Disco de Dixie Chicks: “Taking the Long Way [Digipak] [Limited]”

Three years after the controversy surrounding the Home tour, the Dixie Chicks are back with a bang on their latest studio album, Taking the Long Way. Receiving some songwriting and musical help from friends like Neil Finn, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Chad Smith, Don Wilson, and Pete Yorn, the Chicks' Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire, and Emily Robison deliver an incredible, mature record destined for success, one that will greatly please long time fans and win over some new converts. This is the Dixie Chicks at their best, and it's been a long time coming.

The Long Way Around kicks off the album with a beautiful melody and chorus, with some of their strongest vocal harmonies ever set against a wonderful Tom Petty-like guitar sound. This is the way albums should begin. Easy Silence is a tender piano ballad with some beautiful violin and a great vocal by Natalie. Not Easy To Make Nice delves into some tough lyrics,"they say time heals everything..but I'm still waiting" but surrounds it in some unbelievably gentle strings and a great chorus. Everybody Knows and Bitter End are more traditional country ballads, while Lullaby is a 6-minute track that pays homage to its title. Lubbock or Leave It is a banjo-driven rockabilly track that will make you move on the dance floor, even as the cleverly sarcastic lyrics make you listen a few more times.

Silent House and Favorite Year are ballads that touch on the loss of family and friends. Voice Inside My Head combines acoustic and a wonderful slide guitar with a endearing chorus, "everytime I'm feeling down, I wonder what would it be like with you around." This Cali-beach sound continues on the slinky track I Like It, before slowing down on the bluesy ballad Baby Hold On (with John Mayer on lead guitar) and So Hard (a song which grows on you with every listen). The album closes with the uplifting and soulful I Hope, with its church organ and choral sound. A great way to end this amazing album.

Producer Rob Rubin concentrates the Dixie Chicks sound, drawing out the best of their songwriting and musical ability and making the tracks tighter and more focused. Its 14 tracks clock in at a lengthy 68 minutes, averaging about 4 minutes a song, a nice change in an industry where 45 minute records are the norm. Vocally the ladies are as wonderful as always, but their musicianship also impresses here. They have matured greatly in their songwriting and their lyrics, creating a distinct emotional palette that grows with every listen. Love or hate their politics, as musicians they make some of the best music today. Highly Recommended and one of 2006's Top 5 albums.

A.G. Corwin

St.Louis, MO

Okay, first let's leave the politics aside and just talk music.

If you were drawn to the Dixie Chicks because of some of their bluegrass-tinged or traditional country songs from "Wide Open Spaces" or "Home," and those particular genres and the DC's excellence within them were the only things that kept you interested in their music, this may not be the CD for you.

These Dixie Chicks have all grown up. (Perhaps we should call them "Dixie Hens"?). They've never been purely country (although more country than Shania Twain and Faith Hill), and some of the earlier songs, such as their take on "Landslide," should have put diehard country fans on notice that the Dixie Chicks can and will do rock, country-rock, rockabilly, and country pop, and will do it with the same polished harmonies, melodies, and lyrics as they do with anything they touch. You simply cannot deny their talent. If you were drawn to the Dixie Chicks because of their harmonies, their musicianship, their lyrics, and their melodies, no matter what kind of song they sang, than this is undeniably their best work and you won't be disappointed. There are a lot of musical cooks in the kitchen on this one in terms of co-writers (Sheryl Crow, Linda Perry, and Keb 'Mo for example), and the result is a nice mix that takes from '70's rock, Bonnie Raitt, and even a little bit of the Al Greene Memphis sound in "I Hope."

So, your take on this CD will depend on what your expectations were.

I recently read advice from a master gardener in my local newspaper to the effect of, "If you're not killing plants, you're not growing as a gardener." Similarly, if you're not losing fans, you're probably not growing as an artist and a musician. Sure, the Dixie Chicks will lose some diehard country fans with this CD, but they will gain a whole lot of fans who might have dismissed them out of hand as being limited to just country music. Which leads to my next point: The politics.

