Taking The Long Way

Dixie Chicks | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 23, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000F7MG4G
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,194 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,450 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #70 in Music > Country > Neotraditional

Track Listings

1. The Long Way Around

2. Easy Silence

3. Not Ready To Make Nice

4. Everybody Knows

5. Bitter End

6. Lullaby

7. Lubbock Or Leave It

8. Silent House

9. Favorite Year

10. Voice Inside My Head

11. I Like It

12. Baby Hold On

13. So Hard

14. I Hope

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Nothing changes folks like babies and war, and since the release of their last album, 2002's Home, the Dixie Chicks have been forever altered by both. If that album showcased the trio as precocious young adults, Taking the Long Way finds them sobered and matured, and in a grown-up state of mind. Produced by the celebrated Rick Rubin (Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers), who saw the Chicks as "a great rock act making a country album, not a country act making a rock album," their new record impresses both as beautiful sonic tapestry (peppered with myriad Beatlesque hallmarks) and forthright yet vulnerable portrait of three women shaken by the personal and political events of the past few years. As they make clear in the defiant "Not Ready to Make Nice," they still smart over the backlash from their 2003 Bushwhacking. But as they assert on the equally autobiographical "The Long Way Around," they could never "kiss all the asses that they told me to" and just follow others aimlessly--and silently--through life. This means that the Chicks are simultaneously prideful and scornful of celebrity ("Everybody Knows"), and that as new mothers they increasingly treasure the refuge they find in life with their families, out of the spotlight ("Easy Silence," "Lullaby," "Baby Hold On"). The push and pull of both passions drive this record, which also touches on the personal issues of infertility (with which sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison both dealt) and Alzheimer's (from which Natalie Maines's grandmother suffers). The trio crafted all 14 cuts with the help of such writers as Sheryl Crow, Gary Louris, Mike Campbell, and Keb' Mo', laying out their lives as honestly and intimately as they might in their diaries. For that reason, on first listen, Taking the Long Way seems too somber--in need of a bit of levity and more than a couple of uptempo songs (like the sexy, '60s-flavored "I Like It") to resonate for the long haul. It also seems to lack the writing quality that Darrell Scott, Patty Griffin, and Bruce Robison brought to Home. But on repeated plays, those concerns dissipate. By the last cut, the R&B/gospel offering "I Hope," the Chicks have chronicled their journey with as much spirituality as spunk, their pain deeply ingrained in their protests. --Alanna Nash

Product Description

With Taking The Long Way, the Dixie Chicks are putting themselves out there like never before. For the first time, every song on the album is co-written by the Chicks themselves, exploring themes both deeply private and resoundingly political. Taking The Long Way covers an impressive range of territory and includes the defiant and autobiographical first single "Not Ready To Make Nice" as well as the tracks "Silent House," "It's So Hard When it Doesn't Come Easy," and the album version of the gospel-inflected "I Hope," featuring a blistering guitar solo by John Mayer.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 60 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It is about the music May 25, 2006

By Kelly D. Rice

Format:Audio CD

I have always been a Dixie Chick fan, so I was destined to buy this album especially with the flurry of not so nice press. Well...there isn't a song on this album that you don't want to know by heart. A fantastic mix of songs to laugh, to cry and to comtemplate life about. It is a perfect introduction after 3 years!! The Track --"Not ready to make Nice" --- who can't relate so some aspect of their life?? Not to mention, "I Hope". This album needs to be heard becaue it is great music and the Chicks are heros. They make no apologizes for being who they are and that is refreshing in a world where everyone is trying to fit in. This is music, life and inspiration!!

48 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars WoW this is a superb CD. May 24, 2006

By Gretchen Mckinney

Format:Audio CD

All of you blowing chunks over some ridiculus statement the Dixie Chicks made 3 years ago need to get a life. It's old news and should have barely been news in the first place. The number of people ashamed to be connected with George Bush probably can't be calculated. Feel free to boycott me at work.

On to the C.D. This is very nice. What I have always enjoyed about the Chicks is how well they understand Music. They are real musicians and this new C.D. is another step in the progression of their style. They grow with each disc they put out and this one comes on hard.

As many have said, you don't need to take my word for it. Go to CMT.Com or one of the other video places (vh1 maybe) and watch some of their videos. Really pay attention to the track "Not Ready To Make Nice" because it's a powerful song in many ways.

