Issue #67: 25 Years of The Chicks' 'Fly'

A quarter century of a perfect album.

It’s well-established that we’re big Chicks fans over here at DRTI, so there was no chance we were missing an opportunity to celebrate one of the best albums of all time. This Saturday, August 31, marks the 25th anniversary of Fly — an album that no matter how many years pass, never seems to get old. It is a high-water mark not only for the Chicks, but for the genre, an example of what is possible for both country music and country radio (inconceivable, in retrospect). The magic that Natalie, Emily and Martie made on this album…well, you almost certainly know if you’re reading this newsletter, but we’re of the opinion you simply can’t talk about it enough. So we talked some more — read on for a little Chicks chat, and listen along with us if you like.

— Natalie

Natalie: It's crazy how this album is literally perfect from the very first notes...Already in my feelings lol.

Marissa: I know. I think it is one of my favorite album openers of all time. Just gets exactly into the pocket, right away.

Natalie: "Ready To Run" really channels like '90s Lilith vibes but also '90s country vibes?? At once?? Also timeless?

Marissa: You could do a whole essay alone on this song and domesticity 9:11 I know - it truly amazes me even now how they were getting played on country radio and existing in that space and also showing up at Lilith Fair in crop tops. Looking back it's like, how did they get away with any of that? Clearly Nashville was always gonna find a way to temper them. The whistle on this song....

Natalie: For sure - I think it's also so like...tail end of CD era. They could be album artists because there was money in that (even though their singles were also obviously huge) - and push more boundaries that way.

Marissa: They're amazing writers but also so good and smart about what tracks they cut - "If I Fall" an entirely female-written cut.

Natalie: Another 10/10 song. This is basically our Pitchfork 10.0 review for Fly.

Marissa: Could you even give this album any other score!!

Natalie: (They might lol.) As of now not reviewed by the Fork FWIW

Marissa: I think one thing that people don't talk about enough, because there is a lot of cultural stuff of course to talk about around the Chicks that some people find more interesting, is just what incredible musicians they are. Not just the playing itself, but the creativity, the harmonies.

Natalie: Every song is completely distinct, and soooo hooky. They really pushed on both pop and country fronts in a way that has not been exactly replicated since.

Marissa: People try! And never get the balance so right. Like on this song - the PERFECT “Cowboy Take Me Away,” anyone else would tamp the twang down on that chorus, I think. But not them.

Natalie: Excuse me while I get some tissue. RIP Charlie Robison. And yes, they didn't go rock and strings on the chorus but it fully builds and everyone will sing along.

Marissa: Right now, I feel like it's popular to use country instrumentation, but people just throw it maybe on the intro or bridge. But the Chicks made it the bedrock of their sound in such a natural way. But still had such solid pop melodies.

Natalie: Definitely - you can't read this song as anything but country, but anyone can grab onto the words and melodies. I think that is another Natalie Maines superpower — you can understand everything she's saying, but it's still a vocal showcase.

Marissa: Yes, she is such a precise and emotive singer.

Natalie: And that Lloyd Maines steel....sing to me Lloyd.

Marissa: Magic! It's amazing to look back and see how so many of these songs got airplay. “Cold Day In July” went to number 10? This is an album cut, and yet worked as a single.

Natalie: Unreal. 8 singles out of 13, 9 songs that charted…and this was simultaneous with Shania doing the same thing!! This is what we mean when we talk about '90s country...It's like the intro is so of a piece with Sheryl vibes, and then it immediately goes full tilt twang.

Marissa: It really was something. Meanwhile I just saw news of yet another woman, Tenille Townes, getting dropped from her label.

Natalie: Dang that is such a bummer...crafter of my personal fave "White Horse" song.

Marissa: It's incredible how well Lainey is doing, but there is no rush to keep and sign and support more women making country music because of it. The end of this song goes on way longer than it would be permitted now, too. Just keeps jammin’…

Natalie: Trying to figure out if there was a radio edit (again now irrelevant because streaming is king). There was, still 4:12 though — not short!

