| Product Summary | | Label: Cbs/epic/wtg Records | | UPC: 00696998684027 | | Release Date: 8/27/2002 | | Buy.com Sku: 60566436 | | Item#: M7MLF2 | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 27033 | Format:  CD |
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| | There is no doubt that the Dixie Chicks are three of the most talented and popular artists in music today. And the record-breaking release of Home confirms this fact. In the words of the girls themselves, "We are very proud of the music on Home. We recorded it as a labor of love during our time off, and are thrilled it has come together as an album that we think is our best yet. We are equally excited to get the music out to our fans. Our reconciliation with Sony Music couldn't have come at a better time."
The first single from Home -- "Long Time Gone" -- has quickly become the fastest moving single in the Dixie Chicks' career.
The Dixie Chicks critically acclaimed first release with Sony Music, Wide Open Spaces (1998), became the best-selling debut album in the history of country music, earning the RIAA Diamond Award. Released in August 1999, the Dixie Chicks follow-up release, Fly, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 and Country Albums Charts and went on to spend over 30 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the Country Chart, and to earn album awards from the GRAMMYs, the Country Music Association, the Academy of Country Music, the British Country Music Awards and the Billboard Awards. The RIAA has certified Fly at 9x Platinum.
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Dixie Chicks: Emily Robison (vocals, guitar, papoose guitar, banjo, dobro, accordion); Martie Seidel (vocals, mandolin, fiddle, viola); Natalie Maines (vocals). | | Additional personnel includes: Emmylou Harris (vocals); Bryan Sutton (guitar); Lloyd Maines (slide guitar); Adam Steffey, Chris Thile (mandolin); Stefanie Astedi, Leigh Mahoney (violin); Lara Hicks (viola); Sara Nelson (cello); Glenn Fukunaga (bass); John Mock, Paul Pearcy (percussion). | | HOME won the 2003 Grammy Awards for Best Country Album and Best Recording Package. | | "Long Time Gone" won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. | | "Lil' Jack Slade" won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance. | | HOME was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Awards for Album Of The Year and Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical). "Long Time Gone" was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Country Song. | | This limited edition of HOME includes a 20 page hard-cover book. | | Dixie Chicks: Emily Robison (vocals, guitar, papoose guitar, banjo, dobro, | | accordion); Martie Seidel (vocals, mandolin, fiddle, viola); Natalie Maines | | (vocals). | | Additional personnel includes: Emmylou Harris (vocals); Bryan Sutton (guitar); Lloyd Maines (slide guitar); Adam Steffey, Chris Thile (mandolin); | | Stefanie Astedi, Leigh Mahoney (violin); Lara Hicks (viola); Sara Nelson | | (cello); Glenn Fukunaga (bass); John Mock, Paul Pearcy (percussion). | | HOME won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Country Album. | | "Long Time Gone" won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. | | "Lil' Jack Slade" won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance. | | HOME was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Awards for Album Of The Year, Best Recording Package and Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical). "Long Time Gone" was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Country Song. | | Personnel: Emily Robison (vocals, dobro, banjo, accordion); Martie Maguire (vocals, mandolin, fiddle, viola); Emmylou Harris, Natalie Maines (vocals); Bryan Sutton (guitar, baritone guitar); Lloyd Maines (acoustic guitar, slide guitar); Chris Thile, Adam Steffey (mandolin); Sara Nelson (cello); John Mock (tin whistle, Uilleann pipe, bodhran, percussion); Paul Pearcy (percussion). | | Audio Mixer: Gary Paczosa. | | Recording information: Cedar Creek recording, Austin, TX. | | Photographer: James Minchin. | | For their third album HOME, the Dixie Chicks went back to their bluegrass roots in crafting a record fired in the kiln of recent motherhood and a highly publicized legal battle with their label. Recorded under the gentle hand of producer Lloyd Maines (front Chick Natalie's pop), these dozen cuts are devoid of any Nashville gloss and are instead steeped in the organic harmonies and twang of recent releases by Nickel Creek and Dolly Parton. With sisters Marty Maguire and Emily Robison providing instrumental support on fiddle and banjo respectively, the Chicks are equally at home ripping through the runaway breakdown "White Trash Wedding" as they are tapping