GUITARIST MAINES PROUD OF DIXIE CHICKS DAUGHTER
* Jack Hurst
* 02/12/99
Chicago Tribune
(Copyright 1999 by the Chicago Tribune)
A Dixie rooster is coming to town.
Lloyd Maines, influential Texas record producer and father of
Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines, will arrive in Chicagoland
this week for three shows -- at Schuba's Feb. 17, The Hideout Feb. 19
and FitzGerald's in Berwyn Feb. 20 -- and recording sessions with the
Chicago band Trigger Gospel.
On the performance dates the elder Maines will work as half of a
duo with rising 30-year-old Texas singer-songwriter Terri Hendrix.
The Hideout show will be with Trigger Gospel, while at FitzGerald's
they'll open for Dave Alvin.
"Terri and I've been doing gigs together for nine or 10 months,"
reports Maines, who also periodically plays pedal steel behind not
only the Chicks but Texas rock or folk notables Joe Ely, Jerry Jeff
Walker and Robert Earl Keen.
"Her music is real fresh, positive material, and it's a fun thing
to play because it's mainly acoustic. I play dobro and acoustic
guitar. I'm actually going to have my pedal steel in Chicago,
because Trigger Gospel wants me to play steel on a couple of their
songs, so I'll probably set my steel up with Terri, too. I'll be
playing more dobro than steel, though."
Maines, 47, has been involved in the recording of albums for a
horde of important independent acts operating out of Texas.
Besides those already mentioned, the names range from James
McMurtry, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Wayne "The Train" Hancock to the Bad
Livers, Bruce and Charlie Robison and the Maines Brothers. The day
of this interview, he was heading to Oklahoma City from Austin to
conduct music for the second play he has been connected with.
He first heard Hendrix, he says, when an engineer working on Wayne
Hancock's second album gave him a guitar-vocal demo tape. He liked
her songs "from the git-go" because they struck him as true-to-life.
Eventually he produced her first album, "Wilory Farm," on her own
Tycoon Cowgirl Records in San Marcos.
"She actually was offered a few small-label deals, (but) she opted
just to raise the money herself," Maines says, adding that Hendrix
found investors among "a pool of friends" and already has paid them
off. "The record's been out since June, and she's sold a bunch of
copies already and hasn't even left Texas."
Chicago will be Hendrix's first venture out, and Maines is using
his West Coast connections to get together a California tour as well.
He already has assisted in the leasing of her album to Continental
Records in The Netherlands.
By contrast, he indicates that his efforts in behalf of daughter
Natalie have been much less aggressive.
"I try not to be a stage father at all," he says. "I can't stand
that."
But he did produce the demo tape on which charter Chicks Martie
Seidel and Emily Erwin first heard Natalie sing. He also gave them
the tape, but in a very offhand way. Having played steel on previous
Chicks albums, he had had them out to his house for dinner several
times his wife and their daughter, so the other Chicks had known
Natalie for years. They just didn't know she sang.
Even the world now knows that she evermore does. Lloyd's
daughter's chops and cool supplied whatever was missing from the
earlier Chicks. Their 1998-released first Monument Records album,
which was their initial effort with Natalie, has sold nearly four
million already.
Her father does acknowledge that she brings the group a hot
presence.
"When the Lord was passing out sass," he says, "Natalie was at the
head of the line."
