Atlanta, Georgia 2000

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Dixie Chicks show why they're red hot

By Miriam Longo, The Atlanta Constitution

It may be a first for Philips Arena: a sold-out crowd, a standing ovation and a dobro.

Nashville's hottest act, the Dixie Chicks, brought some down-home attitude, a chart-full of hit tunes and superb musicianship to Atlanta on Sunday night for an evening that showed why these three women from Texas deserve to be put alongside Hank Williams and Patsy Cline when it comes to unforgettable country music.

Dressed in black leather and red sequins, the Chicks had the look and staging of top pop acts: a set that opened with the drop of a huge curtain painted with a blue-jean zipper (created by a Cirque du Soleil designer), an opening tune from a hit movie ("Ready to Run"), three video screens flashing childhood photos of the Chicks, and even a hovering balloon of a black fly that brushed over the heads of fans like a renegade from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. (Their latest album is titled "Fly" - get it?)

But the music was pure country, from Emily Robison's hill-country banjo and dobro, her sister Martie Seidel's blazing fiddle and sassy Natalie Maines' water-bucket vocals. It would have made both Rod Stewart and Roy Acuff proud.

Wearing her trademark blond locks in a long ponytail, Maines belted out tunes like a backwoods banshee, from the chirpy "There's Your Trouble" to the Kleenex-soaking "You Were Mine," on which the highly emotional crowd sing-along was nearly as powerful as her pipes. The lead vocalist's unbridled stage thrashing wasn't nearly as over-the-top as when the group opened for Tim McGraw at Lake-wood Amphitheatre last year, BLJ The Dixie Chicks Sunday night at Philips Arena perhaps because Maines announced just last week that she's pregnant. But her voice is still powerful enough to nearly knock down the letters of the CNN sign.

Surprisingly strong were sisters Seidel and Robison, who have come alive with confidence since their days as second fiddles to Maines. With no fill-ins from the six-piece backup band, they played their acoustic bluegrass instruments with not only proficiency but a cocky flair.

The Dixie Chicks have done what few in today's Nashville have figured out how to do. They have taken the essential heart and soul of country music -- traditional instruments and lyrics about the pain and joy of everyday life -- and blended them with contemporary fashion, attitude and point of view. As a result, you have three polished and stylized women who entertain like rock stars while singing songs that conjure up both emotion and nostalgia.

The encore, predictably, was "Goodbye Earl," a sardonic tale of knocking off a no-good spouse abuser with a bowl of poisoned black-eyed peas. (Of course, the reference to Atlanta produced high-volume screams.)

But the highlight of the show was "Cowboy Take Me Away." As the three women poured their voices and instruments into a sweetly innocent love song about being young and in love, the set dissolved into a black curtain of stars with a bright, full moon rising in the background.

With talent like this, the world is truly at their feet.

    Please take note of this before emailing me. I have no affiliation with The Chicks and/or their website, Court Yard Hounds and/or their website, Natalie Maines Music and/or her website, their management, publicists, record label or anyone else they may come in contact with on a regular basis. This is just a fan owned site. I do not have an email address for them. Your message cannot be passed on to them.
 
 
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