Dixie Chicks Revisited: Wide Open Spaces

As the Dixie Chicks embark on their first U.S. tour in ten years, the Country Universe staff will look back at one of their classic albums every Thursday. This week, we kick off with their major label debut.

Released in 1998, Wide Open Spaces established the Dixie Chicks as superstars right out of the gate. It produced five top ten hits, including three #1 singles, and sold more than twelve million copies in the United States alone. It remains their biggest selling album to date. But is it among their best?

Leeann Ward’s Take:

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By 1998, country music had noticeably shifted from the neo-traditionalism of the early nineties to more pop  driven country. So, it is striking how unapologetically country Wide Open Spaces sounded in the time of crossovers. With steel guitar laden tracks aplenty,  along with Natalie Maines’ unique and powerhouse voice, the harmony driven  album from the innovative trio was an exhilarating blast of fresh air.

Wide Open Spaces had strong and successful single releases, such as the cheeky “I Can Love You Better” and “There’s Your Trouble,” along with the thoughtful  “You Were Mine” and the title track. However,  as it often is with the best albums, some of the best songs are unreleased gems, including compositions from respected songwriters like Radney Foster, J. D. Souther, Maria McKee and Bonnie Raitt.

Even though the Dixie Chicks had already existed in name for several years, their first album with Natalie Maines proved to be the boost that they needed to propel them to major label success  as well as a household name. If there ever was an album that showed so much potential and mastery all at once, it was Wide Open Spaces. The young trio masterfully mixed confidence with innocence,  which is palpable throughout the album. Since it’s impossible to hear this album outside of the context of their subsequent work, it’s hard not to note and even marvel  that such a strong debut was just the beginning and that the best from them was still yet to come.

Recommended Tracks: “Never Say Die,” “Let ‘Er Rip,” “I’ll Take Care of You,” “Am I the Only One (Who’s Ever Felt This Way)”

Jonathan Keefe’s Take:

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Last year, I had the pleasure of writing about Wide Open Spaces for the “Kicking the Canon” project for InReview Online. My full take on the album, which I absolutely believe merits inclusion in the contemporary popular music canon, is available here and my take on it hasn’t changed over the past fourteen months:
“The album ultimately accomplished the feat of announcing the Dixie Chicks as a trio of uncommonly talented musicians with a deep-seated appreciation and a real facility for the conventions of country music; a group whose affinity for strong, distinctive pop would never limit them to being mere traditionalists. Indeed, songs like “Wide Open Spaces” and “I’ll Take Care of You” nearly perfected both halves of “pop-country.” “Tonight the Heartache’s on Me” is undiluted honky-tonk and the cover of Bonnie Raitt’s “Give It Up or Let Me Go” sounds like contemporary Americana without the crushing self-seriousness. Of a piece it scans as country in meaningful ways, even though the individual tracks all impress for their diversity. What makes the album so effective as a singular, coherent declaration of intent are Seidel’s and Robison’s close vocal harmonies and instrumental know-how and Maines’ ballistics-grade voice… The Dixie Chicks would go on to refine this formula on their sophomore album, Fly, but Wide Open Spaces remains a genre classic on its own merits, even if the Chicks are still considered personae-non-gratae by some of country music’s gatekeepers.”

Recommended Tracks: “Am I The Only One (Who’s Ever Felt This Way),” “You Were Mine,” “Wide Open Spaces,” “Tonight the Heartache’s On Me”

Ben Foster’s Take:

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The Dixie Chicks’ major-label debut establishes their immediately-recognizable signature sound, introducing mainstream audiences to the formidable instrumental talents of the Erwin sisters and to harmonies anchored by Natalie Maines’ commanding lead vocals. The album demonstrates an already solid song sense, paying tribute to the group’s eclectic influences, while Martie and Emily’s composition “You Were Mine” previews the songwriting talent that would be fully showcased on future projects.

The album includes a couple of nods to radio – Top 10 singles “I Can Love You Better” and “There’s Your Trouble” are clearly meant to go down easy – while Blake Chancey and Paul Worley’s production carries a perceptible sheen of mainstream polish. Wide Open Spaces is an album that comes across as consistently competent and enjoyable on its own merits, while lacking the status quo-challenging impact that would characterize the group’s later work. The real feast was yet to come, but what a tasty appetizer.

Recommended Tracks: “Wide Open Spaces,” “You Were Mine,” “Am I the Only One (Who’s Ever Felt This Way)”

Sam Gazdziak’s Take:

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For a band that was essentially starting over with a new lead singer (Natalie Maines) and a completely new sound (contemporary country), Wide Open Spaces was an excellent starting point for the Dixie Chicks 2.0.

Even in an era that leaned much more toward traditional country than today’s version of country music, the Chicks stood out on radio with catchy, uptempo songs that were unapologetically filled with fiddle and steel guitar. Maines’ vocals were a far cry from the polished pop-country sounds of many other female vocalists, helping them stand out even further.

They were already showing their ability to choose songs from some of the best writers around — Kostas, Radney Foster, George Ducas, Tia Sillers and Maria McKee are among the ace songwriters on this album. Overall, it’s as close as the group ever got to being middle of the road. Wide Open Spaces doesn’t quite fall under the category of “Essential Country Music” like some of their later work, but it helped introduced the Dixie Chicks as a band that required your attention.