Marissa: Geez a 4+ minute radio cut? Wild. And here we are....at Earl. Fuckin’ cowpunk. It almost feels silly to talk about this song being controversial…

Natalie: Starting an album with five straight singles, five straight classics. I actually did a Billboard piece diving into all of it, it was really interesting. In some ways I think they leaned into it because there's no such thing as bad publicity; it was funny that it was sort of getting discussed as like "violence in music" — as in the similarly goofy conversation around rap at the time.

Marissa: Yeah I think so, they definitely understood how to ride the waves around them. Until it became a complete monsoon of course… The percussion on this song is over-the-top too, in a good way.

Natalie: Wood block? Right? Gotta be.

Marissa: Yeah sounds like wood block to me, though in my mind I see Will Ferrell playing the cowbell because it's that sort of energy. Which, bring it. And then this goes to straight honkytonk shit! This is a perfect album…I would like to hear Tyler Childers sing “Hello Mr. Heartache.”

Natalie: I'm like barely keeping it together lol.

Marissa: Natalie gets that lonesome sound on this song so well. Imagine hearing all the strings on this song and being like, "This band is too pop."

Natalie Weiner: I'm working on another piece that you'll all see soon about who gets to be Texas country (spoiler: almost exclusively men) and IDK how anyone could listen to this and not think it's the most Texas you can get...Locally I think there's an understanding that the pre-Natalie Chicks were "real" and post were "Nashville sellouts" which is such a dumb, ultimately sexist fallacy.

Marissa: Oh yeah. It was so interesting to talk to Maren and other Texas women about that for my book - like so many of them would have stayed if they could have existed in Texas fairly. Like Kacey tried to go to Austin before Nashville!

Natalie: It's so layered into, like, coding Texas as macho and Nashville as feminine too, all just like variations on a theme of keeping women out. And then of course Nashville is just as sexist. Truly can't win!

Marissa: Ha yeah completely. I remember talking to Maren about how women could only headline in Texas on "women's nights" and I don't think things have changed that much. And you grow up seeing The Chicks, and what happened to them — how do you not say, I am going to just make the music I want in my own way and fuck Nashville? I mean jesus christ the opening to "Sin Wagon"!

Natalie: You gotta really be willing to grind it out show by show forever à la Kelly Willis and Sunny Sweeney, and that is a fairly low ceiling, unfortunately,

Marissa: It really is.

Natalie: "Sin Wagon" is giving me actual goosebumps, still, after all these years.

Marissa: Same, and it’s another very stupid controversy… like "mattress dancing" is the most vanilla way to describe sex anyway and still!

Natalie: "Praise the lord and pass the ammunition" — Chicks sprinting so Miranda could have "Gunpowder and Lead" and Carrie could key the side of his souped up four wheel drive.

Marissa: God I know. This song is punk rock (because bluegrass is punk rock). And I know Miranda would def give them all their props if asked for that. Carrie...I dunno. Ha. "I don't talk about politics."

Natalie: Lollllllll

Marissa: The playing on this song is insane. Wonder what the radio edit was on this too…I guess it never was an official single.

Natalie: …And charted anyway. It's just out of this world. Punk rock, metal, all of it.

Marissa: And then after that perfect insanity, they cut to a love song.

Natalie: A no. 1 country song - hitting it straight down the middle and also out of the park. It's funny because you're like "Oh ok, this is a little more mellow/straightforward" and then another perfect chorus hits.

Marissa: Beautiful video, too. I think Taylor definitely learned a thing or two about the importance of a strong, building bridge from these three, and she would also 100% give credit where credit is due.

Natalie: I am a full on wreck lol. You need “Some Days You Gotta Dance” after that one…

Marissa: The sequencing on this album....it's a full ride. And same hahah. Just want to stop everything else I am doing and write a whole book. Here’s a Keith Urban appearance, too.

