The Dixie Chicks took a three-year hiatus after winning best album at the 2007 Grammys; a descent from the spotlight catalyzed by an anti-war statement at a London concert by lead singer Natalie Maines that caused a backlash by the American country music population. The two other bluegrass-performing “chicks,” sisters Emily Robinson and Martie Maguire, have been inspired to create a new album of their own, under the name Court Yard Hounds.

Emily and Martha Erwin have been with the Dixie Chicks since 1989, and the band really took off with the addition of Maines, who became the figurehead and frontwoman of the group throughout its days of widespread fame (and controversy). Court Yard Hounds’ self-titled album is not a break from the Chicks. It is merely something to fill a soul-wreaking musical void; they were ready to make music again, and they were content to wait for Maines to continue on with The Dixie Chicks.

In March of this year, the three musicians announced on The Dixie Chicks website they would be touring as The Dixie Chicks this summer alongside The Eagles and Keith Urban, and they will also be releasing a greatest hits album later in the year. As Court Yard Hounds’ official website says, “Robinson and Maguire could no sooner take an indefinite vacation from music than they could from being related.”

Although The Dixie Chicks were forced to distance themselves to some extent from the country genre because of such a negative response from the country scene, Court Yard Hounds have none of these similar boundaries. The sound of their album is soft, mature and very bluegrass oriented.

They also have not tried to avert from political lyricism, an example being “Ain’t No Son,” an exceptionally good song on the album with heart-racing, bluesy fiddle playing throughout and a rocking guitar baseline, which defiantly alludes to homosexuality in a family setting, with Robinson and Maguire singing “Eight pound baby boy I bounced on my knee/ No, you ain’t no son of mine/ You ain’t no son of mine/ Aw, forget it girls there ain’t no use in trying.”

The rest of the songs on the album, three highlights being “I Miss You,” “The Coast” and “It Didn’t Make a Sound,” feature words of love and growing up that audiences would expect from two “cowgirls,” musicians that, make no mistake, have created music of a caliber that demands respect.

Both members of Court Yard Hounds have automatically become lead singers on the album, and have also kept their instrumental expertise; Robinson plays banjo, dobro, guitar, bass, mandolin, accordion and sitar, while expert fiddle-player Maguire also plays the mandolin, viola, acoustic bass and guitar. They have lost a lot of vocal power in the absence of Maines, to be sure, but much of the band’s original talent remains in Court Yard Hounds, and perhaps the greatness of this album will more quickly coax the lead singer out of her break from the music business. Court Yard Hounds isn’t exactly a side project, though; it is the creation of two gifted sisters that will continue to grow as long and as much as they need it to.

4 out of 5 stars.