Looked at in a cynical light, US Country sensations, Dixie Chicks, are little more than old news dressed up in tight clothes and a bottle-blonde hair-do. In the conservative tradition of Country, however, they are actually fresh and radical. Their 1998 major label debut album, Wide Open Spaces, has sold almost six million copies, while their traditional sound (member Natalie Maines is the daughter of Texas steel guitar legend Lloyd Maines) coupled with crossover, teen-pop appeal indicates a fan base reared more on the Spice Girls than Dolly Parton. That said, the trio has come out of its gingham-hell phase (corporate events dressed as cowgirls) relatively unscathed. Dixie Chicks play Dublin's Olympia theatre next Friday.
The gig will be nothing if not interesting.
