Dixies Lose a Chick, Work on New Album

Sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire, two-thirds of the Dixie Chicks, are planning to release an album this year without lead singer Natalie Maines. Maines got in trouble with the more conservative parts of the band’s fanbase back in 2003 when she told the audience of a London concert she was ashamed that then-President George W. Bush was also from Texas. Angry fans called radio stations asking them to ban the trio’s songs from airplay.

According to Maines’ father, Lloyd, the three women are still very close though they are not currently working together professionally. He said the entire band spent time at his home over the holidays and that the trio is still an entity. “I know that the girls seem really happy being out of the public eye,” he said in a statement. “They hit it so hard for so many years. The dynamics have changed so much now, because they’ve all got kids that are in school. The happy-go-lucky, just-take-off-and-go situation has definitely changed.”

Robison and Maguire’s album will be released via Columbia Records, but nothing else about the project has been revealed yet. The Dixie Chicks’ last record, Taking the Long Way, was released in 2006.

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