Taking the Long Way Review

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(More customer reviews)Three years after the controversy surrounding the Home tour, the Dixie Chicks are back with a bang on their latest studio album, Taking the Long Way. Receiving some songwriting and musical help from friends like Neil Finn, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Chad Smith, Don Wilson, and Pete Yorn, the Chicks' Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire, and Emily Robison deliver an incredible, mature record destined for success, one that will greatly please long time fans and win over some new converts. This is the Dixie Chicks at their best, and it's been a long time coming.
The Long Way Around kicks off the album with a beautiful melody and chorus, with some of their strongest vocal harmonies ever set against a wonderful Tom Petty-like guitar sound. This is the way albums should begin. Easy Silence is a tender piano ballad with some beautiful violin and a great vocal by Natalie. Not Easy To Make Nice delves into some tough lyrics,"they say time heals everything..but I'm still waiting" but surrounds it in some unbelievably gentle strings and a great chorus. Everybody Knows and Bitter End are more traditional country ballads, while Lullaby is a 6-minute track that pays homage to its title. Lubbock or Leave It is a banjo-driven rockabilly track that will make you move on the dance floor, even as the cleverly sarcastic lyrics make you listen a few more times.
Silent House and Favorite Year are ballads that touch on the loss of family and friends. Voice Inside My Head combines acoustic and a wonderful slide guitar with a endearing chorus, "everytime I'm feeling down, I wonder what would it be like with you around." This Cali-beach sound continues on the slinky track I Like It, before slowing down on the bluesy ballad Baby Hold On (with John Mayer on lead guitar) and So Hard (a song which grows on you with every listen). The album closes with the uplifting and soulful I Hope, with its church organ and choral sound. A great way to end this amazing album.
Producer Rob Rubin concentrates the Dixie Chicks sound, drawing out the best of their songwriting and musical ability and making the tracks tighter and more focused. Its 14 tracks clock in at a lengthy 68 minutes, averaging about 4 minutes a song, a nice change in an industry where 45 minute records are the norm. Vocally the ladies are as wonderful as always, but their musicianship also impresses here. They have matured greatly in their songwriting and their lyrics, creating a distinct emotional palette that grows with every listen. Love or hate their politics, as musicians they make some of the best music today. Highly Recommended and one of 2006's Top 5 albums.
A.G. Corwin
St.Louis, MO


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With Taking The Long Way, one of the most anticipated albums in recent years, the Dixie Chicks are putting themselves out there like never before. For the first time, every one of the disc's fourteen songs are co-written by the Chicks themselves, exploring themes both deeply private and resoundingly political. Collaborating with legendary producer Rick Rubin (who has worked with everyone from Johnny Cash to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, from Run DMC to Neil Diamond), the biggest-selling female band in history has truly pushed themselves to new heights both as writers and as performers.
"Everything felt more personal this time," says Maines. "I go back to songs we've done in the past and there's just more maturity, depth, intelligence on these. They just feel more grown-up." Inspired by such classic rock artists as the Eagles, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and the Mamas and the Papas, Taking The Long Way adds a sweeping, Southern California vibe to the Chicks' down-home intimacy. That ambition is matched with lyrics addressing everything from small-town narrow-mindedness ("Lubbock or Leave It") to the psychology of celebrity ("Everybody Knows"). "This album was about finding a balance in the different aspects of our lives," says Emily Robison, "but there's something thematic there, too--it's really about being bold."
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Stevie Nicks: Live in Chicago (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is Stevie Nicks and her band at their best!!!! This is one super outstanding concert dvd. Everything is first class!!! The atmosphere is great and the audience is really into it, making this one special concert!!! You get 17 great songs, plus a bonus track. Stevie does an excellent job of explaining the background or "story" behind the songs she performs. Her lead guitar player is simply outstanding, and the background singers are great.
The songs are as follows:
Stand Back
Enchanted
If Anyone Falls in Love
Rhiannon
Crash Into Me - the Dave Matthews Song, and Stevie does an excellent job performing it.
Dreams
Sorcerer
The One
Gold Dust Woman
I Need to Know - The Tom Petty Song, Again, an outstanding performance by Stevie.
Circle Dance
Landside - This one she dedicates to her late father. During the Song there are pictures of him on the big screens. Stevie does an excellent tribute to him. You can feel Steve's sencerity. "This one's for you Daddy" and again, Stevie does an excellcent perfomance.
Sara
Fall From Grace
How Still My Love
Edge of Seventeen (Simply Outstanding!!!!)
Rock & Roll
The total running time is approximately 119 minutes. You get a bonus track of "Landslide" (Orchestra Version), and it is very good also. Overall, this is Stevie Nicks at her best!!! If you like Stevie, you'd better buy this one, because it doesn't get any better than this. You'll love it, I know I do!!!! Thanks!!!!

