** An "Old Chicks" News Flash from The All-Inclusive Dixie Chicks Page! **

As reported on the Dixie Chicks email list, Rolling Stone's online site is
currently running an article with accompanying video about the Dixie
Chicks. While Rolling Stone got part of the story of Natalie Maines'
arrival in the Dixie Chicks camp (as reported by Katie Pruett on the Young
Country bio of the Chicks), the rest of the story was told only in shadows
and innuendo... until now.

Today, Rolling Stone dishes the dirt, and the real story is in line with
the suspicions of many of the Dixie Chicks' long-time fans: Laura didn't
jump, she was pushed.

In an article by Rolling Stone writer Richard Skanse, and available at the
Rolling Stone web site, the Dixie Chicks' longtime manager Simon Renshaw is
caught with the axe in his hand:

- - - - -
Fly co-producer Blake Chancey saw enough potential in the Chicks four years
ago to give them a demo deal. He loved the virtuosity of [Martie Erwin]
Seidel and [Emily Erwin] Robison, who had been playing fiddle, banjo and
dobro in bluegrass festivals since childhood; but with lead singer Laura
Lynch on board, the group was still a soft-folk act. After signing the
Chicks, their manager [Simon Renshaw] informed them that Lynch was out in
favor of a new singer, a "firecracker." Four months went by before Chancey
heard the new incarnation. "When they kicked off the first song, it was
just this upbeat, turbo-rocking song," he says. "It was unbelievable. And
then Natalie [Maines] opened her mouth and I went, 'Oh, we've got something
here.' " "It was so different that it was either going to be huge or it was
going to be virtually rejected, which is often the case in our format for
things that aren't ordinary," says Allen Butler, president of Sony Music
Nashville.
- - - - -

While this revelation comes as no shock, it certainly lays all the cards on
the table. In fact, releasing this information and setting the record
straight may be the final act in the chain of events that started with the
incomplete Sony timeline and culminated with the "Cease And Desist" letter
against my own site.

The Dixie Chicks' management spent 1998 running scared from the group's
past, and even went so far as to ask a certain fan site to remove sound
samples that showed off the Chicks' pre-Natalie sound. But in 1999, their
handlers realized that their fans did *not* reject the group because they
used to wear denim and frills. Natalie began talking about how the Chicks
had a history before she joined, as fans rocked as hard to bluegrassy songs
like "Sin Wagon" and the instrumental "Roanoke" as they did to standards
like "There's Your Trouble".

By admitting the whole truth (or at least the salient details), the Dixie
Chicks management and Sony have come to terms with the past. It happened,
they admit it, and now it's time to go on. I congratulate the Dixie Chicks
and their team for their honesty and courage, and I look forward to great
things from the Chicks in the coming years.

Don't forget to view the whole Rolling Stone story! It also includes a
nice little "New Chicks" video, though the video doesn't break any new
ground. I've added a link on the main page at <http://www.dixie-chicks.com/>.

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Robert Brooks / robertb@...
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