Dixie Chicks - Home

The Dixie Chicks aren't old enough to remember when radio programmed pop records next to country, rock, folk, and beyond, but their Texas DNA tells them that's the way music was meant to be heard. On Home, which they coproduced in Austin with Lloyd Maines, the father of lead singer Natalie Maines, they strip off the star-making gloss of Nashville and get down to the meat of the matter, turning out an acoustic record that gives a big Texas howdy to bluegrass. But that's only the framework they use to salute all their influences, from the raggedy rock of Little Feat (on Darrell Scott's irresistible "Long Time Gone") to the pained ballads of Stevie Nicks (covering her melancholy "Landslide") to the confessional Texas singer-songwriters who straddle the country-folk line (Patty Griffin, Bruce Robison). Maines's raw, irrepressible soprano remains a thing of wonder, as do the threesome's exquisite harmonies, which seem tighter and more organic than ever before. Still, the jaw-dropping thrills come from the passionate and masterful picking of Emily Robison on banjo, bluegrass guitarist Bryan Sutton, and Adam Steffey, whose fluid mandolin does Bill Monroe proud. Home, the Chicks' first release on their own record label, puts the front porch back into mainstream music, whatever the genre. And not a minute too soon. --Alanna Nash