Dixie Chicks (2010)
Interview Background
Although I’ve branded this a Dixie Chicks interview, it was actually conceived to promote sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison’s Dixie Chicks side-project Court Yard Hounds. With Dixie Chicks frontwoman Natalie Maines pulling back from the spotlight while dealing with the psychological fallout of her George W Bush comments (captured in the critically-acclaimed Shut Up And Sing documentary), the siblings recorded a subdued eponymous album and then planned on touring it. This interview coincided with the announcement of a 2010 Australian tour with Sarah McLachlan’s resurrected Lilith Festival, but the event was cancelled a week before this interview was set to run. The following interview never made it to print.
The following is an edited version of an interview recorded for Rip It Up in September 2010.
Court Yard Hounds - Taking The Long Way
by Scott McLennan
She’s shared a stage with her sister Emily Robison for more than 20 years as part of the Dixie Chicks, but Martie Maguire’s earliest memories of her younger sibling are more menial than the Grammy accolades and 30 million album sales which have ensued.
“My earliest memory?” Maguire laughs from her Austin home. “Diapering and powdering her bottom! She was my live baby doll as I was three years older than her, so I have distinct memories of trying to carry her everywhere, changing her diaper and her being my live baby.”
In 2010, the fiddle and mandolin player not only has her own three children to care for, she’s also sharing a new baby with her sister – Court Yard Hounds. With Dixie Chicks vocalist Natalie Maines taking a break from the spotlight, the siblings have paired up for an eponymous album that shifts their musical output towards laidback Americana. A fiddle album Maguire was working on was put on hold when Robison approached her sister with a batch of songs.
“I was getting musically antsy, so when Emily was sending me songs I got really excited. She was considering giving them to other artists, but I felt very protective of them. With her being my sister and a lot of them being about [the breakdown of] her relationship I really felt she should do it.”
The sisters endured a lengthy hiatus following the promotion of the stirring Grammy-winning Taking The Long Way album. Maines’ infamous 2003 comment about President George W Bush (“We’re ashamed that the President Of The United States is from Texas”) led to incredible consequences documented in the eye-opening Shut Up And Sing documentary. A period of country radio station black bans and even death threats followed the offhand remark, only publicly being put to bed with a defiant, victorious performance of lead single Not Ready To Make Nice at the 2007 Grammys. One can’t help but feel Maines’ retreat from the limelight to spend time with family has also been to deal with the psychological fallout of the harrowing chapter.
“That has something to do with it and I think Natalie would admit that it wore us out emotionally and musically and I think you can hear the angst on Taking The Long Way in certain songs. I’m not whining about being a Dixie Chick because there sure are a lot of perks, but we did feel a lot of negative energy around us. There was positive energy too, so we were trying so hard to focus on that.
“Actually Australia was a place where we didn’t want to leave, because we were feeling so much love and support!” Maguire chuckles. “We were in Australia when the shit hit the fan, so to speak, so it was scary kind of coming home. We’d be in aeroplanes and hear people whispering about us, thinking we couldn’t hear them, or we’d go into the grocery store and you’d be wondering if the person giving you a dirty look was going to come up and say something rude to your face.”
At the end of Shut Up And Sing Maguire tearfully admitted she’d give up her music career for Maines to be at peace, but the reclusive vocalist has given Court Yard Hounds her blessing.
“As year after year would go by and we weren’t really doing anything as the Dixie Chicks, it’s funny how many people would say to us that if Emily and I wanted to play music together we just needed to get a new lead singer. I could not believe how many people were just ready to kick Natalie! Not the fans of course – the fans would have caused an uprising of huge proportions – but I couldn’t believe how many people close to me thought that! I was so defensive of Natalie because she has good reasons. She’s been wanting to be out of the limelight and be a mom and we respect that 100 percent.
“We have her blessing and she has ours, since it would have been so much easier not to start a new band and go out as the Dixie Chicks! Emily and I just felt we didn’t have a choice since we didn’t want to pressure Natalie and we want her to want to do music when the time is right. I feel that time’s getting closer and closer, which is great.”
In between Court Yard Hounds commitments, this year has seen the live reappearance of Dixie Chicks. The band’s first tour in four years saw the superstars supporting the Eagles.
