Chicks catalog:
Early albums overlooked
In your review of the Dixie Chicks’ Fly [ND #23, Sept.-Oct. ’99}, Peter Blackstock makes the appalling error (in the first sentence!) of stating that this is the Dixie Chicks’ second album.
The Chicks have put out five albums, including the excellent Thank Heavens For Dale Evans and a respectable follow-up album Shouldn’t A Told You That. It is unfortunate that only with their fourth album did they attract widespread media attention.
The dedication with which No Depression champions the cause of long-overlooked artists is indeed to be praised. But to report that a band who waited their turn for six years just erupted out of nowhere with a hit album is indeed regrettable.
— Jon Glusman
Hong Kong, China
[Editor’s note: While it’s true that the Dixie Chicks released three albums before their major-label debut and mainstream breakthrough Wide Open Spaces in 1998, those records all came before lead singer Natalie Maines joined the band, which marked a major difference in the band’s direction. Fly is the second album released by the Maines-fronted version of the Dixie Chicks.]
Hank III:
I don’t think Hank hyphenated it this way
Assuming without admitting that Bill Friskics-Warren is right when he suggests that Hank III merely apes his grandad [ND #24, Nov.-Dec. ’99], this Hank Williams fan says: so what? Risin’ Outlaw KICKS! And what’s wrong with family tradition? This CD is so right musically that it would appeal to anyone who reads this magazine (except those with a gripe against the Hank Williams’ family). Furthermore, the person with a hyphen in his or her name has no business criticizing the name another person goes by.
— Pam Tinkham-Harms
Fitchburg, MA
Midlands calling:
An English perspective
Just to say thanks for producing the best alt.country mag in the world by a country mile. If only it were monthly, though, heaven would seem that bit closer! The Miles of Music tell me it takes an Englishman to tell you lot in complacency just how good the U.S. alt.country scene is. Sure thing!
— L.H. Bishop
Midlands, UK
