AMERICANA

Still in the trenches Natalie Maines Mother is a soulful mix somewhere between pop and rock with small bits of country and blues. By Tom Geddie THE FIRST TIME I EVER SAW NATALIE TMaines perform, it wasn’t even one of her own Tshows. But I remember it well. It’s actually the last time, too. inside. I call the album, Mother, So far. Her dad, the fine musi- a solo album because it’s not a cian and gentleman Lloyd Dixie Chicks album. Natalie co- Maines, once invited me to a produced with Ben Harper, who Dixie Chicks show in a big arena is both popular and critically but I turned him — I hope gra- acclaimed, he of two Grammies ciously — by letting him know whose music is a mix of blues, that I’d rather sit at home and folk, soul, reggae, and rock. Sev- listen to my Chicks albums than eral people had a hand in the drive to a big arena and sit amidst album’s making, including shrill, screaming fans. The mu- Lloyd, who helped engineer the sic, not the screaming, is always finished product. the attraction for me. That’s what makes the first Mother time special.It was on a Sunday MOTHER IS A FINE ALBUM, A afternoon. Full daylight outside. soulful mix somewhere between Dark inside the rundown little pop and rock with small bits of blues bar in Fort Worth, where country and blues. It’s moody, 40 or 50 people gathered to hear introspective, and thoughtful, an eclectic folk performance by and only occasionally on the Terri Hendrix and Lloyd. Natalie, verge of being overproduced. It who was already a star by then, debuted at No. 17 on Billboard’s slipped quietly into the room to top 200. hear her dad. Ten songs. Mostly covers/in- Near the end of the show, he terpretations. asked her to come up and do a My five favorites among these song. The stage was rather high, are: and she crawled up onto it in the 1. The title song, “Mother,” most ladylike way possible, written by Roger Waters, an ex- which wasn’t very. Because Lloyd cellent, intriguing, and somewhat was sitting in a chair, Natalie disturbing examination of the remained on her knees to be fears and hopes of motherhood level with him. From that un- in an Oedipal complex sort of comfortable position, she belted way, bringing a mix of dread and some traditional blues song that love to the vocals that, in combi- they both knew. Really nailed it. nation, were not part of the origi- She and Lloyd and Terri did a nal. couple of songs together, as I 2. Dan Wilson’s “Free Life.” remember. And the afternoon 3. Jeff Buckley’s “Lover, You fizzled out with a short improv Should’ve Come Over,” about face-off between Natalie and someone watching a funeral in Terri. (Terri did a lot of that in the rain, and thinking she’s “too the early days of her career, and young to hold on, and too old to did it well. Once at the old Poor just break free and run.” That’s David’s Pub on Greenville Av- an inadequate description of a enue, she ended a show with an masterful performance of a song improv about going across the that’s been called “un-coverable.” As lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, she won 13 Grammy awards: Natalie Maines street to the taco place because 4. Harper’s “Trained,” mostly she was hungry.) for its powerful, rocking sound keep up. She did write or co- plorably, death threats. For ex- about that album. “There’s just Berklee School of Music. Between I don’t recall which blues song rather than the somewhat pedes- write a number of the Dixie pressing an opinion that many more maturity, depth, intelli- 1998 and 2007, with Natalie as Natalie sang in the Fort Worth trian lyrics. Chicks’ songs. other people shared, too. gence. (These songs) feel more lead singer, the Chicks won 13 bar. But the performance itself 5. “Take It On Faith,” by Now, here’s the quick, awk- One of the best-ever modern grown-up.” Grammy awards. sticks with me. Natalie, Harper, Jason Mozersky, ward segue into the story that country groups was eventually (A prominent novelist, whose With a string of hits includ- That was perhaps 16 years and Jesse Ingalls, where she sings, won’t go away, no matter how exiled from the mainstream just name I won’t use because what ing “Wide Open Spaces,” “Cow- ago. Time passes, and we all tend “take it on faith that I’ll be there right Natalie – and her Chicks as its members were marrying he said was part of a private boy Take Me Away,” “Long Time to find ourselves in different when the pain comes, and I will mates backing her up–– was and and making families and begin- conversation, told me the next Gone,” and others, the Dixie places. take it on faith that you will try, is. Onstage during a concert in ning to raise children. year that he wished the Dixie Chicks remain the bestselling all- I’m here in, of all places, the try not to run away when it’s London in 2003 during the Natalie wrote or co-wrote 14 Chicks’ version of Bruce female group in country music, a conservative stronghold of East hard.” Chicks’ Top of the World Tour, on songs on the band’s 2006 album, Robison’s “Traveling Soldier,” feat Natalie compared to “win- Texas. Not that everybody here, the eve of the Iraq invasion, the Taking the Long Way, the defiant honoring the troops on their ning the lottery 10 years in a by any means, is conservative, Dixie Chicks Lubbock-raised Natalie said, as follow-up album to all the fool- Home album, would become a – row.” but this is a region that continues NATALIE IS UNDOUBTEDLY an introduction to the song ish stink which, uh, somehow, not the–– national anthem.) While Mother may not reach to elect Louie Gohmert to the a fine singer and, by the choices “Traveling Soldier,” which is brings to mind the right’s pos- Enough about that. the heights of winning the lot- House of Representatives in of these songs, a sensitive soul. sympathetic to soldiers, that she turing on today’s “scandals.” That Maines’ qualifications as an tery, it’s a more-than-welcome Washington DC. That most of the songs are covers was “ashamed the president of album reached the top of artist are impeccable. arrival in the mailbox. And I still Natalie’s new “solo” album is only a little bit surprising as I the United States is from Texas.” Billboard’s top 200 chart and “Not Born on Oct. 14, 1974, into like small, intimate venues and came in the mail, literally in a recall the improv face-off with It hit the fan, leading to country Ready to Make Nice” won a Texas music royalty to Lloyd and songs that mean something. I’m brown paper bag. Although it Terri, when Natalie basically gave music radio stations boycotting Grammy for song of the year. Tina Maines, she joined the Dixie glad I have Mother, and the was one of those bubble mailers up a few minutes in because she, the Chicks’ music, endless free- “Everything felt more per- Chicks in 1995, when she was memory of Natalie with her dad to protect, not hide, what was at least that afternoon, couldn’t speech debates, and, most de- sonal this time,” Natalie said 21 after a stint at the esteemed in that little blues bar. ■ 10 BUDDY DECEMBER 2013