Kevin John Coyne’s Take:

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Country music gets really, really excited when a new act surfaces that flaunts their traditional leanings. Sometimes those new acts become legends, like Randy Travis. Other times, they fade away quietly, like Gretchen Wilson. (Chris Stapleton enthusiasts, take note.)

While the genre’s leading ladies were crossing over, the Dixie Chicks came on the scene waving the traditionalist flag, and were warmly embraced, with this set beating out Shania Twain’s Come On Over for Best Country Album at the Grammy Awards. I thought they were a bit overrated at that time, and  I personally didn’t warm up to them until Fly. So of the four albums we’ll be looking at, I was most interested in revisiting this one, and seeing if there was something I missed the first time around.

Turns out that I didn’t miss much! Over the years, I’ve listened to this album the least, but it’s still overly familiar because I knew so many of these songs before the Chicks recorded them. I’d heard these songs first by Radney Foster (“Never Say Die”), Joy Lynn White (“Tonight the Heartache’s on Me”) and even Olivia Newton-John (“Loving Arms.”) To their credit, I think that they do all three songs more effectively than the first versions I’d heard, and “Heartache” in particular is as good as their later work.

Wide Open Spaces is almost sterile in its professionalism, and the best moments are the ones where they break through the restraints of the milquetoast nineties production. “Wide Open Spaces” and “Let ‘Er Rip” even resemble the fearless feminists that would throw Earl in the trunk and go toe-to-toe with the President of the United States.  They also absolutely shred Maria McKee’s “Am I the Only One (Who’s Ever Felt This Way),” which is on par with their takes on Patty Griffin’s catalog.

Recommended Tracks: “Am I the Only One (Who Ever Felt This Way),” “Wide Open Spaces,” “Tonight the Heartache’s on Me”

 

 

11 Comments

  1. This was (and is) such a great album. I remember hearing its first single, “I Can Love You Better,” on a radio station out of Rockwall, Texas as I was visiting a good friend of mine in Caddo Mills (about 40 miles northeast of Dallas) in late ’97, and I was just floored by the traditional yet contemporary sound and the harmonies. I kept an eye on album release dates and managed to snag WOS on release day, January 27, 1998. And the entire album was just as good as that single. (Other favorites from it for me include “Loving Arms,” “There’s Your Trouble,” “Am I the Only One (Who’s Ever Felt This Way),” and “Give It Up Or Let Me Go.”) I was a keen chart watcher back then as well; if I remember right, WOS debuted at No. 17 on the Billboard country album chart and somewhere in the 130s on the Billboard 200. If you had told me that within a year, the Chicks would be one of the hottest acts (if not the hottest act) in country music, or that WOS would eventually sell in excess of 10 million copies, I’d have looked at you like you had just sprouted a third eye. I was really amazed and gratified to see them succeed on the level they did. I saw them live in Houston in April 1999 when they played the George Strait Country Music Festival at Rice Stadium, and they sounded just as good live as they did in the studio. Good stuff, Maynard.

  2. Interestingly, I’ve liked this album more as the years have passed than when it first came out. I remember one of my sisters particularly liking The Chicks and me not getting it. So, like Kevin, I didn’t really warm up to them until Fly.

  3. Great feature. Love the Chicks. Favorite songs on “Wide Open Spaces” are “Tonight the Heartache’s On Me”, the sassy “Let ‘er Rip” and “Wide Open Spaces”.

    I first saw them on a Country Thursday lunchtime concert at the WTC which was sponsored by former country radio station Y-107 and some corporate sponsors. The following is a typical schedule I found on line at http://www.panynj.gov/pr/92-98.html that came out on June 27, 1998:

    July 9 Hal Ketchum

    July 16 Gary Allan and Mark Wills

    July 23 Bryan White

    July 30 Dixie Chicks and Gil Grand

    August 6 Lari White

    August 13 Big House and David Kersh

    August 20 Steve Wariner and Suzy Bogguss

    August 27 Chely Wright and Jo Dee Messina

    I don’t recall if I had the album before seeing them. I thought they were good but I didn’t realize how great they are at the time. The next time I saw them was in December of 2006 at what is now the Bridgestone Arena.

  4. The funny thing about them is that, when I first heard the Chicks on the radio in the winter of 1997-98, they sounded to me like a fairly countrified version of the Spice Girls (sacrilegious to say, I know). But after a little while, they sounded really more original, with all three of them showing a great deal of substance. It’s sometimes a bit too easy to take for granted what a big deal they were, and the kinds of fans they bought to country music, something that I don’t think any other working group, male, female, or co-ed, has been able to do since.

  5. This wasn’t a bad album at all, although I still prefer the first two albums they did with Robin Macy as the lead singer. The Chix music didn’t sound especially like anything else that was being played on the radio at the time. It was more pop oriented than the music of the neo-traditionalists but still sufficiently identifiable as country music, unlike a lot of the schlock on country radio today

  6. @ Jason

    The project was put on hold while InRO relaunched and reorganized. Hopefully, it will be picking back up later this year! The full list of albums they were considering was impressive.

  7. I consider this their most consistent and cohesive effort other than Home. There isn’t a song I don’t like, and overall it’s their catchiest album. I’m surprised there hasn’t been more mention of the Bonnie Raitt cover.

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