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Stevie Nicks, rock's superstar chanteuse, performs her signature songs with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Fleetwood Mac and her acclaimed solo career. Recorded at her October 2007 'Soundstage' performance.

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Dixie Chicks - Top of the World Tour Live Review

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(More customer reviews)I love the Dixie Chicks, and their performances in the concerts that provided footage for this DVD were probably great - but there's no way to tell.
From what I can see, this DVD was put together by monkeys who had available an unlimited supply of espresso and cocaine. No shot lasts longer than two seconds, and footage from many different concerts is slammed together pell-mell with no regard for anything like continuity. The camera shots themselves are about as creative as a home movie of a high school football game, and the general feeling I get is that the people who made this didn't really give a damn about the Dixie Chicks, or about anything except slapping this DVD together with nail guns, pressure board, duct tape and fast-drying glue, and then dropping it on store shelves to start the cash hose flowing.
The Dixie Chicks deserve much, much better than this, and luckily they get it in "An Evening with the Dixie Chicks," which is the best DVD of their music to date. If you bought this garbage, go exchange it for "An Evening," and you'll be glad you did.

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DIXIE CHICKS - TOP OF THE WORLD TOUR - DVD Movie

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Live At The Troubadour (CD +DVD) Review

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(More customer reviews)Blossom, smile some sunshine down my way
Lately, I've been lonesome
Blossom, it's been much too long a day
Seems my dreams have frozen
Melt my cares away...
It's not my favorite James Taylor song. Really, I barely remember it. But it's the first song on the DVD and CD package of Carole King & James Taylor: Live at the Troubadour, and just hearing that mellow guitar and moonshine voice pretty much unhinged me --- my face flushed, my eyes glistened, and there I was, face-planted into my past.

I'm not the only one of a certain age who will watch this intimate concert --- or see King and Taylor on their tour --- and have this reaction. Their music is mostly quiet, but it plays loud in memory; it's what we were listening to in that dump of a decade, the `70s. It's all those memories: Roe v. Wade. Kent State. Ms. Magazine. That endless war in Vietnam.

And, set against that, the soothing and consoling music of two crooners. In terms of records sold, they're a rounding error for Michael Jackson. But back then, for white kids astonished to find themselves struggling to make decent lives in Nixon's America, they were huge.

They were, as it turns out, huge for one another in the `70s. They first performed together at the Troubadour, a little LA club, in November of 1970. Look at the video, though --- King's playing piano for Taylor in what's clearly a very tentative collaboration. A year later, when they returned to the Troubadour, he had "Fire and Rain" and she had "Tapestry" and they had mutual, powerful magic. And then, in 2007, they returned to the Troubadour one more time to made a CD and DVD from six shows recorded over three nights.

These 15 songs, spread over 75 minutes, are impeccable --- the technology of recording, video and editing has advanced so dramatically that the early videos seem raw and awkward. Not that these performances are slick and cynical. What you get to see and hear is the intimacy of this relationship.

Carole King hearts James Taylor. It's all over her face as she harmonizes or just mouths the words to his songs. But then, she's hugely emotional as a signature. Her songs are hits in large part because she's brilliant at distilling deep feelings into simple statements --- "You've Got a Friend" is the gold standard --- and excitable as a musician. When she gets going, she's off the piano bench and playing standing up.

The news flash on James Taylor, who has always seemed too accomplished to break a sweat, is how intense he is as a guitarist. King looks at Taylor, Taylor looks down at his guitar --- that unbalances the film until you get used to it, and then you have a fresh appreciation for him as a musician.

