Rolling Country 2023

Observes that the "We're ashamed to be from Texas" blasphemy would not have happened if she were still the sole lead singer during Iraq War, because she and Bush were mutual admirers (and he used to catch Chicks shows), But since she evidently got dumped for not having Natalie's charisma, I suspect that they would not have been such huge, mega-Diamond-selling targets with Laura---more likely ignored by most of the media, as some other lower-profile dissenting country artists were.

such huge, mega-Diamond-selling targets with Laura-

I didn’t know the Chicks had that whole backstory, that’s interesting.

I thought had read somewhere that Laura had quit the group as she was worn out from touring , not that she was dumped by rest of group

Oops, I was wrong. She might have been tired of touring but it was a music decision by rest of group

In 1995, Lynch, then 37, was replaced by Maines, then 21. “We thought we needed to make a music decision now,” Maguire told the Dallas Morning News in November 1995, describing the change as “the passing of the baton.” “It can’t really be characterized as a resignation,” Lynch said then, acknowledging that age was a factor. She quit music and focused on raising her daughter.

The band went on to mainstream stardom with 1998’s “Wide Open Spaces,” which won best country album at the Grammy Awards.

Lynch told the Associated Press in 2003 that she didn’t regret missing out on the fame and that she had fond memories of leading the band through its hectic, hardscrabble early days.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2023/12/24/laura-lynch-dixie-chicks-death/

And now Chicks toured with Maren Morris. This article is about Morris and her distaste for Nashville industry, and about her doing a tour with the Chicks

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2023/12/21/chicks-maren-morris-country-music/

But while the Chicks’ fate has been successfully used as a fear tactic for years, it has also had the opposite effect: The band is an inspiration for a new class of outspoken country stars who don’t want to just shut up and sing. The timing of Morris’s “departure” from the genre — as well as her serving as an opening act for the Chicks on tour this summer — was a fitting, full-circle moment symbolizing how the treatment of the trio still looms over country music...She debuted “The Tree” live in concert when she opened for the Chicks in Ottawa on the day her Los Angeles Times interview published.

“Thinking about the last few shows we’ve had with the Chicks, the meaning behind this song, how I got to where I was when I wrote it, where you just burn the whole ... toxic thing down …” Morris trailed off as she introduced the song to the cheering arena. “I would not have been able to write this song or get to this place of peace if the Chicks had not been in my life to do it first.”

Luke Combs cover of Tracy Chapman “Fast Cars” is pleant enough

― curmudgeon, Sunday, June 11, 2023 3:44 AM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Pleasant

― curmudgeon, Sunday, June 11, 2023 4:02 AM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

such a good song, it's hard to screw it up ... and he doesn't.

― alpine static, Sunday, June 11, 2023 7:31 AM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

late to this particular party, have to agree that this is a very decent cover and... weirdly, while it's objectively lesser in every way than the original, it's really hitting some emotional notes with me - as if the kind of... I'm looking for the word here... simplicity? that Combs brings actually elevates the song?

happy to be reminded of this masterpiece of songwriting anyway

deference, i think, is the word you're looking for. he just plays it as best he can w/o doing all sorts of shit to "make it his own" because, assuming we believe him, he just loves the song and it makes him think of his dad.

this is why it's good.

well, also because Tracy Chapman wrote an incredible song

yes! exactly

https://accidentalevolution.wordpress.com/2023/12/26/40-best-country-singles-of-2023/

Chuck Eddy's fave 2023 country songs

Long-running country blog That Nashville Sound's top albums and songs of 2023
https://thatnashvillesound.blogspot.com/2023/12/that-nashville-sounds-top-country-and_31.html
https://thatnashvillesound.blogspot.com/2023/12/that-nashville-sounds-top-country-and.html