Taking the Long Way is the new album from the Dixie Chicks. The first single from the album was released in March 2006, and is entitled "Not Ready To Make Nice". Also included is "I Hope", co-written with Keb' Mo' for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and first performed on the Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast telethon in 2005, featuring a blistering guitar solo from John Mayer.
TAKING THE LONG WAY, their long-awaited fourth studio album, sees the Dixie Chicks putting themselves out there like never before. For the first time, every one of the album's 14 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 Neil Diamond), the trio has pushed themselves to new heights, both as writers and as performers.
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").
Not just "big for a country band" or "big for a big female band," the Dixie Chicks are a multi-platinum selling act in North America, Europe and Australia. They are one of a mere handful of acts with multiple albums achieving "diamond" status (meaning sales over 10 million copies) - both WIDE OPEN SPACES (1998) and FLY (1999) hit that stratospheric landmark - and have won seven Grammy awards.
Their on-stage reputation helped them sell over $100 million worth of concert tickets, and outspoken songs like "Goodbye, Earl" made it clear that this power trio played by nobody's rules. And that was all before Natalie Maines's comments about a fellow Texan, President George W. Bush, during a London appearance in March, 2003 really put the Dixie Chicks in the headlines.
The resultant uproar - complete with boycotts and death threats - is the focus of TAKING THE LONG WAY's defiant first single, "Not Ready to Make Nice." And, after joining the historic "Vote for Change" tour in anticipation of the 2004 Presidential election, when it came time to return to the recording studio, the Chicks knew that they wanted a new direction.
Rubin assembled a band including Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, session hero Larry Knechtel, and Heartbreakers Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell, and matched the Chicks with co-writers including Dan Wilson (who wound up collaborating on six of TAKING THE LONG WAY's songs), Pete Yorn, and Gary Louris of the Jayhawks.
Of course, political brouhahas weren't the only things happening in the Dixie Chicks world during the last few years. The number of children the trio are mother to has grown from two to seven since the release of HOME, and their domestic life informs such songs as "Baby Hold On" and the delicate "Lullaby," which they call "a gift to our kids."
Superstars, renegades, innovators, heroes, villains, and moms - over almost a decade, the Dixie Chicks have grown from a band into a phenomenon. With TAKING THE LONG WAY, the Dixie Chicks surpasses the pressures and expectations history has placed upon them.