The Dixie Chicks are back in town

The Dixie Chicks are an all girls band that took the music world by storm during the late nineties. They were formed in 1989 and their sound was a mix of bluegrass, pop and country music. This appealed to a wide variety of people, and made them one of the best selling bands at the time. They have since managed to sell over thirty million albums around the world, and have become the highest selling all girls band in the US, as well as the highest selling country group since 1991. After taking a little break from making music, following the release of their last album back in 2006, the group recently decided to make their fans dreams come true, by announcing their latest concert tour. After years on the sidelines, their fans will finally be able to buy their Dixie Chicks tickets and watch their favorite artists live on the stage.

Band Members

The Erwin Sisters

Born as Martha Elenor Erwin and Emily Burns Erwin, in 1969 and 1972 respectively, these two talented sisters were among the founding members of the Dixie Chicks. They were born to loving parents, who encouraged them to learn musical instruments from an early age and both started by learning to play the Violin. Martha in particular became quite adept at it and by the time she was twelve had even learned different styles of playing it, including the fiddle style. Emily on the other hand, showed a lot of promise on the violin, but her interest was soon captured by other string instruments, which included the banjo.

 

As the sisters grew older, their bond became stronger, which in turn led to more and more time being spent on improving their playing style. They used their talents to take part in their school orchestra, and ultimately formed their own band, called the Blue Night Express. It was a bluegrass group which they had formed with two other school friends. Together they travelled to far off music festivals to play for large audiences, alongside some of the biggest names in music. These tours were very important for their development as musicians and would lead to the eventual formation of the Dixie Chicks.

Robin Lynn Macy

Robin Lynn Macy was born in 1958 and was a founding member of the Dixie Chicks. She had been involved in the local bluegrass music movement for quite some time and kept playing in various bands, even when she was a mathematics teacher. She initially joined a group called the ‘Danger in the Air,’ with whom she released two independent albums. These did not do all that well, but it did not matter too much, as she formed the Dixie Chicks only a little while later.

Macy was an accomplished guitarist and singer, and took a leading part in the new band’s development. However after the failure of their first few albums, she started to have problems with the Erwin sisters and did not agree with their increased focus on pop and country music. So in 1992, she decided to leave the band in order to make purer bluegrass music. Since then she has played with several different bands over the years and continues to do so to this day.

Laura Lynch

Laura Lynch was born in 1958 and was also a founding member of the Dixie Chicks. She was primarily a singer and a bass guitarist, and also helped with writing some of their early songs. Even though she was an essential part of the lineup, the departure of Macy put a lot of pressure on her as the only remaining singer for the group. She had also become a mother by this point and the constant touring and travelling away from home kept her from spending time with her daughter. So in 1995, she came to a mutual agreement with the rest of the group to quit the band and go her separate way.

Natalie Maines

Natalie Maines was born in 1974 and her father was popular country musician Lloyd Maines. Even from an early age she knew she wanted to pursue a career in music and devoted all her attention to making her dreams come true. As she grew older, she kept working on her voice, and at one time even got a full scholarship to the prestigious Berkley College of Music, but she eventually dropped out.

By 1995 her father had been working as a producer and he eventually helped her get her first professional job as a singer, when she provided backing vocals for singer Pat Green’s album. Her father had also been working with a little known band called the Dixie Chicks at the time as well, and noticed that they needed a new singer after two of their members quit. So he provided the Erwin sisters with a demo tape of his daughter and they immediately felt a connection. She was offered a place as the lead singer of the band, which she eventually accepted.

Music Career

Pre Maines

The Dixie Chicks were created in 1989 and they spent most of their early years travelling from city to city, playing in local bars and music festivals. There were not a lot of all female bands in country music at the time, and it was proving difficult for them to garner a fan following. However, they were undeterred and kept on going, slowly building up support with a small group of fans, which fortunately also included the daughter of Texas Senator John Tower. She provided them with ten thousand dollars, most of which they used to record their first album, titled “Thank Heavens for Dale Evans,” which eventually came out in 1990.

