Follow the Dixie Chicks from obscurity to fame
- 1988 and before
- Martie and Emily Erwin start violin lessons in grade school. Robin Lynn Macy teaches math and plays bluegrass around Dallas with Danger in the Air. Laura Lynch plays traditional Western-style country music in Japan.
- 1989
- Separately, Martie and Robin both perform at the Walnut Valley Music Festival, a long-running bluegrass event in Winfield, Kansas. Martie wins 3rd place in the National Fiddle Championship. Laura, Robin, Martie and Emily play for tips outside of Dallas' trendy West End Marketplace under the name "Dixie Chicks".
- 1990
- The original Dixie Chicks lineup travels the country, performing at bluegrass festivals and state fairs. They record their first album, Thank Heavens for Dale Evans, on a $5,000 shoestring budget.
- 1991
- The Dixie Chicks are heard nationwide on public radio's A Prairie Home Companion, and are named Best Country Band by their hometown alternative newsweekly, the Dallas Observer. The group records a Christmas single, Home on the Radar Range, accompanied by Texas country music producer and steel guitar legend Lloyd Maines. Maines happens to be the father of a young woman with musical ambitions, named Natalie.
- 1992
- The group's second full-length album, Little Ol' Cowgirl, is released. The group tours the country in a broken-down van, styling themselves as the "Nightingales O' The Prairie". But increasing fame leads to division, and Robin Lynn Macy leaves the Dixie Chicks.
- 1993
- The three-woman band plays for President Bill Clinton's inauguration (they're also friends with the Bushes, taking a picture with "George Bush, Jr"). Their final indie release, Shouldn't A Told You That, has a more mainstream country sound, though their bluegrass and Western roots still show through. Meanwhile, Robin Lynn Macy teams up with a couple of friends (including legendary Texas songstress Sara Hickman) to form the Domestic Science Club.
- 1994
- The Dixie Chicks tour Europe and play with the Fort Worth Dallas Ballet. But fame outside of the indie scene, in the form of a major label record deal, is still elusive.
- 1995
- Touring continues, and the band records a jingle for Tippin's Pie Pantry. But unknown to their fans, changes are in the works. Founding lead singer Laura Lynch is abruptly removed, in favor of Natalie Maines.
- 1996
- The reformulated band gets a major-label contract with Sony Records, on their rebooted Monument label. The Dixie Chicks tour Japan. Robin Lynn Macy and her friends in Domestic Science Club record their second album, Three Women, then disband. A startup alt.country band named The Groobees records a few tracks in the Texas Panhandle, the Maines family's stomping grounds.
- 1997
- After months of negotiations, the Dixie Chicks sign a multi-album deal with Sony. The cowgirl frills are gone. CMT starts playing the video for I Can Love You Better in October, in preparation for an album release in early 1998. Behind the scenes, the group fights to include a song written by The Groobees' lead singer Susan Gibson on the album. Sony doesn't think a song like Wide Open Spaces has legs in the "Young Country" radio playlist, but relents.
- 1998
- "Wide Open Spaces" becomes the title track of the Dixie Chicks' first major-label album release. By the end of the year, the album would go platinum. The first track hit the top 10, followed by two #1 tracks. The second #1 hit, which stayed on the top of the charts for four weeks, was the title track: "Wide Open Spaces".
- 1999
- The Dixie Chicks' debut album reaches #1 on the country album charts, reaches the top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart (for all genres), and takes the Best Country Album award at the Grammys. The followup, "Fly", debuts at #1 on the Billboard 200.
- 2000
- "Fly" wins the Best Country Album Grammy. The Dixie Chicks go on tour, packing arenas nationwide. They court controversy with songs like "Sin Wagon" and "Goodbye Earl".
- 2001
- Sony and the Dixie Chicks exchange lawsuits over royalties, but get back together in the end with the Chicks getting their own label, Open Wide Records. The group releases the soulful track, "I Believe in Love", for the Tribute to Heroes telethon after the September 11 attacks.
- 2002
- The third major-label release, "Home", has a softer, more introspective sound. The album debuts at #1 on the Billboard 200, though its sales don't reach the levels of the previous major-label releases. "Long Time Gone", with a pointed critique of the Nashville industrial country sound, reaches #2 on the country charts and is a crossover hit on the pop charts. The album also includes an instrumental featuring the virtuosa string performances of Martie and Emily, "Lil' Jack Slade".
- 2003 and after
- The Chicks' cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" reaches #10 on the pop charts. "Travelin Soldier", a mournful ballad about the cost of war, reaches #1 on the country charts. But during a concert in London, lead singer Natalie Maines makes an offhand political comment during the runup to the invasion of Iraq, which gets picked up in a newspaper review. The resulting controversy, fueled by strawman arguments on one side and an echo chamber on the other, ends the Dixie Chicks' country music career. "Landslide" and "Travelin Soldier" disappear from radio within a week. "Home" goes on to win the Best Country Album Grammy, making the Chicks three-for-three, but the days when it's all about the music are over.