into heartfelt compositions by Radney Foster ("Godspeed [Sweet Dreams]") and Patty Griffin ("Top Of The World"). With pop sensibilities that are never too far from the surface, it's no surprise that this talented trio would do such a fine job covering Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" and giving it the kind of shimmering treatment sure to put a smile on Stevie Nicks's face. Despite the duress the Dixie Chicks were toiling under, HOME proves that from turmoil comes stellar creative effort. | | For their third album HOME, the Dixie Chicks went back to their bluegrass roots in crafting a record fired in the kiln of recent motherhood and a highly publicized legal battle with their label. Recorded under the gentle hand of producer Lloyd Maines (front Chick Natalie's pop), these dozen cuts are devoid of any Nashville gloss and are instead steeped in the organic harmonies and twang of recent releases by Nickel Creek and Dolly Parton. With sisters Marty Maguire and Emily Robison providing instrumental support on fiddle and banjo respectively, the Chicks are equally at home ripping through the runaway breakdown "White Trash Wedding" as they are tapping into heartfelt compositions by Radney Foster ("Godspeed [Sweet Dreams]") and Patty Griffin ("Top Of The World"). With pop sensibilities that are never too far from the surface, it's no surprise that this talented trio would do such a fine job covering Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" and giving it the kind of shimmering treatment sure to put a smile on Stevie Nicks's face. Despite the duress the Dixie Chicks were toiling under, HOME proves that from turmoil comes stellar creative effort. |
Producer: Dixie Chicks; Lloyd Maines |
Musical Guests | | Emmylou Harris | | Chris Thile |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Associated Artists and Works |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 08/27/2002 | | Original Release Date : 2002 | | Catalog ID : 86840 | | Label : Open Wide Records | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00696998684027 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Entertainment Weekly (8/23/02, pp.140-1)
- "...The deeply exhilarating HOME already has the feel of a timeless recording....Their HOME sounds like an entire world to be explored..." - Rating: AEntertainment Weekly (8/23/02, pp.140-1)
- "...The deeply exhilarating HOME already has the feel of a timeless recording....Their HOME sounds like an entire world to be explored..." - Rating: A |
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| | Bio | | There's no place like Home.
For the millions of music lovers who
have followed the Dixie Chicks on their musical journey from Wide Open Spaces
(1998) to Fly (1999), it's thrilling now to find country music's winning power
trio arriving as a group in a warm and welcoming new place that's all their own. Listen closely
to the Dixie Chicks' stunning new album and you will be struck by the pure, homespun sound of
the Chicks' nesting. Home -- the group's first effort on their own Open
Wide Records -- is full of songs that vividly celebrate the Chicks' deepest musical roots,
songs brought to life by three gifted young women who've been putting down some new roots of
their own lately.
Fittingly, the Dixie Chicks produced Home
with their longtime friend and booster Lloyd Maines, a Texas musical legend who also
happens to be the father of Natalie Maines.
"Everything about this album is about
home," explains Natalie Maines. "We recorded it at home in Texas. We've all bought
our permanent homes here and everybody is happily married now. We've got one baby and one on
the way. Definitely we're all nesting and it was great to get to work with my dad and to do it
in Texas. For Maines, "Every album we have done has been a reflection of where we are,
with having families and really finding our own places in this world."
"When
you're working with people that you're so close with, there's not a lot that can't be
said," explains Emily Robison. "It's family -- Lloyd's like a father, and Natalie is
like a sister, so there's a comfort level there that's hard to beat. We go way back with Lloyd,
so it was almost like old home week."
"I'm probably most proud of the fact
that we co-produced this album with my dad," Natalie continues. "I think in our
hearts we feel like we had a lot to do with the production of our first two albums, but, at
that point, we weren't credited and we didn't want to be credited. Personally, I think
Home is our best album and our best-sounding album yet. Gary
Paczosa, who engineered and mixed the album, had a lot to do with how incredible the finished
product sounds. It makes me proud to know that we did it here in Austin, all by ourselves in a
modest little studio."
