Fly (CD - 1999)

Dixie Chicks: Natalie Maines (vocals, hand claps); Emily Robison (acoustic & lap steel guitar, banjo, dobro, hand claps, background vocals); Martie Seidel (fiddle, viola, background vocals).

Additional personnel includes: Paul Worley (acoustic guitar, background vocals); Randy Scruggs, Billy Joe Walker Jr, Adam Steinberg, Bryan Sutton, Dennis Linde, Marcus Hummon (acoustic guitar); Pat Buchanan, George Marinelli, Mike Henderson, Keith Urban (electric guitar); Lloyd Maines (steel guitar); John Mock (tin whistle, concertina, bodhran); Steve Conn (accordion); Steve Nathan, Matt Rollings (Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards); Michael Rhodes (bass); Greg Morrow (drums); Tom Roady, Terry McMillan (percussion); Blake Chancey, Charlie Robison (hand claps, background vocals).

Principally recorded at Westwood Sound Studio, Nashville, Tennessee.

All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.

FLY won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Country Album. "Ready To Run" won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. FLY was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Album Of The Year. "Ready To Run" was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Country Song.

The Dixie Chicks won the 2000 CMA Awards for Entertainer Of The Year and Vocal Group Of The Year. FLY won the 2000 CMA Award for Album Of The Year.

"Goodbye Earl" won the 2000 CMA Award for Best Video Of The Year.

Forget the platform sneakers and safety pins--under all that glitz and glitter, the Dixie Chicks are one heckuva country group. The group sings, plays, and writes beautifully on their sophomore release, FLY. Thankfully, crossover success hasn't taken the country out of the Chicks--Martie Seidel's fiddle and mandolin and Emily Robison's banjo and dobro are still front-and-center in all the arrangements. Natalie Maines' powerful voice wrings every drop of emotion out of a ballad like "Let Him Fly," and then turns on a dime to blast through the "Hole in My Head."

But in addition to some fine playing and singing, FLY also finds the Chicks reaching new heights as songwriters. The five tracks for which the group takes writing credits are among the best on the CD, especially the lilting, Irish-flavored "Ready to Run" and the heart-wrenching breakup song "Without You." For comic relief, the Chicks offer their own "Sin Wagon," about a disgruntled wife out to break her marriage vows with a little "mattress dancin'." And while the group may have raised eyebrows at the outset by adopting the slogan "Chicks Kick Ass," FLY proves the Chicks are capable of doing the near impossible: living up to their own hype. minimize