The record did not make much of a mark on the industry and went uncharted. It also did not garner much attention from local country music fans, due to its heavy leanings towards bluegrass music. It did however get them an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.

Having learnt from the mistakes on their debut album, the Dixie Chicks tried to do things a little differently when it came to their follow-up record. They called the album the “Little Ol’ Cowgirl,” and it was released in 1992, with the whole band getting involved in its production. The album was very different from the music the band had experimented with before, and leaned towards a more commercial country music sound. However this did not go down well with Robin Macy, who felt they were betraying their signature sound. As a result she decided to leave the band and Lynch was left to take over the lead singer position.

The last album had not charted either, but it had garnered more attention than their first one, and helped them become marginally famous in the underground country music industry. They started to open for some established artists and were finally creating some buzz. As a result they decided to try their hand at recording another album, this time called “Shouldn’t a Told You That.” It was released in 1993, and once again proved to be a disappointment. Lynch had not been able to handle the pressure of being the band’s lead singer, and they started to assess their options.

Lloyd Maines had played guitar on this album, and he realized they needed a new singer. Soon enough the band was introduced to his daughter, and she was immediately brought on board, due to her amazing vocal ability. As Lynch left the group, recording companies swooped in and signed the Chicks to a contract, finally ushering in a new era, in their short but tumultuous history.

Post Maines

The addition of Maines was a turning point for the band. Before that they were considered an exclusively country music band, but after her introduction they decided to change their entire outlook. Their clothes became more neutral, as did their sound as they started to experiment with new genres including rock and roll, as well as pop. This made them more accessible to mainstream audiences and gave their popularity a huge boost, as evidenced by the release of their fourth album, “Wide Open Spaces” in 1998.

The album made it all the way to the top of the US Country music charts and to number four on the Billboard music charts. It also topped the Canadian country music charts and also made it to the top forty in both Australia and the UK. In the US it was certified twelve times platinum, along with a certification of four times platinum in Canada and two times platinum in Australia. In total it sold over twelve million copies around the world and put the group on the map almost overnight.

The amazing success of their previous album had buoyed the band, and they came out with its follow-up only a year later. Called “Fly,” it topped the Billboard charts, and made it to the top twenty in Australia and Canada. It was also certified diamond in the US, three times platinum in Canada and platinum in Australia.

After that, they released two more albums, 2002’s “Home” and 2006’s “Taking the Long Way.” Both reaffirmed their status as the queens of country music, as they once again managed to make it all the way to the top of the Billboard charts, and both albums also enjoyed multiplatinum level sales in the US, Australia and Canada.

The Future

The Dixie Chicks have not made new material since their last album release back in 2006. However, they have been performing at regular intervals and even went out on a few concert tours along the way. They are now busy getting ready to get back to North American stages, after their last major “Long Time Gone Tour” back in 2014.

This new concert tour is called the “DCX MMXVI World Tour” and it is scheduled last over seven months. It started in April and will be culminating in October. It began its journey in Europe, where it moved between nine different countries, before travelling back to the US and Canada. The European leg of the tour featured thirteen concerts, while just over fifty are set to take place on their North American leg of the tour.

The North American leg of the tour will start in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 1, 2016, where the get in price, according to our site , is  expected to be $30, while the maximum price is hovering around the $999 mark. The concert with the lowest get in price is set to be played in Chula Vista on July 15, 2016 with get in price at $8, while the maximum price is at $1100 right now.

As per our resources, the highest get in price throughout the tour is at $167, for the August 28, 2016 show in Saint Paul, where the maximum price will be $709. The tour will finally come to an end on October 10, 2016 in Los Angeles, where the get in price is at $53 and the maximum price is hovering around the $3000 point.

The winners of thirteen Grammy Awards will now make their way to you soon. This is a group that has changed the dynamics of country music forever. If you don’t want to miss out, then do not let this once in a lifetime opportunity pass and get your Dixie Chicks tickets as soon as you can.