With a laugh, Martie Maguire confirms that the studio
setting for the Home sessions was "definitely" a little
laid-back. "It's a small stone house out in the middle of a field," she says,
"but it has great equipment. The console used to belong to
Elvis."
Home clearly sounds like an album recorded to please
the artists who made it, without outside commercial pressures. In truth,
Home began as a sort of happy accident that came together when the Dixie
Chicks found themselves all together living in Texas, after several years of non-stop touring
due to popular demand. "We were all back in Texas now and we just started the album really
to do demos," says Maines. "We just went in and made the music we wanted and had no
idea where the effort was going. It just turned into our third album."
The Dixie
Chicks recorded their first two enormously popular albums in some of Nashville's top studios.
True to the new album's title, Home really began to take shape during
gatherings at Natalie's living room before then proceeding to Austin's Cedar Creek Studio.
Before long, these informal album sessions took on a life -- and a sound -- all their
own.
"When we made the album, our minds were in a place of no pressure," says
Martie Maguire. "To us it was about getting back to work and creating again after Natalie
had been off with her baby. We reconnected with some of the musical styles that influenced us
as young musicians and singers without the added pressure of label or radio expectations. When
I listen to the album, I am most proud of what we did without thinking too hard -- without the
intention of even putting it out there. I feel really good that it's gotten such a great
reaction from people whose opinions we value, when it was such a personal endeavor. This feels
like something we made in our living room."
On Home, the Dixie
Chicks sound very much at home with who they are. This impressively organic sounding album with
a strong bluegrass streak captures the trio making music first and foremost simply for music's
sake. The result -- while not entirely traditional -- evokes the pure, timeless sound on the
finest albums by Emmylou Harris, who appears on Home, adding her
remarkable voice to "Godspeed (Sweet Dreams)." While certain to please fans of the
Dixie Chicks' earlier efforts, the album shows incredible growth and musical development. The
song choices reflect a growing maturation of the group and enabled Natalie to branch out
emotionally and dynamically. The sisters of course perform all of the dobro, banjo and fiddle
work and their abilities are showcased more on this record than ever before.
* * * * *
Since Wide Open Spaces established the
Dixie Chicks as country's most exciting and talented superstars, the trio has managed to
attract all sorts of audiences with music that's somehow at the same time both modern and
traditional.
The Chicks' tale actually begins in the late Eighties when sisters Martie
(fiddle and backing vocals) and Emily (banjo, dobro and backing vocals) teamed up with
vocalists Laura Lynch and Robin Macy as the Dixie Chicks, their name a tip of the cap to Little
Feat's tasty classic, "Dixie Chicken." In the beginning, this early incarnation of
the Chicks literally played for spare change on the streets of Dallas, Texas -- later taking
virtually any gig that brought them in front of a crowd. These Chicks gradually made a name for
themselves as a live act regionally, eventually recording three independent releases in the
early nineties -- Thank Heavens For Dale Evans, Little Ol' Cowgirl
and Shouldn't a Told You That. In the mid-Nineties, Emily and Martie decided to
reconfigure the band and search for new personnel, namely a lead singer.
Enter
twenty-one-year-old Natalie Maines who received excellent and -- as it turns out -- richly
deserved references from her father, Lloyd Maines. For Emily Robison, it's hard these days to
overstate the impact of Natalie's arrival into the Chicks camp. "I've always seen the
Dixie Chicks as pre-Natalie and post-Natalie," explains Emily. "I feel like it was a
completely different band before we got our line-up with Natalie. Before that, there were
growing years and they were wonderful, but it was completely different music. A band is a sum
of all its parts. So, we kept the name, but so much else changed. We found who we were -- and
what music we were capable of -- when we found Natalie."