“I was nervous at the first rehearsal just wondering if the songs would come back easily or not. Once we started playing it came back, although Natalie used lyric [sheet]s on the first date before she realised she knew all the words. The band we were taking with us was also the band touring with us as Court Yard Hounds, so we also had to play a few dates in between – we’d have to run off to Telluride, Colorado and then get back to Chicago the next day for a Chicks show. Emily and I thrive in that environment and we love to work and travel, so it’s perfect.”
The hate mail has subsided, but Maguire insists that after 20 years of hostile comments she no longer lets it affect her.
“It’s the nature of what we do! I remember early on we had an office and the band’s phone number was published in the Yellow Pages so that people could find us for bookings. We went from being an acoustic bluegrass band to getting a drummer and we had to de-list our number. We had hate callers calling us the Devil’s spawn because we added a drummer to our band. Even back in 1989 we had nay-sayers!”
Court Yard Hounds (Sony)
Additional Interview Material
A new band at 40 – how does it feel to be starting again at that age?
“Well thanks a lot! Yeah, I feel like I’ve had a long run at this business and I’ve really not had to hold down other jobs except for scooping ice cream way back, but I think that was for about two weeks. I feel that the music industry is a lot more forgiving than perhaps the Hollywood movie industry, so I don’t feel the possibilities are narrowing as I get older, I feel they’re just expanding. I look to a female artist like Sheryl Crow who is in her late 40s or an Emmylou Harris who I saw on stage recently and she’s better than ever and so beautiful. As I get older I just have to focus on the artists who have had longer careers and are older. I’m not going to go and get a bunch of plastic surgery and try to fight getting older, I’m just going to be myself.”
You co-write every single song on Taking The Long Way, but this time around Emily is the driving force behind the songs. Were you comfortable taking a backseat comparatively on this one?
“I’ve always believed as an artist that it doesn’t matter where the songs come from, as long as you love them. That’s kind of how we’ve always done things and we’ve never tried to be equal, even when we were writing stuff with the Dixie Chicks, it was always the best song always wins. I wasn’t really writing in my time off as I was busy doing something else, but the fact that Emily was working on new songs and was considering giving them to other artists, I felt very protective of them. With her being my sister and a lot of them being about [the breakdown of] her relationship I felt like her voice sounded so beautiful on what she was sending me I really felt she should do it.”
Was the name change also a way of erasing the stigma of the Dixie Chicks name, where you struggled for radio play in some country quarters?
“I was surprised that the label Sony wasn’t going to work the album at country [stations] as I feel Court Yard Hounds does have some country elements, but they felt they needed to work it at Triple A and Adult Contemporary and satellite radio and that’s something we don’t really get involved in. They decide where it best lives and we really haven’t got a sense of whether country stations would have played this because Sony didn’t really try and get it on country stations in the US. It’s been dubbed folk rock and Americana, but I haven’t heard the word country used a lot – that was the genre of the stations that banned us. I guess it does give us a little freedom but you do see comments that you try to avoid but pop up in your face: ‘I miss Natalie’, ‘Why did they dare record without her?’, but it’s good to have another outlet with your sister and it’s a different dynamic.”
Without Natalie at Court Yard Hounds shows, do you find you and Emily are also taking to the mic a lot more between songs?
“Yeah, I think it is a little bit more talky as a show. I don’t know why but maybe it’s because they’re smaller and more intimate shows we feel we like to talk to the audience more where we can. I think the Chicks shows just got so big where we were playing arenas that you can’t really have that conversational dialogue with the audience as it just doesn’t work. It’s nice to be able to slag each other off or embarrass each other – it’s loose [laughs] and fun and easy and I do love that aspect of it.”
How do you feel about Taylor Swift naming you guys as her idols?
“We just met Taylor Swift and she was such a doll – you can’t even imagine how nice and authentic she is. She’s real and in it for all the right reasons, so I’m so proud of her. Her songwriting is amazing. I think early on we were writing but we didn’t really put that much effort into it or feel like we had to prove ourselves with our songwriting. The fact that Taylor Swift has been writing songs since she was so young proves there’s amazing talent out there.”
