Dixie Chicks History
The Dixie Chicks Founding Members: Robin, Emily, Laura, Martie
The Dixie Chicks began their road to musical success in
the summer of 1989 when 16 year old Emily and her 19 year
old sister, Martie, joined Robin Lynn Macy and Laura Lynch and played for
tips on a Dallas street corner. Martie had just returned
from her freshman year in college, and instead of getting
summer jobs, she and Emily decided to head down to the West
End in Dallas and open up their guitar cases. Upon their
surprise, they made about $375 in an hour! Soon after, a
barbeque place down the street offered the girls free
barbeque if they played 3 one-hour sets a night. They were
making a name for themselves around Texas, but they were
yet without a name. On their way to a show one day, the
Little Feat song "Dixie Chicken" came on the radio, and the
Dixie Chicks were born! They heavily toured the country playing everything from funerals and supermarkets to state fairs and political gatherings. They released three independent albums "Thank Heavens for Dale Evans"(1990), "Little Ol Cowgirl" (1992), and "Shouldn't a Told You That"(1993) before losing Robin after the second release and Laura after the third.
After losing two members, Emily and Martie were left
without a lead singer. Lloyd Maines, who played on the
Chicks earlier albums, had given the sisters a copy of
his daughter Natalie's audition tape for the Berklee School of Music. She sang an original Chick tune "You
Were Mine". Well, the story goes that each sister had a
copy of Natalie's demo in their cars. When it was decided
that they needed a lead singer, both of the girls said
Natalie's name.
Natalie was a student at Texas Tech in 1995 when she got the call from Martie. Even though she had an Economics test the
next day, she dropped out of school and joined the Chicks! And the rest, they say, is history.
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