Natalie's arrival would
prove to be a wildly successful creative and career move for the Dixie Chicks. By 1997, the
group had signed to Sony's Monument imprint and the next year released their major label debut,
the groundbreaking Wide Open Spaces. That album would go on to sell more than
eleven million copies, making it the single best-selling debut in country history. The album
yielded a series of unforgettable, harmony-drenched number one hits like "You Were
Mine," the expansive title track and the infectious "There's Your Trouble."
Wide Open Spaces would go on to win the Grammy for Best Country Album while the
Dixie Chicks picked up the Best Country Performance By A Duo or Group with Vocal Grammy for
their single "There's Your Trouble." That album also earned the Dixie Chicks the
Country Music Association's Best Vocal Group and Horizon Award trophies as well as helping them
win Favorite New Country Artists at the American Music Awards.
Fly
(released in August 1999), the much anticipated follow-up to Wide Open
Spaces, found the Chicks obliterating the sophomore jinx and then some. Both critically
acclaimed and wildly popular, Fly debuted at #1 on the Billboard
Top 200 and Country album charts and went on to spend 36 weeks at the No. 1 spot.
Soon the awards came pouring in -- two more Grammies (Best Country Album and Best
Country Performance By A Duo or Group with Vocal for "Ready To Run"), the Country
Music Association's Entertainer of the Year award, and trophies from the Academy of Country
Music, the British Country Music Awards and the Billboard Awards. Fly
yielded hits including "Ready To Run," "Cowboy Take Me Away," and the
controversial, darkly comic "Goodbye Earl." Like Wide Open Spaces
before it, Fly was honored with the coveted Diamond Award certification by
the Recording Industry association of America (RIAA) for U.S. shipments of ten million copies.
In fact, the Dixie Chicks are the only female group in history to have earned two RIAA Diamond
Awards.
While taking a stand for traditional country instrumentation, the Chicks' music
has long demonstrated an ability to crossover to pop and rock audiences as well. As a
charismatic live act, the Chicks appeal extended well beyond genre. In 1999, for instance, they
joined the Lilith Fair tour and appeared with the likes of Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Stevie
Nicks and Chrissie Hynde at the Sheryl Crow & Friends Live From Central Park
event.
The Dixie Chicks own enormously successfulheadlining tour in support of
Fly in 2000 proved that country acts could sell out arenas as they drew eclectic
and diverse crowds and were fronted by their own musical favorites, including Willie Nelson,
Ricky Scaggs and Patty Griffin. The tour -- which was documented in their own highly rated NBC
concert special -- turned out to be the year's biggest and most successful by a single country
headlining act. That year, the Dixie Chicks received the CMA's Entertainer of the Year
award.
Now, after a break from the road and the studio -- a period marked by
considerable personal growth and professional negotiation -- the Dixie Chicks are back at last
and ready to tell their story as only they can, through a cycle of remarkable songs that
they've either written themselves or made all their own. "To me this album is a story
book," says Emily Robison of Home. "I feel like every song is a
different page, yet the album is very cohesive and it opens up a lot of territory that we
haven't covered yet. We're really proud of being able to go out there and not just make the
next Wide Open Spaces or Fly. We are in this for the long haul and
we have to be able to take chances and create music that may not fit into what was done before.
We all have some new stories to tell."
# # # #
#
Dixie Chicks
Home
The
Songs
LONG TIME GONE (word and music by Darrell Scott)
NATALIE:
"We went to our favorite songwriters personally for this album and Darrell Scott -- who
wrote "Heartbreak Town" on Fly -- came up with this one. "Long
Time Gone" was mainly just about the groove and the feel. It was a fun song to play and we
loved the lyrics as well. And because it's the first single, the song was a great way to bridge
the old sound with the new.
EMILY: We are such big fans of Darrell Scott and this song
hit me the second I heard it. It's so Dixie Chicks, with its funky rhythm and
matter-of-fact words.
LANDSLIDE (written by Stevie Nicks)
MARTIE:
Natalie brought that song to the group, and it's an interesting choice because she wanted
to do kind of a bluegrassy version of the Fleetwood Mac song. At first I thought that, since
Smashing Pumpkins had already done a version, maybe it had been overdone. But when we started
working in Natalie's living room with her dad, it really spoke to me. I don't know whether it
was Natalie's approach vocally or Emily's decision to play banjo on it, but it suddenly gave
the whole thing a different twist.
