Dixie Chicks new CD out 5/23

[ALIASd]

Dixie Chicks Go the "Long Way"

Country trio to release long-awaited new album in May



Nine-time Grammy-winners the Dixie Chicks will release their long-awaited new album, appropriately titled Taking the Long Way, on May 23rd. "It's more of a rock record with country leanings than a country record with rock leanings," says Rick Rubin, who produced the Dixie Chicks' fourth studio 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. Among the new songs is the likely first single and most provocative, "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 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 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
Posted mar 10, 2006 11:39 AM
rollingstone.com



</IMG>
In the moment
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto...s-player=false

[NeverNeverland]

I can't wait!!

[fastpassmountain]

Rick Rubin producing the DCs? What an interesting collaboration! I loved their last CD and have moderate sized expectations for this new one.

[BDBopper]

Good luck to them. I have always enjoyed their music. In the late 90's they were fresh in a world of bubblegum pop imitations in Country music-using traditional instrumentation. I found it sad that many people overlooked the fantastic musical talents because of their political statements. I didn't like what they had to say nor agreed with them. However if your music is good I could care less what your political beliefs are.

[ALIASd]

• DIXIE CHICKS SLATED TO RELEASE
  HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED FOURTH ALBUM
  TAKING THE LONG WAY
  ON MAY 23, 2006
  
  All Fourteen Tracks Co-Written by the Dixie Chicks
  and Produced by Rick Rubin

New York, NY – March 10, 2006 – Superstars, renegades, innovators, heroes, villains, and moms - over almost a decade, the Dixie Chicks have grown from a band into a phenomenon. Now more than ever, the eyes of the world are on them, and with TAKING THE LONG WAY, they come out swinging, surpassing the pressures and expectations history has placed upon them. The nine time Grammy-Award winning Sony Recording artists will release this highly-anticipated fourth album (Open Wide/Columbia/Sony BMG) on May 23, 2006.
With TAKING THE LONG WAY, one of the most anticipated albums in recent years, the Dixie Chicks are putting themselves out there like never before. For the first time, every one of the disc's fourteen songs are co-written by the Chicks themselves, exploring themes both deeply private and resoundingly political. Collaborating with legendary producer Rick Rubin (who has worked with everyone from Johnny Cash to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, from Run DMC to Neil Diamond), the biggest-selling female band in history has truly pushed themselves to new heights both as writers and as performers.

"Everything felt more personal this time," says Natalie Maines. "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."
Rubin assembled a band including Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, session hero Larry Knechtel, and Heartbreakers Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell, and matched the Chicks with co-writers including Dan Wilson (who wound up collaborating on six of TAKING THE LONG WAY's songs), Pete Yorn, and Gary Louris of the Jayhawks.

Inspired by such classic rock artists as the Eagles, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and the Mamas and the Papas, TAKING THE LONG WAY adds a sweeping, Southern California vibe to the Chicks' down-home intimacy. That ambition is matched with lyrics addressing everything from small-town narrow-mindedness ("Lubbock or Leave It") to the psychology of celebrity ("Everybody Knows").

Not just "big for a country band" or "big for a big female band," the Dixie Chicks are a multi-platinum selling act in North America, Europe and Australia as well as one of a mere handful of acts with multiple albums achieving "diamond" status (meaning sales over 10 million copies) - both WIDE OPEN SPACES (1998) and FLY (1999) hit that stratospheric landmark - and have won nine Grammy awards. Their on-stage reputation has helped them sell over $100 million worth of concert tickets, and outspoken songs like "Goodbye, Earl" made it clear that this power trio played by nobody's rules.
And that was all before Natalie Maines's comments about a fellow Texan, President George W. Bush, during a London appearance in March, 2003 really put the Dixie Chicks in the headlines. The resultant uproar - complete with boycotts and death threats - is the focus of TAKING THE LONG WAY's defiant first track, "Not Ready to Make Nice." "The stakes were definitely higher on that song," says Robison. "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."
The results cover an impressive range of territory. "Silent House" examines the emotions that come from watching an older relative struggle with Alzheimer's. "It's So Hard When It Doesn't Come Easy" addresses infertility, an issue that both Robison and Maguire have faced. The Chicks debuted the gospel-inflected "I Hope," co-written with Keb' Mo, during last year's telethon benefiting the victims of Hurricane Katrina; the album version features a blistering guitar solo by John Mayer.
"This album was total therapy," says Natalie Maines. "I'm way more at peace now. Writing these songs and saying everything we had to say makes it possible to move on."
Details are forthcoming on a worldwide Dixie Chicks concert tour that will kick-off this summer.
http://www.dixiechicks.com/