Although I’ve branded this a Dixie Chicks interview, it was actually conceived to promote sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison’s Dixie Chicks side-project Court Yard Hounds. With Dixie Chicks frontwoman Natalie Maines pulling back from the spotlight while dealing with the psychological fallout of her George W Bush comments (captured in the critically-acclaimed Shut Up And Sing documentary), the siblings recorded a subdued eponymous album and then planned on touring it. This interview coincided with the announcement of a 2010 Australian tour with Sarah McLachlan’s resurrected Lilith Festival, but the event was cancelled a week before this interview was set to run. The following interview never made it to print.
The following is an edited version of an interview recorded for Rip It Up in September 2010.
Court Yard Hounds - Taking The Long Way
by Scott McLennan
She’s shared a stage with her sister Emily Robison for more than 20 years as part of the Dixie Chicks, but Martie Maguire’s earliest memories of her younger sibling are more menial than the Grammy accolades and 30 million album sales which have ensued.
“My earliest memory?” Maguire laughs from her Austin home. “Diapering and powdering her bottom! She was my live baby doll as I was three years older than her, so I have distinct memories of trying to carry her everywhere, changing her diaper and her being my live baby.”
In 2010, the fiddle and mandolin player not only has her own three children to care for, she’s also sharing a new baby with her sister – Court Yard Hounds. With Dixie Chicks vocalist Natalie Maines taking a break from the spotlight, the siblings have paired up for an eponymous album that shifts their musical output towards laidback Americana. A fiddle album Maguire was working on was put on hold when Robison approached her sister with a batch of songs.
“I was getting musically antsy, so when Emily was sending me songs I got really excited. She was considering giving them to other artists, but I felt very protective of them. With her being my sister and a lot of them being about [the breakdown of] her relationship I really felt she should do it.”
The sisters endured a lengthy hiatus following the promotion of the stirring Grammy-winning Taking The Long Way album. Maines’ infamous 2003 comment about President George W Bush (“We’re ashamed that the President Of The United States is from Texas”) led to incredible consequences documented in the eye-opening Shut Up And Sing documentary. A period of country radio station black bans and even death threats followed the offhand remark, only publicly being put to bed with a defiant, victorious performance of lead single Not Ready To Make Nice at the 2007 Grammys. One can’t help but feel Maines’ retreat from the limelight to spend time with family has also been to deal with the psychological fallout of the harrowing chapter.
“That has something to do with it and I think Natalie would admit that it wore us out emotionally and musically and I think you can hear the angst on Taking The Long Way in certain songs. I’m not whining about being a Dixie Chick because there sure are a lot of perks, but we did feel a lot of negative energy around us. There was positive energy too, so we were trying so hard to focus on that.
“Actually Australia was a place where we didn’t want to leave, because we were feeling so much love and support!” Maguire chuckles. “We were in Australia when the shit hit the fan, so to speak, so it was scary kind of coming home. We’d be in aeroplanes and hear people whispering about us, thinking we couldn’t hear them, or we’d go into the grocery store and you’d be wondering if the person giving you a dirty look was going to come up and say something rude to your face.”
At the end of Shut Up And Sing Maguire tearfully admitted she’d give up her music career for Maines to be at peace, but the reclusive vocalist has given Court Yard Hounds her blessing.
“As year after year would go by and we weren’t really doing anything as the Dixie Chicks, it’s funny how many people would say to us that if Emily and I wanted to play music together we just needed to get a new lead singer. I could not believe how many people were just ready to kick Natalie! Not the fans of course – the fans would have caused an uprising of huge proportions – but I couldn’t believe how many people close to me thought that! I was so defensive of Natalie because she has good reasons. She’s been wanting to be out of the limelight and be a mom and we respect that 100 percent.
“We have her blessing and she has ours, since it would have been so much easier not to start a new band and go out as the Dixie Chicks! Emily and I just felt we didn’t have a choice since we didn’t want to pressure Natalie and we want her to want to do music when the time is right. I feel that time’s getting closer and closer, which is great.”
In between Court Yard Hounds commitments, this year has seen the live reappearance of Dixie Chicks. The band’s first tour in four years saw the superstars supporting the Eagles.