I am so glad to see these fabulous women back and headed to the stage.

All you haters.. get over it.

Number one on Amazon.

Number one on Itunes/ipod.

First concert is SOLD OUT.

In the Top Twenty Count down on VH1 (position not released yet)

CMT playing the video on front page despite the ridiculus call of red necks to boycott the song.

Thank GOD I don't listen to those stupid radio stations anyway. I won't be letting any morons tell me what I can and can't listen to any time soon.

You boycott minded folk have about as much chance of destroying the chicks as you do of remembering where your front teeth went.

112 of 126 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars fat chick loving the chicks.... May 24, 2006

By L. M. Johnson

Format:Audio CD

never been one to write a review...never been one to rush out the first day an album is released to purchase it...but I did for the Chicks.....it gives me a chance in some small way to give back to a group who's music has given me so much pleasure over the years. The first time I heard "Not Ready to Make Nice" actually gave me goosebumps....any album that can do that deserves 5 stars. C&W music stations in Houston had been my steady staple since I was a preteen, but when they boycotted the Chicks - I boycotted them(c&w stations) - now my music library is full of all kinds of music you wouldn't expect from a 40 year old woman - everything from the Blackeyed Peas to Bowling for Soup to the Chieftans....the narrow minded people who turned me off c&w actually broadened my world..

btw....if anyone in the C&W music industry should be boycotted for offensive and insulting remarks....consider Toby Kieth for his song "Running Block"(from White Trash With Money).....nothing like offending and insulting every "Fat Chick" in America......nowadays there are probably more of them than there are Bush supporters.......

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars These Dixie Chicks Have All Grown Up June 5, 2006

By Terrie L. Robinson

Format:Audio CD

Okay, first let's leave the politics aside and just talk music.

If you were drawn to the Dixie Chicks because of some of their bluegrass-tinged or traditional country songs from "Wide Open Spaces" or "Home," and those particular genres and the DC's excellence within them were the only things that kept you interested in their music, this may not be the CD for you.

These Dixie Chicks have all grown up. (Perhaps we should call them "Dixie Hens"?). They've never been purely country (although more country than Shania Twain and Faith Hill), and some of the earlier songs, such as their take on "Landslide," should have put diehard country fans on notice that the Dixie Chicks can and will do rock, country-rock, rockabilly, and country pop, and will do it with the same polished harmonies, melodies, and lyrics as they do with anything they touch. You simply cannot deny their talent. If you were drawn to the Dixie Chicks because of their harmonies, their musicianship, their lyrics, and their melodies, no matter what kind of song they sang, than this is undeniably their best work and you won't be disappointed. There are a lot of musical cooks in the kitchen on this one in terms of co-writers (Sheryl Crow, Linda Perry, and Keb 'Mo for example), and the result is a nice mix that takes from '70's rock, Bonnie Raitt, and even a little bit of the Al Greene Memphis sound in "I Hope."

So, your take on this CD will depend on what your expectations were.

I recently read advice from a master gardener in my local newspaper to the effect of, "If you're not killing plants, you're not growing as a gardener." Similarly, if you're not losing fans, you're probably not growing as an artist and a musician.... Sure, the Dixie Chicks will lose some diehard country fans with this CD, but they will gain a whole lot of fans who might have dismissed them out of hand as being limited to just country music. Which leads to my next point: The politics.

If you bought or didn't buy this CD because of the Dixie Chicks' politics, IMHO, you're missing the point. I've never heard a Dixie Chicks song that advocated a particular political point of view; I've always liked their music because their lyrics tell a good story, they harmonize more like a sister singing group than a manufactured group (Yes, I know that Emily and Martie are sisters, but adding a non-relative can sometimes ruin the harmony), and Natalie Maines' distinctive voice beautifully stands out but stays in perferct harmony with the sisters such that I can distinguish her voice a mile out (think Stevie Nicks without the nasal inflection and drug habit and with a slight twang). There aren't many country artists whose politics I agree with, but that doesn't stop me from listening if the music is good. I only stop listening if the message IN the music is one I disagree with or is degrading to me, which is why I can't listen to a lot of hip-hop these days.

Sometimes, the music is just about the music. And this music is good. Read more ›