The Dixie Chicks Fly Tour
Friday July 21, 2000 The Pepsi Arena Albany, New York
Story by William Bolton
This Texas based trio started off as a band of street musicians. Gone now are the days that you could see them for spare change thrown in the guitar case and gone as well is the time a "good ole boy" could buy a ticket to the fair and get well more than his money worth. These ladies are bonafide superstars. Notice please that I didn't say country superstars, The Dixie Chicks transend all cross over barriers of music genre. They are a catagory onto themselves.
After a successfull tour last year with The George Strait Festval, The Dixie Chicks are out headlining their own tour this year, The Fly Tour, promoting their second Sony Music album "Fly". The Fly Tour made it's way to the Pepsi Arena and found a sold out arena full of fans of all ages and from all walks of life.
The entertainment began immeadiatly as the curtain which was a huge pair of blue jeans unzipped and fell to the stage and The Dixie Chicks came onto the stage singing their hit song "Ready To Run" which is featured on the soundtrack to the movie "Runnaway Bride". They were backed up by a six piece band that incuded two drummers, a lead guitarist, a bassist, a rythem guitarist, and a keyboard player. These guys were tremendously talented and made a perfect fit with Martie Seidel's fiddle and viola, Emily Robison's banjo, dobro, lap steel and acoustic guitars, and Natalie Maines' vocals.
The night was filled with non-stop entertainment both visual and audio. When they sang their hit song "Cold Day In July" there was snow falling from the ceiling of the arena, and they took turns roasting each other as they went thru a slide show of pictures of themselves growing up. They also did a small acoustic set all seated on a couch in the center of the stage complete with a giant chandelier hanging from the ceiling and candles burning. During this set they welcomed their warm up guest, singer / songwriter Patty Grffin back onto the stage and together they sang the song "Let Him Fly" which Patty wrote for Fly. Patty was fantastic, as she was in her set, singing songs from her Interscope Records release "Flammming Red" . She has a powerful voice and sings well-written, obviously heartfelt songs.
The suprises continued on into the encore' set as the Dixie Chicks all reappeared in spotlights, all in different sections of the arena and sang their highly contraversial hit song "Goodbye Earl" as the song's video played on the big screens. They then ended the show with their hit "Wide Open Spaces" ,the song from their first album that got them into the spotlight. I'm sure that this is only the begining of many more years of great tunes and tours from these ladies and I can't wait to see more.