After taking extended time off to start families and settle a dispute with their record label, the Dixie Chicks have gone back to their bluegrass roots with their third album, Home.
The album’s original release was in limbo a year ago as the group fought over a reported four million dollars of royalties Sony owed the group. After the dispute was settled, they were able to release the album, and the long wait for new music from the Chicks helped set off a record-setting first week of sales in August.
The 12-track album exemplifies what the Dixie Chicks are best-known for–doing things their own way, in their own style and making country’s roots popular again.
Home is very much a bluegrass album–much more so than their previous two albums, Wide Open Spaces and Fly. The sounds of the banjo and mandolin are very prevalent, making each song seem like it should be part of a set being played at a party in the backwoods of Appalachia.
Natalie Maines provides the main vocals, once again showing off her ability to sing one song like a rock star and the next as a beautiful, moving ballad. Emily Robinson and Martie Maguire back up Natalie both instrumentally and vocally. With Home, the three have once again taken harmony to a new level.
The album features upbeat songs like the first single “Longtime Gone,” the lyrics of which take a crack at today’s country music for having no Cash (as in Johnny) and no soul. The song is great in that it has that mix of rock ‘n’ roll and bluegrass the Dixie Chicks have made so popular.
The second cut and second single–a remake of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide”–is a well-executed rendition that keeps the song’s original dignity while giving it a new spin.
The rest of the album is an interesting mix, including ballads such as “I Believe in Love” and “Godspeed.” Other songs tell a story, such as “Travelin’ Soldier” and “A Home.”
And, in keeping with the Dixie Chicks’ style, Home also features songs such as “White Trash Wedding,” in which the group just has fun jamming and singing lyrics no one else has the guts to sing.
Some of the tracks on the album are a tad too country, such as “Tortured, Tangled Hearts;” the best cuts are those in which the Chicks were able to effectively combine bluegrass and rock, as in “Longtime Gone.”
Home has already debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Billboard Country charts. The first-week sales of 779,828 have broken records, setting the highest first-week sales for any female country artists or group and breaking their own previous records. They are also the only country group to have two No. 2 debuts on Billboard. Indeed, Home doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere.