Natalie: On a pitch-perfect two-stepper. Play it at Billy Bob's, you cowards. Funny story last time I was at Billy Bob's (they always have a cover/dance band that plays before the main act) the band played Sam Hunt's "23." I was like I love it but i don't understand how people are dancing to this lol…

Marissa: LOL. Yeah can't quite get my head around that one…I need to listen to this song more…God the handclaps

Natalie: Speaking of punk rock…ty based Jim Lauderdale and Buddy Miller and Chicks of course.

Marissa: I wish I understood at time this came how punk rock the Chicks were. Another perfect song selection and another thing I thing Miranda studied so well — how important it is to look for collaborators/cuts outside of the Music Row machine. The whole end of this album is a masterwork in that - Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, Patty, Darrell…

Natalie: For sure, just no ego and music first. And Natalie Maines…goddamn. Basically giving us country early No Doubt…We want more Natalie, pretty please!

Marissa: One of the greatest lead singers of all time, I think. I get a little nervous knowing "Heartbreak Town" is coming. Like my body tenses up lol

Natalie: Lololll the emotional rollercoaster, they've got us on the edge of our seats

Marissa: This one kills me. And I love hearing Darrell singing it too on his version.

Natalie: And prescient, for them :(

Marissa: Truly. Perfect song, perfect performance. The way she sings "square people" like she fucking MEANS it…she turns "people" into a swear somehow.

Natalie: Like there is just no better illustration of how toxic the culture is than their experience on Music Row..they were on a rocket ship to the moon basically and then country radio happened. You can't reiterate it often enough, even though we all know.

Marissa: Oh 100%. Sometimes I feel like I bring them up too much and then I remember, that's impossible. It's the center of almost every story we're trying to tell. And then, another genius Patty cover, singing the blues 9:55 (I can't think of the Chicks and not “Truth No 2,” which I know came after this obvs). You hear what Maren took from this, wow.

Natalie: Again it's just like, all the production and performance choices are so spot on - you can't imagine it any other way. Obviously it's an incredibly polished performance but then it sounds so organic. Natalie doing it for Natalies everywhere!

Marissa: Hahahah yes! What a fucking album.

Natalie: It is just a nonstop assault of excellence, unreal hit rate. I want to know what the outtakes were, they must exist.

Marissa: They must.

Natalie: Quote from the Rolling Stone review: "Country bands who play their own licks and write their own best material are rare enough even before you consider the estrogen factor..." The estrogen factor. That's the zeitgeist that they were living in (and we were all living in of course but).

Marissa: Oh man. Gotta mention the ol’ estrogen factor in any proper ‘90s review…

Natalie: It's a positive review (though Rob Sheffield is calling "Goodbye Earl" a "clunker" which lol) but it's just so nuts how the fact that they're women is mentioned like every other sentence. I think it's worth digging up this stuff and getting mad about it because you gotta contextualize their fight...

Marissa: And in some ways, I don't think this has changed as much as it should have. That and seeing how much ill will was building up in Nashville around them BEFORE what happened in 2003.

Natalie: Any final thoughts before we let people revisit Fly at least a dozen times this holiday weekend? Just like, canon, all time country album - there is probably an argument for top 5 ever if you're into that sort of thing (i'm not).

Marissa: I am not a ranker in general, but I do think this ranks up there if I had to rank - especially in terms of how much music we listen to now and love wouldn't exist without it. It's an incredible album but it's also a road map and a door opener.

Natalie: Definitely...its range and its conviction and point of view....just set the bar, really.

Marissa: (Damnit now I want to stop what I'm doing more than ever and write a Chicks book)

Natalie: Do itttt that's what they would want. I just want them to come back to Texas and do a Lloyd Maines-produced album…and then play in Dallas so I can see.

Marissa: I will come there for that.