If you bought or didn't buy this CD because of the Dixie Chicks' politics, IMHO, you're missing the point. I've never heard a Dixie Chicks song that advocated a particular political point of view; I've always liked their music because their lyrics tell a good story, they harmonize more like a sister singing group than a manufactured group (Yes, I know that Emily and Martie are sisters, but adding a non-relative can sometimes ruin the harmony), and Natalie Maines' distinctive voice beautifully stands out but stays in perferct harmony with the sisters such that I can distinguish her voice a mile out (think Stevie Nicks without the nasal inflection and drug habit and with a slight twang). There aren't many country artists whose politics I agree with, but that doesn't stop me from listening if the music is good. I only stop listening if the message IN the music is one I disagree with or is degrading to me, which is why I can't listen to a lot of hip-hop these days.

Sometimes, the music is just about the music. And this music is good.

All of you blowing chunks over some ridiculus statement the Dixie Chicks made 3 years ago need to get a life. It's old news and should have barely been news in the first place. The number of people ashamed to be connected with George Bush probably can't be calculated. Feel free to boycott me at work.

On to the C.D. This is very nice. What I have always enjoyed about the Chicks is how well they understand Music. They are real musicians and this new C.D. is another step in the progression of their style. They grow with each disc they put out and this one comes on hard.

As many have said, you don't need to take my word for it. Go to CMT.Com or one of the other video places (vh1 maybe) and watch some of their videos. Really pay attention to the track "Not Ready To Make Nice" because it's a powerful song in many ways.

I am so glad to see these fabulous women back and headed to the stage.

All you haters.. get over it.

Number one on Amazon.

Number one on Itunes/ipod.

First concert is SOLD OUT.

In the Top Twenty Count down on VH1 (position not released yet)

CMT playing the video on front page despite the ridiculus call of red necks to boycott the song.

Thank GOD I don't listen to those stupid radio stations anyway. I won't be letting any morons tell me what I can and can't listen to any time soon.

You boycott minded folk have about as much chance of destroying the chicks as you do of remembering where your front teeth went.

What a great year for Rick Rubin. In the midst of Neil Diamond's masterful comeback album and the Chili Pepper's funk double-CD, he guides the Dixie Chicks to one harmonic and lovely collection of country melodies.

Do you remember around 1980 when there were all these great country-pop crossovers were everywhere on the radio? This is one of those albums that has soooo many candidates for such exposure. Country fans will likely hear what they expect, but there's much for pop music fans to like as well. Smart songwriting, tight songcraft, topical and relevant lyrics, "hummable" melodies - like Faith Hill and Garth Brooks this is the kind of album in which pop music fans will find much to admire.

The only unfortunate piece with the red-state backlash, orchestrated mostly by the kind of jingoistic rah-rah that is the basis of Chevy truck commercials, is that at the end of the day, all this is is a great pop album by polished musicians.

Regardless of their political stance, regardless of the straw chewin' DJs who won't play their music, regardless of the promoters who won't touch them with a 10-ft. pole, the Dixie Chicks have achieved nothing more complicated than a flat-out solid song cycle. Worth every dime.

I have been a staunch Dixie Chicks fan through thick and thin, and am thrilled to have a new CD from them! Just in time for Memorial Day road-tripping (it might just make you forget about the $3.00/gallon gasoline!).

I really do love the powerful lyrics and feisty tone of this CD (my favorite song--"I Hope"). No, it's not all sunshine and light, but artists' work is often a reflection of what's been going on in their lives, and they've certainly been through a lot the last couple years. I'm glad to see them coming back strong!!

The first copy I bought for me, because I like the Dixie Chicks' music. The other five copies I bought for friends--that's my little way of saying that whether or not I like what is said, I value our right as Americans to say it, and I'll support people who stand up for that right.