Dixie Chicks - Home

The Dixie Chicks aren't old enough to remember when radio programmed pop records next to country, rock, folk, and beyond, but their Texas DNA tells them that's the way music was meant to be heard. On Home, which they coproduced in Austin with Lloyd Maines, the father of lead singer Natalie Maines, they strip off the star-making gloss of Nashville and get down to the meat of the matter, turning out an acoustic record that gives a big Texas howdy to bluegrass. But that's only the framework they use to salute all their influences, from the raggedy rock of Little Feat (on Darrell Scott's irresistible "Long Time Gone") to the pained ballads of Stevie Nicks (covering her melancholy "Landslide") to the confessional Texas singer-songwriters who straddle the country-folk line (Patty Griffin, Bruce Robison). Maines's raw, irrepressible soprano remains a thing of wonder, as do the threesome's exquisite harmonies, which seem tighter and more organic than ever before. Still, the jaw-dropping thrills come from the passionate and masterful picking of Emily Robison on banjo, bluegrass guitarist Bryan Sutton, and Adam Steffey, whose fluid mandolin does Bill Monroe proud. Home, the Chicks' first release on their own record label, puts the front porch back into mainstream music, whatever the genre. And not a minute too soon. --Alanna Nash Amazon.com

lovely set of tunes by angelic voices

I love having this in the car. Every song is great to sing or hum along with and the talented girls score with the energy shifts and souring talent. I am pleased to have another of their offerings in my collection. Wise and thoughtful, sweet and simple, it's ALL good August 2, 2008

BORING

THIS RECORD HAS 3 GREAT SONGS, BUT THATS IT. HOWEVER, I LOVE THEM AND I LOVE NATALIE FOR ALL HER WORK FOR THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE August 1, 2008

Good American Album

To the roots of the matter I would say and very good too. I never thought I would be saying this about a Dixie Chicks album but I liked this one. It's the real thing. It's what America is all about. It touched my heart I would have to say. March 26, 2005

Brilliant bluegrass takes Chicks back home

Home is a good title for this album, as it finds the Dixie Chicks making the most of their bluegrass roots. This outstanding album begins with Long time gone, a great song about family memories. Next comes an incredible cover of Landslide, a song written by Stevie Nicks, best remembered as a member of Fleetwood Mac. Travelin' soldier is a sad song about a woman receiving letters from a soldier who gets killed in Vietnam. Those three songs set the standard for the album but there are many other fine songs here including the title track (a reflective ballad), More love (another excellent ballad) and Top of the world (not a cover of the Carpenters' classic - this is a Patty Griffin song). The other songs are also excellent.

While their two previous commercial releases, Wide open spaces and Fly, had clear bluegrass influences, those albums had a very obvious contemporary edge that is missing from this album. The return to a more traditional acoustic sound will appeal to some while alienating others, as other reviews show. As one who first discovered this group via one of their independent albums (Little ol' cowgirl), I love this album although it is still very different from that early album.

Bluegrass fans will love this but many other people will enjoy it too. January 13, 2005

The "Home" of the brave, the sound of the free

[...] "Home" is a glossier effort than "Fly" or "Wide Open Spaces," yet at the same time, probably their most earthy. Only a very few artists have been able to walk this kind of fine line, and they would number the kind of musicians and songwriters that appear on "Home" with the Dixie Chicks or as artists in their own right. I'm thinking of people like Marty Stuart, Patty Griffin, Rodney Crowell, Rosanne Cash, Ricky Scaggs or Emmylou Harris. That's the kind of vibe that "Home" gives off.

The Dixie Chicks understand that there's a small amount of space between Fleetwood Mac and "Travelin' Soldier." By not allowing the factory mentality of most Nashville recordings to interfere with the music (we won't mention the slickslop of a certain "Angry American") and carting their production/recording off to Austin Texas, "Home" neatly avoids sounding like the typical inbred clone of what Music City churns out on a weekly basis. The Dixie Chicks use instruments here that don't require amplifiers and they give the songs room to breathe, even more so when they allow the voices to just take over. No amount of studio trickery can mask the vocal talent that opens "White Trash Wedding," or that Natalie Maines has become a woman of incredible emotional range, as the CD's final two selections "Godspeed" and "Top of the World" prove. This is the kind of music represents my country to me. I just can't recommend the Dixie Chicks enough. They are the sound of the free.

Four and a half stars. March 25, 2004

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