The divorce between country music and Natalie Maines
happened a long time ago and the transition towards discovering her new niche has
been a lengthy process. The importance of TAKING THE LONG WAY and its wider
industry appreciation cannot be underestimated in the life and career of Natalie
Maines, often cast as a polarising figure which has to be said has been debated
extensively in the past. However with this debut solo release, MOTHER may just
be the catalyst to open a new chapter in the same way that the last Dixie
Chicks album closed one.
Much has been muted about Natalie’s migration to rock, which
you could say began when the band sought solace in the studio of Rick Rubin to
record their 2006 Grammy winning album. While undeniably MOTHER has
considerable rock undertones, to say a simple statement such as this defines
the record is unfair to the multitude of influences absorbed into the making of
this album. Just as elements of the alt-country music movement free themselves
to experiment, thus merging into the all-encompassing Americana genre, Natalie
Maines is following a similar path. A return to Nashville may not be a too
distant possibility, but this time it will be at the invitation of the AMAs
rather than the CMAs.
The Americana movement will definitely sit up and take
notice of this release due to its careful selection of interesting tracks from
iconic rock figures and mixing them effectively with new material emerging from
diverse sources. All ten tracks on this, 45 minute long, album have
an air of sophistication that showcase Natalie’s unmistakeable vocals and the influence
of co-producer Ben Harper.
The trio of covers that launch the album include delving
into the more recent work of Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder with an excellent version
of ‘Without You’ borrowed from his
ukulele album and a familiar but well executed take of Pink Floyd's ‘Mother’. The laid back vibes of the
album’s introduction continue with ‘Free
Life’, a song by Dan Wilson who has worked with Dierks Bentley in the past
and co-wrote ‘Not Ready to Make Nice’
with Maines.
The influence of Jeff Buckley is celebrated in a re-work of
his classic break up track ‘Lover You
Should’ve Come Over’ and alt-country fans will be delighted to listen to a
version of The Jayhawks ‘I’d Run Away’.
This is an excellent song to cover as it highlights the great way Gary Louris
and Mark Olson have consistently blended good melodies, impressive harmonic backing
vocals and an effective sound which combines elements of country with indie
rock.
Of the five original recordings, two have a ramped up
sound with the co-vocals of Ben Harper
on ‘Trained’ leading the track to stray
a little too far into the explicit rock field. The style is similar in ‘Silver Bell’ which includes Patty Griffin
in its writing credits and is definitely a step up in pace that feels unfamiliar
to most of her work that I have sampled. There is a continual sound of slide
guitar throughout the album with perhaps it being most prevalent in the epic
strains of ‘Veil in Vein’. Album
closer ‘Take it on Faith’ adopts a
ballad stance and is a little more diverse in its sound with the addition of
organ, cello and violin.
The Dixie Chicks chapter of Natalie’s life is far from
closed as evidenced by the select festival appearances this summer and the
album does include a track penned by the trio with the help of Gary Louris. ‘Come Crying to Me’ was deemed to be too
rock for the Dixie Chicks to ultimately cut but it quite easily could have
found a home on TAKING THE LONG WAY. Perhaps the fact that Natalie, Emily and
Marti have their names linked on a new release may still leave a chink of light
for a more integrated future but in reality the sound migration suggests
otherwise.
The old saying can be adapted to state that ‘you can take
the girl out of country but you can’t take country out of the girl’. This in my
opinion applies to Natalie Maines, who will always retain a little bit of that influence
as there is still that unmistakeable sound that makes you sit up and listen,
rather than the damning ‘shut up and sing’. Maybe her true home is in the
Americana movement but wherever it lies, an exciting new future for her career
has started.