Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

The Dixie Chicks are pop’s ultimate crossover queens. The Texan group began in the 1990s as a bluegrass and country music outfit. But after singer Natalie Maines joined everything changed. Out went the cowgirl dresses and in came a more contemporary look and sound. By 2002, the Chicks, including sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, were sharing the stage with pop stars like Celine Dion, Cher, Shakira and Mary J. Blige in the VH1 Divas Show in Las Vegas. The crossover began with 1998’s Wide Open Spaces, which entered the pop and country charts in the top five and went diamond with sales of 10 million. The followup, Fly, repeated that achievement, making the Chicks the only female group t...

Lubbock, Texas is famous as the birthplace of Buddy Holly, the pioneering rocker who inspired The Beatles. It’s also the birthplace of the Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines, who sings about her hometown on “Lubbock or Leave It,” a roadhouse rocker from the group’s latest album that conjures up images of both Holly and an unwelcoming redneck town. “Dust bowl, Bible belt, got more churches than trees/Raise me, praise me, couldn’t save me, couldn’t keep me on my knees,” Maines warbles. “Oh boy, rave on down loop 289/That’ll be the day you see me back in this fool’s paradise.” Although the song was triggered by a documentary about a Lubbock teenage girl who tried, unsuccessfully, to have sex educatio...