From The Record Shelf: The Dixie Chicks take flight

I came to the Dixie Chicks the wrong way. Or probably exactly the right way, as I bought Home after hearing good things about it and it is their best album. I then immediately picked up the follow-up Taking The Long Way which was also very good and then some time later Fly, the One Buck Record of the day. Which meant that I came to their breakthrough Wide Open Spaces, the first album of the classic three lady line up, last. I can see why Wide Open Spaces sold a ton and gave the new-look Chicks an immediate hit. But hearing it after the three superior follow-ups means that its flaws are immediately evident. It's a very mainstream country record that also acknowledges the band's past as a bluegrass outfit, but it is above all a safe album, a polite album, full of songs by corporate songwriters. And when they do pick covers by folks like J.D. Souther and Maria McKee, they're very safe choices. The whole album drowns in sentimental ballads, while the uptempo, bluegrass songs feel too studied to really convince. Wide Open Spaces was an excellent proof of talent, but it didn't really have much personality. 

The same thing can't be said about Fly. Whatever their first album as a trio lacked in that department, Fly makes up for in no time. What really comes out on this album is the band's humor, led on by the impish Natalie Maines. Even before the whole Bush comments scandal, the backlash against the band and Maines' break with the country community which led to their long hiatus, you can see why things could and would end badly with the most conservative contingent of their audience. 

Take "Sin Wagon", one of the uptempo numbers here and a highlight of Fly. It's a song all about fucking, and not that shy about it either. Nathalie Maines takes gleeful pleasure in pointing that out: "That's right, I said mattress dancing..." in case a listener didn't catch her drift the first time. And if that didn't piss some good folks in the bible belt off, the little musical reprise of old gospel standard "I'll Fly Away" right into "on the sin wagon" might've done it. Another really fun number is "Goodbye Earl", written by old folkie turned corporate songwriter Dennis Linde, a great story-song with a touch of black humour that fits right into Maines vocal style and delivery. It also talks about murdering an abusive husband, so, like"Sin Wagon", it was banned from some of the more conservative country stations. A harbinger of things to come. 

One thing that I didn't know until recently because in my neck of the woods American country music was neither on the radio nor a big seller, but Fly was obviously the Born In The U.S.A. of country music, with the band releasing a whooping eigth out of thirteen tracks over the span of more than two years. That's an impressive feat, but what's more impressive is the high quality throughout the album. The up tempo numbers have more bite and conviction and the ballads are less soggy. Another encouraging sign: After a single self-penned song on Wide Open Spaces, the band wrote or co-wrote five of the tracks here, showing that they were slowly coming into their own creatively and were ready to take more control of their music. 

The only flaw of the damn thing? The ugly as fuck album cover. The Chicks hid all the good stuff in the booklet, all portraits centered on different meanings of the album title. I took the (arguably) most provocative one (now that one might've gotten them thrown out of Walmart), because it nicely captures the Chicks' new attitude. 

Hop on board if you can, hop on the sin wagon if you must, but make sure you'll fly...