for spring or summer 1999. Ever pull an all-nighter on the road? Ever hear of Ephedrine? One of the guys sings lead.
  • Austin Dawn, not released yet. They say they'll release it after "another two or three CDs." The guy's on lead again.

• Want to see the Chicks in person? They're as close as a Pollstar Dixie Chicks Search! This site features a huge database of concerts for artists in all genres, and is very easy to use. A (sometimes) more complete listing can be found at the Music-Cal site. It's not as user-friendly, but the information is more comprehensive and comes from more sources. Music-Cal has a better email update feature than Pollstar does, but you just about have to be a computer programmer to get it to work.

  Sony includes a "Tour Info" link on their Dixie Chicks page as well. It's not as complete as the Music-Cal list, but it does include better contact information, often including a phone number for each venue. Great for those Dixie Chicks road trips!

  But don't take your trip based on just the online information! Cancellations and changes don't always make it to these sites, so always call ahead. And tell 'em you found out about the concert through the Internet -- the venues get a kick out of it (especially when it was supposed to be a private party...).

• Homecoming '98: the State Fair of Texas concert! On September 27, 1998, the Dixie Chicks returned to Dallas for (almost) the first time since the January release party for Wide Open Spaces. Since then, they had scored a top 10 single, a No. 1 hit, another top 20 single still on its way up, an album that had gone platinum and sat at No. 3 on the national charts... and two of the industry's top awards. It was the event of the year... and I missed most of it after being overcome by the heat.

  Fortunately, the local newspapers sent their reporters in with more water and fewer kids to carry. Check out the reviews of the event by the Dallas Morning News and the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (oops, Star-Telegram link is dead).

• The Dixie Chicks won the Country Music Association's 1998 Group Of The Year and Horizon Awards. Some highights:
  • Watch the Nomination Announcements for the Chicks' awards. These links will let you watch just the Chicks' nominations instead of the whole 17-minute show: 28.8k (slower connection) or 56k (fast connection). These are hosted on the CMA site; for technical details, visit one of my more techie pages.
  • Listen to the National Public Radio recap, featuring a clip from the live rendition of There's Your Trouble: available in 14.4k or 28.8k RealAudio.
  • Pictures from the ceremony are available on the CMA site, but here are some direct links:
    Accepting "Best Vocal Group" - Martie singing, with fiddle - All three performing - Accepting the Horizon Award - Bonus: Ricochet (featuring Emily's former beau)

• The three original CDs are getting hard to find, so if CDnow doesn't have it, try Miles Of Music, a California-based retailer focusing on Alt-Country indie releases, as well as other forms of "Good Music": No Depression, Americana, Folk, Rockabilly, Bluegrass, and Pop. I wrote to make sure that they really have the old Chicks releases... "Several copies of all three," was the reply. Tired of hearing Shania play "Honey, I'm Deaf"? Your hearing aid is just Miles away.

• After the visitors to this page clean out Miles of Music's stock, and if CDnow doesn't find some Chicks sitting in the corner of the warehouse, you'll want to check out used CD superstore CDBargains.com. They have four actual stores in the Dallas area (where they're known as CD Warehouse), and it's going to be hard to find someone outside of North Texas who has even seen a copy of "Little Ol' Cowgirl". Of course, I just cleared them out of their Dixie Chicks stock, but you never know when something might show up...

• Another source of "Old Chicks" discs: Village Records in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. Very fast email replies, and an extremely eclectic collection of "Folk Music, Americana, Country, Roots Rock, and Reissues."

• A Fort Worth Star-Telegram article (see the previous section) mentions Laura Tull (née Lynch) appearing in an ad for Fort Worth's own Vaqueras Western Wear in Cowboys & Indians magazine. I browsed one at a newsstand -- think Vogue with a cowboy hat.

• The Dixie Chicks (especially Laura) used to work with The National Cowgirl Museum & Hall Of Fame in Fort Worth, even once sharing the Chick Chat mailing list with this worthy organization. I hope that the new post-Cowgirl Chicks will continue to support this group, which seeks to "honor and celebrate cowgirls and women of Western heritage."

• The original Dixie Chicks (including Robin and Laura) appeared on Garrison Keillor's public radio program A Prairie Home Companion (from Dallas' Bronco Bowl) in February 1991. This was the first time I heard the Dixie Chicks, but since this was before widespread 'Net usage (and way before RealAudio), I haven't been able to track down more info.

  Meanwhile, check out Minnesota Public Radio's Morning Show, which tracked down Thank Heavens For Dale Evans and played the original Chicks' uptempo version of Rider (according to the show's daily music listings for April 22, 1998). I'll keep an eye out for more details from these Northern Plains fans of the Dixie Chicks.

• Oops! Picture this: the Dixie Chicks are coming to town, but the big college football game got moved for TV. Would you cancel the Dixie Chicks concert? They did in Lubbock -- Natalie's home town -- in October, 1997! Read all about it in this story by William Kerns of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

• If you notice any similarity between lead singer Natalie Maines and the gentleman sitting behind the steel guitar, it's no coincidence... that's her daddy, Lloyd Maines. Universally described as a "steel guitar legend," the elder Maines is well-known in Texas music circles (as a player and as a producer), playing a large role in the development of artists such as Joe Ely. This excellent article from the weekly Austin Chronicle (dated 10/8/1996) details his contributions to the Texas music scene.

• Another article on the Maines family, this time from the daily Austin American-Statesman of 8/20/1998, gives more details on Natalie's background. It also includes confirmation of two of my own suspicions... that Laura Lynch wasn't willing to subject her teenage daughter Asia to the "year-round touring regimen" that took the Chicks that final yard to stardom. It also confirms that Natalie never played guitar on stage before joining the group... while original Chick Robin Lynn Macy was as strong on the guitar as Emily and Martie were on their own stringed instruments.

• For more information and pictures of the "New Chicks", start your search at one of the original -- and still the best -- Dixie Chicks fan sites. Nici's UnOfficial Dixie Chicks Site is a great source of news, pictures, sounds, and other info. Not only is she the Ringmaster of the Dixie Chicks Webring, she's also the founder of the Dixie Chicks Mailing List, with over 100 fans swapping information and stories. Not bad for a 14-year-old! Join us at dixiechicks-subscribe@egroups.com.

  

• And of course, the Dixie Chicks now have a Yahoo! Category just for them! And to think, just a year ago (in late 1997), the only Dixie Chicks sites were their old site and some music festival recap pages. Thanks to Yahoo! for including my page in their index (again)!

Here's a bonus question: Who is WAS Tommy Nash? Send me a note to find out...