NATALIE: I've always been a Stevie fan, but I never
connected to the music the way I have at this age, especially that song. I heard
"Landslide" in the car one day and I completely related to it. I've known that song
forever, but somehow I never felt the song before. I talked to Stevie about this and it turns
out she wrote the song when she was 27, which is how old I am. I really identify with the idea
that she was feeling the same things that I'm feeling at the same time in my
life.
EMILY: My motto has always been: Don't redo a song if you can't do it better or
differently. I knew we couldn't do it any better, but I thought we could possibly do it
differently. Now it's one of my favorite songs on the album.
TRAVELIN' SOLDIER
(written by Bruce Robison)
EMILY: My brother-in-law Bruce Robison wrote this and
when we decided to do something more acoustic on this album, we kept coming back to this song
because we're all big fans of Bruce's writing. That was one of the first songs we recorded for
the project and it was always on our "for sure" list.
NATALIE: That song is
about the Vietnam war. Bruce has such a beautiful way of writing about a subject that has been
written about before. We had no idea when we choose that song that it would relate so well to
our world today.
MARTIE: The first time I heard that song was on Bruce's album. Emily
said, "You've got to hear this song" and she played it for me. I instantly thought it
was one of the best songs he had ever written. I think it's such a sweet approach to a heavy
topic.
TRUTH #2 (words and music by Patty Griffin)
EMILY: That's one of
two new songs we did by Patty Griffin who we were proud to take out with us on the
Fly tour. What do I love about Patty? She's just so raw and candid about her
experiences. I've often wished I had more emotional baggage… so I could be a better
songwriter.
NATALIE: If I could be anybody as a songwriter I would want to be Patty. I
think all her songs are truly about somebody or something. It's not like she's developed a hook
and then had to write a song around it, which is what a lot of songwriters do, myself included.
She draws from so much life experience and people around her. We got both of those songs from
an album of hers that was never released which was a shame for her, but good for us because we
got to record two of her songs that nobody has heard before.
MARTIE: We actually worked
up "Truth #2" to play live on the Fly tour and audiences reacted really
well to it. It's hard to play a new song to an arena full of people and have them respond to it
as instantly as they would to a hit song they've heard on the radio.
WHITE TRASH
WEDDING (words and music by Emily Robison, Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines)
MARTIE:
That one started as a silly attempt at a song by my husband Gareth and I. He came over from
Ireland, with no money and the Catholic church didn't want to marry us because I'd been married
before, so that's how "I shouldn't be wearin' white and you can't afford no ring"
came about.
EMILY: We wrote that in about 15 minutes. I'm sure it sounds like it too.
When Ricky Skaggs was out on tour with us, he opened every single night with "Pig in a
Pen." We wanted to do something more like that and put some hot solos in there. Martie had
started some lyrics, but it was more of a slow dance song. So we said, "Hey, let's speed
it up and make it more fun."
A HOME (words and music by Maia Sharp, Randy
Sharp)
MARTIE: That's one of my favorite songs on the record. I know what it feels like
to live in a house that's breaking apart. I remember the day I moved out -- walking through all
the empty rooms in the house -- the one that was eventually going to be a baby's room, and the
kitchen where I had envisioned family dinners taking place. It was such a sad feeling to know
that is wasn't going to happen. I've felt the emptiness of a house that's not a
home.
NATALIE: Maia Sharp wrote that song, I believe it was with her father. We had
never heard of her as a songwriter. We got a CD from Paul Worley, one of the producers on our
first two albums, and that was the song that stuck out on the CD. We can't wait to meet her.
It's just a wonderful song.
MORE LOVE (written by Tim O'Brien, Gary
Nicholson)
EMILY: Martie and I grew up going to bluegrass festivals our whole lives, and
the group Hot Rize was together at that time, and was just such a staple of our musical diet
back then. I loved them so once he left the group I followed Tim O'Brien through his solo
career. We have all his solo albums, and we heard that song and once again just loved it. In
Texas, he's played a lot because on Texas radio stations, you hear more Americana. I actually
heardthat one on the radio.
