Dixie Chicks Biography

Dixie Chicks

The all-girl band from Dallas started out with a traditional country sound, but personnel changes and a more contemporary country sound earned them their biggest success. The original Dixie Chicks were fiddler Martie Seidel, her banjo-playing sister Emily Erwin Robison, bassist Laura Lynch, and guitarist Robin Lynn Macy. In 1990 the band released their indie-label debut, Thank Heavens for Dale Evans, and got a career boost when they performed at President Clinton's 1993 inauguration. But changes were on the way with Macy the first to exit, and in 1995, Lynch was replaced by Natalie Maines, daughter of steel-guitar legend Lloyd Maines. The new Chicks debuted a new look and a new sound with 1998's Wide Open Spaces, which became the biggest-selling debut album ever by a country group and also won them a Grammy. That year, the Country Music Association voted them Best Vocal Group and they were named Favorite New Country Artists at the American Music Awards. Fly, released in 1999, shot to No. 1 in the Billboard 2000 and won them a second Grammy award. There were wedding bells too in 1999, when Erwin married country singer Charlie Robison.

Martie Seidel

Emily Erwin Robison

Natalie Maines