“I was nervous at the first rehearsal just wondering if the songs would come back easily or not. Once we started playing it came back, although Natalie used lyric [sheet]s on the first date before she realised she knew all the words. The band we were taking with us was also the band touring with us as Court Yard Hounds, so we also had to play a few dates in between – we’d have to run off to Telluride, Colorado and then get back to Chicago the next day for a Chicks show. Emily and I thrive in that environment and we love to work and travel, so it’s perfect.”
The hate mail has subsided, but Maguire insists that after 20 years of hostile comments she no longer lets it affect her.
“It’s the nature of what we do! I remember early on we had an office and the band’s phone number was published in the Yellow Pages so that people could find us for bookings. We went from being an acoustic bluegrass band to getting a drummer and we had to de-list our number. We had hate callers calling us the Devil’s spawn because we added a drummer to our band. Even back in 1989 we had nay-sayers!”
Court Yard Hounds (Sony)
Additional Interview Material
A new band at 40 – how does it feel to be starting again at that age?
“Well thanks a lot! Yeah, I feel like I’ve had a long run at this business and I’ve really not had to hold down other jobs except for scooping ice cream way back, but I think that was for about two weeks. I feel that the music industry is a lot more forgiving than perhaps the Hollywood movie industry, so I don’t feel the possibilities are narrowing as I get older, I feel they’re just expanding. I look to a female artist like Sheryl Crow who is in her late 40s or an Emmylou Harris who I saw on stage recently and she’s better than ever and so beautiful. As I get older I just have to focus on the artists who have had longer careers and are older. I’m not going to go and get a bunch of plastic surgery and try to fight getting older, I’m just going to be myself.”
You co-write every single song on Taking The Long Way, but this time around Emily is the driving force behind the songs. Were you comfortable taking a backseat comparatively on this one?
“I’ve always believed as an artist that it doesn’t matter where the songs come from, as long as you love them. That’s kind of how we’ve always done things and we’ve never tried to be equal, even when we were writing stuff with the Dixie Chicks, it was always the best song always wins. I wasn’t really writing in my time off as I was busy doing something else, but the fact that Emily was working on new songs and was considering giving them to other artists, I felt very protective of them. With her being my sister and a lot of them being about [the breakdown of] her relationship I felt like her voice sounded so beautiful on what she was sending me I really felt she should do it.”
Was the name change also a way of erasing the stigma of the Dixie Chicks name, where you struggled for radio play in some country quarters?
“I was surprised that the label Sony wasn’t going to work the album at country [stations] as I feel Court Yard Hounds does have some country elements, but they felt they needed to work it at Triple A and Adult Contemporary and satellite radio and that’s something we don’t really get involved in. They decide where it best lives and we really haven’t got a sense of whether country stations would have played this because Sony didn’t really try and get it on country stations in the US. It’s been dubbed folk rock and Americana, but I haven’t heard the word country used a lot – that was the genre of the stations that banned us. I guess it does give us a little freedom but you do see comments that you try to avoid but pop up in your face: ‘I miss Natalie’, ‘Why did they dare record without her?’, but it’s good to have another outlet with your sister and it’s a different dynamic.”
Without Natalie at Court Yard Hounds shows, do you find you and Emily are also taking to the mic a lot more between songs?
“Yeah, I think it is a little bit more talky as a show. I don’t know why but maybe it’s because they’re smaller and more intimate shows we feel we like to talk to the audience more where we can. I think the Chicks shows just got so big where we were playing arenas that you can’t really have that conversational dialogue with the audience as it just doesn’t work. It’s nice to be able to slag each other off or embarrass each other – it’s loose [laughs] and fun and easy and I do love that aspect of it.”
How do you feel about Taylor Swift naming you guys as her idols?
“We just met Taylor Swift and she was such a doll – you can’t even imagine how nice and authentic she is. She’s real and in it for all the right reasons, so I’m so proud of her. Her songwriting is amazing. I think early on we were writing but we didn’t really put that much effort into it or feel like we had to prove ourselves with our songwriting. The fact that Taylor Swift has been writing songs since she was so young proves there’s amazing talent out there.”
Content copyright is retained by the author unless otherwise stated. Republishing content is prohibited unless permission specifically granted by the author.
