Natalie Maines: Going solo with "Mother"
(CBS News) "Not Ready to Make Nice" was a defiant statement -- and a Grammy-winning hit -- for the Dixie Chicks back in 2006. And now, one Dixie Chick is raising her voice in song once again . . . as well as talking to our Lee Cowan:
Even if you're not into country music -- maybe the banjo picks at a raw nerve, or you've just never been a fan of the fiddle -- chances are you forgot all of that when you heard the Dixie Chicks play.
The all-girl trio, whose hits included "Wide Open Spaces," "Cowboy Take Me Away," and "Long Time Gone," offered a soundtrack for a generation, with just a little hint of twang.
They are the bestselling all-female group in the country -- book-ended by two sisters, Emily Erwin and Martie Maguire, and in the middle, lead singer Natalie Maines -- a mix of country, pop, and a whole lot of attitude.
"I like to say being in the Dixie Chicks was like winning the lottery 10 years in a row," Maines told Cowan. "I mean, we really were just on that high of, 'Oh my God, can you believe this is happening to us?'"
Of course, something ELSE happened to the Dixie Chicks that bumped them off the ride of their lives -- and into a world of trouble.
It was in London in 2003, when Natalie decided to speak out about the impending invasion of Iraq:
"Just so you know, we're on the good side with you all. We do not want this war. And we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas."
"Those words just changed everything for you, right?" asked Cowan.
"Yep," Maines replied.
They went from top of the charts to the basement in a matter of weeks.
While the Chicks did put out one more album after that, the 38-year-old Maines has spent most of her time at home in Los Angeles, tending her desert garden, and focusing on being a mom.
"Did you miss being out on tour?" Cowan asked.
"You know, people ask me that so much I feel like I should," she replied. "My answer's not the right answer but, you know, I just get fulfilled by so many things. I'm just not one to pine for what I'm not doing."
Fitting, perhaps, that her newest album -- out this past week -- is called "Mother."
It's a fiery mix of Pink Floyd and Eddie Vedder, along with some originals that she co-wrote with singer songwriter Ben Harper.
"In my opinion, Natalie knew where she wanted to take her music, and kind of just led the charge," Harper told Cowan.
And that charge is decidedly away from country music -- and this time she's going solo.
"To me, this album is the most natural music I've ever made," Maines said. "This is what I like, what I listen to, what I grew up singing songs like."
WEB EXTRA: To listen to streaming audio of Natalie Maines' album, "Mother," or to purchase, click on the links below.
"What does it mean for the Dixie Chicks? Does it mean that you guys are over?" Cowan asked.
"I don't know what we are," Maines said. "Well, we're not over, but I don't know if there's new music coming."
Truth is, she was never really a fan of country music. "No. It burned my ears!" she laughed.
You might think that would sting her father, a country music producer and performer himself.
But all her parents, Lloyd and Tina Maines, really cared about was that Natalie used that voice.
"Every little kid can sing, to a certain degree," Lloyd told Cowan. "But hers was different. Even when she was four or five years old, she could hear harmony parts."
She started singing at age two. By the time she was 16, Natalie was auditioning for a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music.
Needless to say, that voice got her that scholarship.
So where did that voice come from, Cowan asked. "It just came with her," Tina Maines replied. "It's a package."
By the time she joined the Dixie Chicks, she had honed her voice even more.
Their first album together featured a song that seemed tailor-made for the independent-minded Natalie: "Wide Open Spaces."
In 1997 it won the ACM Album of the Year Award.
"It was fast," Maines said of the acclaim. "Oh, my gosh, it was crazy. It was so much fun."
By the time they got to that concert in London in 2003, they had three hit albums behind them. They were on top of the world -- and then Natalie's off-the-cuff comment brought it all crashing down.
There were CD crushing parties, protests, boycotts. Country music turned its back on the Chicks.
"The whole thing was so ridiculous and it just really feels like a made-up thing," Maines said. "And it feels like it's happening to you."
Natalie apologized for being disrespectful, but she says, even that was hard to swallow.
"My natural personality and sense of it would have been to give everybody the middle finger and walk away," she laughed.
Three years later, she got her chance to make that gesture -- musically, anyway -- with a defiant song that said it all: "Not Ready to Make Nice."
"I'm not ready to make nice
I'm not ready to back down
I'm still mad as hell and
I don't have time to go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
'Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is you think I should."
That year the Dixie Chicks won every Grammy category in which they were nominated, including Country Album of the Year for "Taking The Long Way." But vindication was bittersweet.
"When I went backstage after that, I don't know, I just was crying uncontrollably and I didn't know why," Maines told Cowan. "And looking back, I mean, it kind of felt like an end to a chapter."
So now she's starting a new chapter.
She's not sure just who her new audience is going to be, but for Natalie Maines, only the music matters.
For more info:
- Nataliemainesmusic.com
- dixiechicks.com
- "Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing" (Official site); Available on iTunes