*** Green Tea nears 10000! *** And another milestone for the Premium Bonds review at over 32,000. W...
*** Green Tea nears 10000! *** And another milestone for the Premium Bonds review at over 32,000. What next? Bronze? Current projects: the works of Offenbach; hotels; personal health items.
Member since:13.11.2002
Reviews:328
Members who trust:82
The Dixie Chicks were the sensation of the United States in 1999 and this album was instrumental in sparking the rise to the pinnacle of their achievement. They had been around in Texas for about three years not achieving much apart from the Country and Western Circuit. Then they recorded a rather notorious song ‘Goodbye Earl’ which was given a lot of local and then national airplay. This album (which was awarded Grammy) and a nationwide tour followed. I happened to be in Tampa for The Who concert in November 2000. The Chicks played the Ice Palace Arena two days later to a packed house and we couldn’t get tickets.
Since then Natalie and Emily have had time away from the group to have babies. They are back in harness again now with a new album and a 2003 tour.
They haven’t made as much impact in the UK but they did play one concert in London in June 1999.
The Dixie Chicks consists of Natalie Maines (lead singer), Martie Seidel (backing vocals, fiddle) and Emily Robison (backing vocals, banjo and guitar). On “Fly” they are accompanied by a twelve piece backing band which is supplemented by other session musicians on individual tracks.
Miss Maines has a highly distinctive
voice with a broad Texan drawl but paradoxically her diction is so clear that her words are easily heard through it and the rich accompaniment of the songs. Martie and Emily are accomplished musicians in their own right. Their sound is a rich mixture of rock, C&W and folk. They had a hand in the writing of most of the songs. They try to emphasise the joys, plights and contrariness of being a young girl – in love, the world, in marriage, in life.
The CD insert has a delightful collection of the girls in a variety of fantasy pursuits – riding a skyrocket, dressed as fairies on a tree branch, issuing out of the fly zip of a pair of jeans, caught like flies on a fly paper, dressed in tight silver and snapped on a country swing. The insert also provides the words of all the songs.
The running order (with my usual marks out of five) is as follows:
1. READY TO RUN (*****) 3:52
The opener is an upbeat bouncy folksy Country and Western meets the Irish. The band plays banjo, fiddle, penny whistle - is that a bodhran I can hear in the background? (according to the cover notes – yes it is).
Here our heroine is not ready to settle down to the humdrum life. As Cyndi Lauper said all those years ago “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. Supberb voice, superb descant vocals, supberb intricate backing accompaniment.
2. IF I FALL YOU’RE GOING DOWN WITH ME (*****) 3:04
This is a fast paced upbeat country rocker. What does the lady mean when she says “I never felt the earth move honey until you shook my tree”?
A change of pace for this lilting romantic ballad. The middle-8 features a soaring fiddle melody with a piano counterpoint. Here our heroine is happy in the arms of her hero and happy to tell about it.
Do you remember Bread and David Gates? Well, he could have written this tune.
4. COLD DAY IN JULY (*****) 5:12
There is another change of pace for a sad melodic song of lost love. She sounds so alone and frail.
“You said that we were gonna last forever You said that our love would never die It looks like spring and it feels like sunny weather But it’s a cold day in July”
5. GOODBYE EARL (*****) 4:19
A comedy song which was released as a single. This is the story of female revenge on a habitual wife beater. There some delicious black quips in the lyrics if you listen carefully: “Earl walked right though that restraining order and put her in intensive care” and “And it turns out he was a missing person who nobody missed at all.”
Lots of driving rhythm from the percussion, piano and la-la chorus.
This song was written by a well known Nashville C&W writer – Dennis Linde (who also wrote the Elvis hit “Burning Love”). The Dixie Chicks note that they “do not advocate premeditated murder but love getting even”
6. HELLO Mr HEARTACHE (****) 3:49
This is a much more conventional country and western sound of steel and slide guitars, fiddle and accordian. Again this is a tale of lost love but there is defiance in the lyrics and you know that she will bounce back.
7. DON’T WASTE YOUR HEART (****) 2:50
Another a lilting slightly melancholic ballad accompanied by a fiddle and a trip-trap pony rhythm. This time around it’s own heroine that’s dishing the dirt:
“It’s funny how the girls get burned and honey as far as I’m concerned the tables have turned.”
8. SIN WAGON (*****) 3:40
The fastest and most furious paced patter song on the album. This is a song about sin, temptation and salvation (all done in the best possible taste).
“Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition – need a little bit more of my twelve ounce nutrition” and “On a mission to make something happen, feel like Delilah lookin’ for Samson, do a little mattress dancin’, that’s right I said mattress dancing”
Listen to that crazy finger picking banjo, jews’ harp and fiddle!!. This is one to play loud.
9. WITHOUT YOU (****) 3:32
A slower straight ballad – again telling of a girl deserted after sharing love.
My CD has a picture of three feet (two right and one left) on the label. Each foot has six chicken feet tattooed on it. I gather from the Dixie Chicks fan club that they agreed to have one tattooed for each milestone of their career. They are currently up to nine apiece and are awaiting a further three.
FLY MONUMENT 1999
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
A much better album than 1998's multi-platinumWide Open Spaces, the trio refused to rest ... more
on their commercial laurels and pushed the envelope in several directions. The first US single "Ready To Run" and the second track "If I Fall You're Going Down ...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
A much better album than 1998's multi-platinum Wide Open Spaces, the trio refused to rest ... more
on their commercial laurels and pushed the envelope in several directions. The first US single "Ready To Run" and the second track "If I Fall You're Going Down...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Ready To Run If I Fall You're Going Down With Me Cowboy Take Me Away Cold Day In July ... more
Goodbye Earl Hello Mr. Heartache Don't Waste Your Heart Sin Wagon Without You Some Days You Gotta Dance Hole In My Head Heartbreak Town (untitled) Let Hi...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
A much better album than 1998's multi-platinum Wide Open Spaces, the trio refused to rest ... more
on their commercial laurels and pushed the envelope in several directions. The first US single "Ready To Run" and the second track "If I Fall You're Going Down...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
very helpful by (100%):
