The Dixie Chicks started out with sisters Martie (born Oct. 12, 1969) and Emily Erwin (born Aug. 16, 1972), who grew up attending bluegrass festivals and busking for spare change on Dallas street corners in 1989. With two additional women in the group, they were best known in Texas for drawing in country fans with their Western music and their colorful cowgirl outfits, and sold thousands of independently released albums. Ready for a stylistic change, they asked their lead singer to leave (the other member had already dropped out) and invited Natalie Maines (born Oct. 14, 1974) to front the band.
Their major label debut, 1997's Wide Open Spaces, went on to sell 12 million copies, without the benefit of a crossover hit. Traditionalists appreciated Martie's fiddling and Emily's skill on Dobro, banjo and guitar, and young women loved the women's feisty attitude. In 1998, they won the CMA's Horizon award (for new artists) and vocal group. In 1999, the title track was awarded single and video of the year after spending four weeks at No. 1, and they captured their second vocal group award. With Top 10 hits like "I Can Love You Better," "There's Your Trouble" and "You Were Mine," they toured with the all-female Lilith Fair, one of the few country acts to do so. That year, Maines and Martie divorced their husbands, and Emily married the popular Texas country singer Charlie Robison and took his name.
The Chicks' second ...
