Product Description

With Taking The Long Way, one of the most anticipated albums in recent years, the Dixie Chicks are putting themselves out there like never before. For the first time, every one of the disc's fourteen songs are co-written by the Chicks themselves, exploring themes both deeply private and resoundingly political. Collaborating with legendary producer Rick Rubin (who has worked with everyone from Johnny Cash to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, from Run DMC to Neil Diamond), the biggest-selling female band in history has truly pushed themselves to new heights both as writers and as performers.

"Everything felt more personal this time," says Maines. "I go back to songs we've done in the past and there's just more maturity, depth, intelligence on these. They just feel more grown-up." Inspired by such classic rock artists as the Eagles, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and the Mamas and the Papas, Taking The Long Way adds a sweeping, Southern California vibe to the Chicks' down-home intimacy. That ambition is matched with lyrics addressing everything from small-town narrow-mindedness ("Lubbock or Leave It") to the psychology of celebrity ("Everybody Knows"). "This album was about finding a balance in the different aspects of our lives," says Emily Robison, "but there's something thematic there, too--it's really about being bold."

Dixie Pics

Dixie Discs

Home	Wide Open Spaces	Fly
Top of the World Tour (Live CD)	Top of the World Tour (DVD)	An Evening with the Dixie Chicks (DVD)

Track Listing

1. The Long Way Around
2. Easy Silence
3. Not Ready To Make Nice
4. Everybody Knows
5. Bitter End
6. Lullaby
7. Lubbock Or Leave It
8. Silent House
9. Favorite Year
10. Voice Inside My Head
11. I Like It
12. Baby Hold On
13. So Hard
14. I Hope

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #683 in Music
• Released on: 2006-05-23
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Nothing changes folks like babies and war, and since the release of their last album, 2002's Home, the Dixie Chicks have been forever altered by both. If that album showcased the trio as precocious young adults, Taking the Long Way finds them sobered and matured, and in a grown-up state of mind. Produced by the celebrated Rick Rubin (Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers), who saw the Chicks as "a great rock act making a country album, not a country act making a rock album," their new record impresses both as beautiful sonic tapestry (peppered with myriad Beatlesque hallmarks) and forthright yet vulnerable portrait of three women shaken by the personal and political events of the past few years. As they make clear in the defiant "Not Ready to Make Nice," they still smart over the backlash from their 2003 Bushwhacking. But as they assert on the equally autobiographical "The Long Way Around," they could never "kiss all the asses that they told me to" and just follow others aimlessly--and silently--through life. This means that the Chicks are simultaneously prideful and scornful of celebrity ("Everybody Knows"), and that as new mothers they increasingly treasure the refuge they find in life with their families, out of the spotlight ("Easy Silence," "Lullaby," "Baby Hold On"). The push and pull of both passions drive this record, which also touches on the personal issues of infertility (with which sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison both dealt) and Alzheimer's (from which Natalie Maines's grandmother suffers). The trio crafted all 14 cuts with the help of such writers as Sheryl Crow, Gary Louris, Mike Campbell, and Keb' Mo', laying out their lives as honestly and intimately as they might in their diaries. For that reason, on first listen, Taking the Long Way seems too somber--in need of a bit of levity and more than a couple of uptempo songs (like the sexy, '60s-flavored "I Like It") to resonate for the long haul. It also seems to lack the writing quality that Darrell Scott, Patty Griffin, and Bruce Robison brought to Home. But on repeated plays, those concerns dissipate. By the last cut, the R&B/gospel offering "I Hope," the Chicks have chronicled their journey with as much spirituality as spunk, their pain deeply ingrained in their protests. --Alanna Nash

Customer Reviews

NEW DIRECTION
A brilliant album which takes the Dixie Chicks in a slightly new direction musically, appealing not just to Country fans but across the whole spectrum.
All the fans will have a copy already but for anybody new to the band I would just say don't hesitate-this is sensational!
"Not Ready To Make Nice", especially if you know the history,must be one of the most powerful and evocative anthems of the last 30 years, up there with the likes of "Bat Out Of Hell" and "Total Eclipse Of The Heart".
This album marks the Chicks' first serious attempt at songwriting. If they can maintain the standard of "Not Ready..." it would put them on the level of the legendary Jim Steinman.
HOT TIP- buy the double album. Disc 2 is a DVD containing 5 tracks from the AOL studio sessions where the girls are backed only by what seems to be the accoustic section of the band; also a sensational music video of "Not Ready...." and an in-depth discussion between the Chicks and producer Rick Rubin on how he took them in a new direction musically in the making of the album.
This has been well-worth waiting for!

our brother's interview (below)
uh, yep. our brotheer (bonehead is his name)kinda knows how ta write. so, we let him doo da prvius reeview.

Fantastic, very personal music
I'm not a big fan of country music, so I was skeptical when my friend gave me this CD for my birthday. That being said, it has not come out of my cd player since. Several of the songs on the album are very personal, and resonate very strongly for me on a deeply emotional level. "I'm not ready to make nice" makes me cry almost every time I listen to it. It describes my feelings about a current life situation very clearly, and conveys how angry I feel about what has happened both now and in the past. "Lubbock or Leave it" could have been my own life story with a few details changed. "Lullaby" is a beautifully lyrical love song that touches my heart. "Favorite Year" is a nostalgia driven song that makes me want to be in the arms of the one I love. "Silent House" is so sad, it breaks my heart to listen to it. I highly recommend this disc to anyone who likes music that means something.