It's the voices and harmonies that mattered when we first heard King and Taylor. The years have been kind to them. King's voice was always a little weathered, and that, for her, was a strength --- now, after failed marriages and whatever else life has slung at her, that roughness seems like the proof of experience. Taylor, a great singer in his 20s, is now a master; if you can hear a flaw, you've got better ears than I do.

The pacing of the show and the positioning of the songs are where this package achieves liftoff. Listening and watching, I felt a kind of peace that had eluded me all day. If you're young, this may sound stupid beyond belief, but if you've got miles and bruises, this is music that connects you to old dreams and affirms every hope you ever had for your generation, your country and yourself. These are, in short, lullabies for adults.

Just as I was thinking that, King and Taylor returned on stage for an encore. And, without the band, this is what they sang:

Close your eyes;
you can close your eyes, it's all right.
I don't know no love songs,
and I can't sing the blues any more.
But I can sing this song,
and you can sing this song
when I'm gone.
It won't be long before another day.
We're gonna have a good time.
And no one's gonna take that time away.
You can stay as long as you like.

If only.

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In November of 1970 James Taylor and Carole King first performed together at the Troubadour on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, California.Taylor had just released his debut album for the Beatles' newly formed Apple Records and King was finding her way as a first time solo performer even though by then she was a famous songwriter with a string of hits for other artists.When they returned to the club for a two-week co-headlining run in 1971 their lives were somewhat different.That summer Taylor's "Fire and Rain" was topping the charts and King's landmark Tapestry was on its way to making her a music superstar.Thirty-six years later, in November 2007, James Taylor, Carole King and members of their renowned original band "The Section" (featuring guitarist Danny Kortchmar, bassist Leland Sklar and drummer Russell Kunkel) returned to the Troubadour for a three-night, six-show run to celebrate the venue's 50th anniversary.Those historic shows are documented in Live at the Troubadour, a special 2-disc CD/DVD.This remarkable recording, culled from these unforgettable shows, features 15 songs and 75 minutes of pristine video and audio including stunning performances of the pair's most beloved hits such as Carole King's "So Far Away," "It's Too Late," and "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" as well as James Taylor's "Carolina in My Mind," "Sweet Baby James," and "Fire and Rain," to name just a few. The return to the intimate Troubadour--the fertile ground that served as the unofficial home to a some of the era's defining musicians such as the Eagles, Elton John, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Joni Mitchell--rekindled King's and Taylor's love for making music together.Variety enthused at the time, "Taylor and King reminded us about the intensity of the song, that the artistically-rich and commercially-viable are not mutually exclusive and how one tiny club continues to be a birthing room for some of this city's most memorable music."The experience was deeply felt by everyone, the musicians on stage, and the fans in attendance as well as the project's technical crew: audio producer Peter Asher (an instrumental figure throughout Taylor's career) and Emmy-winning video director, Martyn Atkins.Live at the Troubadour is captured in sterling 5.1 stereo and state-of-the-art high definition video. In the album's liner notes, Taylor states: "The Troubadour in 1971 wasn't the beginning, but it was a big step into the light for both of us. When we reunited for the Troubadour's 50th Anniversary celebration in 2007, it felt like yesterday. It was, and still is, all about the music and the celebration of performing together." King adds, "What's even more remarkable is that James's and my musical connection and friendship continue to transcend time and place.Whenever we're together, there we are.I feel a tremendous gratitude to be able to share this experience with James, with this fine band, and most of all, with the fans."

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Top of the World Tour Review

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(More customer reviews)I don't care what anyone says, but the Dixie Chicks rock. And it will be sad if we let their beliefs (or anyone's beliefs) from preventing them from greatest. After saying that, let me just say that this is one of the best live album I have ever heard. A collection of their biggest hits from their previous 3 albums, this cd shines BRIGHTLY. Not only do these girls ROCK, but you can hear the passion in their voices and the way they play. You can feel the energy of the fans and it really inspires you. This double cd makes you feel like you are at an actual show. Also there are great pics that goes along with this release. I almost missed this cd, because they are not promoting it. Most people don't even know about it. But don't let that prevent you from buying this cd. Can't wait for a new album.

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