The Dixie Chicks

Latest Articles

Steve Martin to give Portland the Bird

Steep and deep
Things that are important to understand going into Steve Martin's bluegrass performance, backed by the Steep Canyon Rangers, at Merrill Auditorium: 1) The music is dead serious. 2) So is the comedy.
By SAM PFEIFLE | May 12, 2011

The Big Hurt: Shill crazy

The week in corporate sponsorships
You know, I might stop following real music journalism altogether. Press releases are so much better. Just when I start thinking it’s a slow week in silly pop news, I check the PR wire — a/k/a the bottom of the barrel — and dig up two of the greatest items I’ve ever seen .
By DAVID THORPE | May 21, 2010

Study shows country music is still just awful

Who charted?
You know what I haven't done in a while, for plenty of very good reasons? Listened to the whole cotton-pickin' Billboard Hot Country chart! Yee-haw!
By DAVID THORPE | February 10, 2009

Please release me

The Big Hurt: The week in awful press releases
If you were looking for important, well-reported, or even marginally interesting music news, you probably wouldn’t be reading my column.
By DAVID THORPE | June 24, 2008

Dan Wilson

Free Life | American/Sony
It’s as if he were trying to impress mom while keeping the kids at bay.
By KEN MICALLEF | November 19, 2007

Meanest of times

Politics and other mistakes
The field looks as if it’s been hit by a terrible disaster.
By AL DIAMON | November 07, 2007

Chairmen of the boards

Our critics pick the 14 producers with the fattest, meanest beats
Not unlike Swedish, Tagalog, and Esperanto, music is a language, with its own conjugations and (lewdly) dangling participles.
By PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | October 18, 2007

“Savannah” would be better

Joe Farren would just get in trouble in Atlanta
Why does the six-minute-plus final track, “Go On,” full of nothing but guitar, vocals, and a little harmonica, seem like our first introduction to the real Joe Farren?
By SAM PFEIFLE | August 29, 2007

Monkey business

Champ versus chump in The King of Kong
Florida lawyer/video game scapegoater Jack Thompson has it all wrong.
By BRETT MICHEL | August 22, 2007

At home with home

Sara Cox arrives at domesticity with Crowded Is the New Lonely
Women may dominate the pop charts from time to time, but in the annals of acknowledged rock/pop greatness, they are few in number.
By SAM PFEIFLE | May 30, 2007

Straight talk

Patty Griffin modestly hits a new peak
You can call Patty Griffin a singer-songwriter if you must, but don’t expect her to tell you exactly what that means.
By TAMARA WIEDER | April 17, 2007

Slide into extinction

Politics and other mistakes
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is proposing the designation of a new endangered species.
By AL DIAMON | March 28, 2007

Mary Chapin Carpenter

The Calling | Zoë/Rounder
She’s still seeking a truce between the inner and outer forces that pull and tug.
By JEFF TAMARKIN | March 06, 2007

Shut Up and Sing

Proves freedom of speech is alive
“Who are the Dixie Chicks, anyway? They should shut the fuck up.” Watch the trailer for Shut Up & Sing (QuickTime)
By BRETT MICHEL | November 15, 2006

Pedro, Borat, and a castrato

The 31st Toronto International Film Festival
As usual, dedicated film critics were too occupied seeing four or five movies a day to note the swarm of A-list celebrities at the 31st Toronto International Film Festival.
By GERALD PEARY | September 20, 2006

On the racks: August 29, 2006

Tego Calderon, Bob Dylan, Ray LaMontagne . . .
. . . plus Method Man, Motorhead, and Pete Yorn
By MATT ASHARE | August 30, 2006

Gritty in Pink

Pink at Avalon, July 18, 2006
Why does she inspire in me the occasional death wish? Slideshow: Pink at Avalon
By IAN SANDS | July 20, 2006

Rebel Belles

The Dixie Chicks hold their ground and then some
No other performer has been as vilified as the Dixie Chicks were for speaking out — and they wouldn’t have been if they hadn’t made their name in the conservative space of mainstream country music.
By CHARLES TAYLOR | June 06, 2006

Going on sale: June 2, 2006

Breaking news from the concert-ticket trade
String Cheese Incident, Dixie Chicks, Daniel Powter, the Pretenders, and a Mariah Carey/Sean Paul double-dip
By WILL SPITZ | May 31, 2006

On the Racks: May 23, 2006

Def Leppard, Dixie Chicks, Damone
Plus new releases by Osaka Popstar, PJ Harvey, and the American Idol kids.
By MATT ASHARE | May 23, 2006

Toby Keith

White Trash With Money | Show Dog Nashville
Let’s click off the arguments against country superstar Toby Keith.
By WERNER TRIESCHMAN | May 08, 2006

Ridin’ roundup

The search for a country music scene
When I’m looking for a true story, with a toe-tapping score, a plot, characters, conflict, and — sometimes — resolution, all set to music, I’m looking for one thing: country.
By JEFF INGLIS | January 28, 2010

Digging deeper

Yellowcard’s Lights and Sounds profits from pain
Last year should have been a very good one for Yellowcard — five guys in their mid 20s who had seen their under-the-radar, Los Angeles–based indie pop-punk band evolve into a multi-platinum major-label behemoth in less than two years.
By MICHAEL ALAN GOLDBERG | January 27, 2006