NATALIE: Martie and Emily have known Tim O'Brien forever,
because they were in the bluegrass scene. Martie brought his CD to a practice and "More
Love" really stuck out for me, probably because of the way our world is today. But mostly
I think about Northern Ireland and the problems over there when I listen to it. Fighting in the
name of religion is just something I can't get my head around. It's such a
contradiction.
I BELIEVE IN LOVE (words and music by Martie Maguire, Natalie
Maines, Marty Stuart)
MARTIE: I like this song because it's simple. Songwriters are all
striving to find another way to write about love. "I Believe In Love" sounds maybe
like something you think you've heard before, but the chord progression is so unique that it
all feels fresh. We performed this song on the "America: A Tribute To Heroes"
telethon, but it was actually something we'd written before September 11th.
EMILY: I had
a doctor's appointment that I couldn't get out of on the day that Marty Stuart was coming down
to Austin to write. I live about two hours from Austin and couldn't make it, and they wrote two
of the songs on the album that day. I am a little bummed that I didn't get to hang with Marty
and be a part of what I think are two great original songs.
TORTURED, TANGLED HEARTS
(words and music by Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire, Marty Stuart)
NATALIE: That's
the other song that Martie and I wrote with Marty Stuart when he came to Austin. Marty Stuart
had the idea for "Tortured, Tangled Hearts." He had thought of it on the plane. And
he had a lot of lines and things already written and we just added to it and I don't remember
exactly who did what. But it's just a really great song. Charlie -- Emily's husband -- says,
it's going to be a standard bluegrass song and that it's about time because not very often do
women write a standard bluegrass tune.
MARTIE: Marty Stuart had the original idea for
the song, and I just think he's a great musician, great writer and a great personality. That's
a song that came together really quick -- a perfect opportunity to pick and
harmonize.
LIL' JACK SLADE (music by Emily Robison, Martie Maguire, Lloyd Maines,
Teri Hendrix)
MARTIE: Slade's been dancing to our music since he was in the womb on the
Fly Tour. He came to visit mom in the studio one day when we were working up this
song. He just went crazy, bouncing, up and down. This just had to be his song.
EMILY:
When you come from bluegrass performing tradition, you always have an instrumental on the album
or in a set just to kind of show off. It's like the drum solo at a rock
concert.
GODSPEED (SWEET DREAMS) (words and music by Radney
Foster)
NATALIE: Radney wrote that song for his son. His wife was moving his
three-year-old son to France because she'd met a new guy. He tried to change legislation and
stop it but it just couldn't happen. A lot of people that don't read the credits think that I
wrote it about my son Slade. I wish I had. Emmylou Harris was on Radney's demo. Usually we do
songscompletely different from the demo and we like to make them our own, but we pretty much
copied his version of that one. Emmylou's is the only guest appearance vocal on the album and
her voice comes in like an angel. It gives me chills. We got to play our version for Radney and
his son, who was visiting from France at the time, and it was so interesting to see the bond
between the two of them. His son still listens to that song every night before he goes to bed,
and he's nine now.
EMILY: I think for Natalie having a little boy and me having a little
boy on the way, this song is very powerful to us. I mean, we're in such mommy mode right now
between the nesting and just starting families. This is just one of those sweet songs that we
can imagine being able to sing to our children.
TOP OF THE WORLD (written by
Patty Griffin)
MARTIE: I just loved that song when I first heard Patty do it and I knew
Natalie could bring the same kind of emotions to it. I loved the opportunity to use the
orchestra there. I hadn't read music since my S.M.U. days.
EMILY: "Top of the
World" is, once again, Patty Griffin and she's awesome. That track to me is the biggest
departure on this album, but I'm so glad that we did it because I think it shows a whole other
dimension.
NATALIE: That's probably one of my favorite songs on the album. But on this
album, my favorite changes all the time.
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