the Chicks

the Chicks, American country music group that achieved crossover success in the pop market. The group’s principal members include Martie Maguire (née Erwin; b. October 12, 1969, York, Pennsylvania, U.S.), Emily Robison (née Erwin; b. August 16, 1972, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, U.S.), and Natalie Maines (b. October 14, 1974, Lubbock, Texas, U.S.). Early members of the group included guitarist Robin Lynn Macy, who left in 1992, and vocalist Laura Lynch, who was replaced by Maines in 1995.

Before Lynch’s departure, the group released three albums—Thank Heavens for Dale Evans (1990), Little Ol’ Cowgirl (1992), and Shouldn’t a Told You That (1993). With Martie Erwin playing the fiddle and mandolin and her sister Emily on the banjo, guitar, dobro, and bass, the Dixie Chicks became known for their instrumental prowess. Following the installation of Maines as lead singer, the group signed with Monument Records and began to revamp its cowgirl image and sound, eventually emerging as sophisticated performers with a hit country single, “I Can Love You Better” (1997). The lineup’s debut album, Wide Open Spaces (1998), sold more than 12 million copies in the United States and was named best country album at the 1999 Grammy Awards ceremony. “There’s Your Trouble” won the Grammy for best country group vocal performance.

The Dixie Chicks’ genre-spanning versatility quickly attracted fans from outside country music. The album Fly (1999) and the hit single “Ready to Run” earned them additional Grammys, and another of the album’s singles, the morbidly comic “Goodbye Earl,” became one of the group’s best-known songs. In 2003 Home (2002), a return to their acoustic roots that features a popular cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” was named best country album at the Grammy Awards, and the songs “Long Time Gone” and “Lil’ Jack Slade” also received awards.

In March 2003, during the buildup to the Iraq War, Maines ignited controversy by declaring onstage in London that she was ashamed that U.S. Pres. George W. Bush was from her native Texas. Amid a barrage of criticism from commentators who strongly supported the Bush administration, many country radio stations banned the group’s music, and Maines received death threats. The Dixie Chicks maintained a relatively low profile until 2006, when they returned with a world tour and the release of Taking the Long Way. Several tracks, notably “Not Ready to Make Nice,” responded defiantly to the group’s detractors, and the album’s sound, decidedly more rock than country, clearly signaled the Dixie Chicks’ desire to move on to new musical possibilities and new audiences. The documentary film Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing, released later that year, provides an intimate portrait of the group in the aftermath of Maines’s controversial remarks. At the 2007 Grammy Awards, the Dixie Chicks received the top three honors—album of the year, song of the year, and record of the year—becoming the first all-female group to win in any of those categories.

In the years after Taking the Long Way, the Dixie Chicks took a hiatus from recording, though they still performed occasionally. In the meantime, Maguire and Robison formed the duo Court Yard Hounds, and Maines released a solo album, Mother (2013). The Dixie Chicks reunited for a world tour in 2016, and a CD/DVD set documenting one of the concerts, DCX MMXVI, appeared in 2017. Amid a growing national discussion of racism in the United States, the group announced in 2020 that they were changing their name to the Chicks. That year they released Gaslighter, their first studio album since 2006. Much of the work centers on failed relationships, including the breakup of Maines’s marriage. In 2024 the U.S. Library of Congress added Wide Open Spaces to the National Recording Registry, a list of audio recordings deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”