[pixie chick]

i am SO SO SO SO happy!! i can't wait!!! plus, john mayer on one of the songs....woo-hoo!! *happy dance*

who wants to go see the chicks with me this summer?!!!!

[ALIASd]

My sister is a huge fan too! Saw 'em at Staples Center, The Pond & in Las Vegas last tour. If we get advance tix info I'll let you know PC!

[NeverNeverland]

Me Me Me Pixie Chick!
I asw them 2 years ago? in Vegas. It was awesome!!! Ca'nt wait to see them again.

[migo]

Very excited about this album. If you go to their website, you can hear their first new single, it's awesome!

[Gemini Cricket]

I'm not a huge DC fan (I don't listen to country music very much), but I loved their cover of 'Landslide'.

[migo]

That was a great song, wasn't it?


I think I've seen those "chicks" around three times now, they put on a great performance. Got to meet them, too. Very nice and accomodating.

[ALIASd]

Dixie Chicks announce tour dates in U.S., CanadaUpdated 5/18/2006 5:54 PM ET

By Frank Franklin II, AP
The Dixie Chicks, Emily Robison, left, Natalie Maines, center,
and Martie Maguire pose during a news conference
Feb. 20, 2003, in New York.

NASHVILLE (AP) — The Dixie Chicks are launching a 43-city North American tour in July that will include stops in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia as they promote their new album Taking the Long Way.
The first show will be July 21 in Detroit, and the tour is scheduled to wrap up on Nov. 11 in Tacoma, Wash., the group announced Thursday. Stops include New York City, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto.
The Chicks are teaming up with Target stores and MSN to promote the tour.
The Columbia label CD goes on sale May 23, and fans who buy it from Target stores will get a passcode to buy four concert tickets before general sales begin in early June.
All tour information is being posted at MSN, which also will offer behind-the-scenes and a webcast of the Dixie Chicks June 15 London concert at http://dixiechicks.msn.com
The trio of lead singer Natalie Maines, banjo and guitar player Emily Robison and fiddle and mandolin player Martie Maguire had several hits, including Wide Open SpacesThere's Your Trouble and Landslide, from their first three albums.
But their music was boycotted by some U.S. radio stations after 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.
The single Not Ready to Make Nice has been getting country radio airplay and was listed at No. 50 on this week's Billboard chart after peaking at 36.
_

The Dixie Chicks tour dates are:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/n...iechicks_x.htm

[NeverNeverland]

SO Excited!!!
Presale starts Tuesday!
Igf anyone has the password , LMK, please!

[Redsix]

The high charged lyrics on "Not Ready to Make Nice" is awesome. Red states beware and they may not play the song. The blue states have been making a push for the song on the radio according to USA today. I hope this gets more airplay in those red states. It is something to listen too.

Sample Lyrics from the song:

“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.”


" I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over"


I would like to thank Rick Rubin for bringing the best out in these girls. It is about time they fight back. This is one cool song. Powerful stuff.

[Tref]

I don't think I could listen to them anymore. I am not bothered by their comments about George Bush, so much, as I am disturbed at some troubling words they said about The Monroe Doctrine.