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.

Wide Open Spaces unveiled the new incarnation of the Dixie Chicks, revealing an eclectic, assured group that was simultaneously rootsy and utterly modern, but if that 1998 de facto debut captured the band just leaving the ground, Fly -- perhaps appropriately, given the title -- finds the group in full flight, in full possession of their talents. This time around, the different sounds they draw upon are more fully integrated, which only makes them more distinctive as a group. Even if the whole of the album feels more of a piece, they still take the time to deliver a slice of pure honky tonk on "Hello Mr. Heartache" and a piece of breakneck bluegrass on the rip-roaring, wickedly clever "Sin Wagon," which is also one of the group originals here, a collaboration between Natalie Maines and Emily Robison and outside writer Stephony Smith. It -- along with the Maines-cowritten "Without You," the Maines/Robison "Don't Waste Your Heart" and Martie Seidel's co-written "Ready to Run" and "Cowboy Take Me Away" -- showcase the trio's increasing craft as writers, which is one of the reasons this album sounds unified. But even the outside-written material feels like the group, whether it's the twangy boogie "Some Days You Gotta Dance," Patty Griffin's "Let Him Fly," the melancholy "Cold Day in July" and, especially "Goodbye Earl" where a wife gets revenge on her abusive husband. Like before, the group moves gracefully between these different styles, with Maines providing a powerful, compelling focus with Robison and Seidel offering sensitive support, and this blend makes Fly a rich, nuanced album that just gets better with repeated listens. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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