I Was Raising Cane, Now I’m Raising Babies

It is a tricky situation when you are in a band and one of the members isn’t up for recording but doesn’t want to leave (with the exception of Jack White who will just start a new one every year). But it has been four years since the last Dixie Chicks album and sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire were itching to get back to work though lead singer Natalie Maines wanted some more rest.

So the sister went with another animal themed side project Court Yard Hounds (not to be confused with the Junkyard Dog). Their self titled debut sounds exactly like what you would expect a Dixie Chicks album without Maines would sound like, very Chicks like, especially circa their Home era, but still mellower affair and songs do not get much mellower that the album opener Skyline. Even faster songs like Ain’t No Son still sounds restrained with Robinson taking over the vocals from the spunkier Maines (whose in her hands would have sounded something like Sin Wagon).

Some stand out tracks include Delight Something New Under the Sun and its funky guitar riff and wall of sound at the height of the song. See You in the Spring, a duet with Jacob Dylan, fits right in with his new folksier sound. Then Didn’t Make a Sound sounds like the most fun the sisters have had on a song a decade. In the end, Court Yard Hounds should be right up the alley of even moderate Dixie Chicks fans, especially the ones that jumped off the bandwagon when Maines started on her Bush tirade, though it is hard not to think how the album would have been better with her behind the microphone.

Song to Download – Didn’t Make a Sound

Court Yard Hounds gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.