NashvilleGab - Country music news and Nashville celebrity gossip

The Dixie Chicks are covering for Lady Antebellum at cancelled Craven gig

As I reported last week, Lady Antebellum had to cancel a few dates next year (with probably more to follow) due to Hillary Scott being pregnant and due sometime in the spring/summer of 2013.

Well now comes word from CBC News that the Dixie Chicks are stepping in as headliners for Lady Antebellum at their cancelled show at Canada's Craven Country Jamboree in Saskatchewan.

The Craven Country Jamboree will take place July 11-14, 2013. Other headliners scheduled to appear at the festival are Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney. Fans can purchase tickets to the festival here. 

Fans can check the status of upcoming Lady Antebellum concerts by visiting their website. Right now there are nine shows that have been cancelled including:

1. Nebraskaland days (6/21)
2. Country Fest in Cadott, WI (6/27) 
3. Country Stampede in Manhattan, KS (6/29)
4. Cavendish Beach Music Fest in Cavendish, PE (7/7)
5. Craven Country Jamboree in Craven, SK (7/13)
6. Frontier Days in Cheyenne, WY (7/20) 
7. Country Thunder 2013 in Twin Lakes, WI (7/21) 
8. Big Valley Jamboree in Camrose, AB, Canada (8/4) 
9. York County Fair in York, PA (8/7)

Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines joins Johnny Depp at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival

Uhmm, hello, swoon.... The picture above is the Dixie Chicks' own Natalie Maines laying a friendly hug on none other than Johnny Depp. 

Color me jealous. 

Natalie and Johnny both attended the premiere of 'West of Memphis', a film chronicling the case of the West Memphis Three, during the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday in Canada. 

Johnny and Natalie both appear briefly in the film as famous supporters of the three men who were wrongly convicted of killing three young boys back in the early 1990s and just released from prison last year. Johnny and Natalie were also among a small handful of celebrities who helped pay legal fees of the imprisoned men. 

More photos on Just Jared. 

Awwwww!!!! Dixie Chicks' Emily Robison tweets first picture of new daughter

Photo via Emily Robison Twitter account

In case you hadn't heard the news yet, Emily Robison of the Dixie Chicks and Courtyard Hounds had her baby on Tuesday. 

Emily and her boyfriend Martin made the announcement on the Dixie Chicks' Facebook: 

Emily Robison and Martin Strayer are ecstatic to announce the birth of their new baby girl, Violet Isabel Strayer. Violet was born at 3:01am on September 4, 2012 weighing 8.5 lbs. Mom and baby Violet are doing well and Dad couldn't be happier!

Well I got nosy, as I usually do, and headed over to Emily's personal Twitter account and lo and behold she had tweeted a picture of little Violet Isabel yesterday. 

How sweet, sweet, sweet. 

To answer that fan question: Where are The Dixie Chicks in 2012?

"To answer that fan question" is the part of NashvilleGab where I take the sometimes funny things readers have ended up on the website searching for and actually answer them in a somewhat coherent way.

So the latest popular search term that keeps landing people on NashvilleGab is "Dixie Chicks 2012".  

The Dixie Chicks. Oh, the Dixie Chicks. Everyone always wants to know what's going on with the Chicks.

Well the easy answer is nothing is really going on with the Dixie Chicks....as a group anyway. I haven't heard any plans of new music, which is probably what most people are wondering.  

I think for all intents and purposes, the group is pretty much broken up, save for the occasional charity event or special concert appearance, they just don't seem to want to admit it publicly. In fact, they've outright denied that they're broken up. Maybe they still have hopes of recording again, I honestly don't know. Maybe they don't know themselves and are just playing it by ear.

I think I can speak for a lot of country fans in saying that the Dixie Chicks are right up there with Garth Brooks in who we'd like to hear new music from.    

Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines getting ready to release solo album?

So I'm sitting here writing a "To answer that fan question" post about the Dixie Chicks when I accidentally on purpose came across one of Natalie Maines' tweets from June 28th that kind of made me excited, although it's quite possible Natalie was just being sarcastic since she's kind of like that on Twitter. She's definitely fun to follow.  

The conversation: 

@1NatalieMaines Natalie, do you have any plans to release a solo album? Please say yes! :)

@augustblue Yes. I'm 8 songs deep making one right now. Hopefully a spring release.

Ummm, hello! Yay if this is Natalie being serious. I would be sad not to have more Dixie Chicks, but I love Natalie's voice and I think it would be interesting to hear what she has to say since I have a feeling her album would probably be full of all kinds of "screw you's" to those who have wronged her in the past.  She hits me as a sort of kiss-my-ass, take-no-prisoners sort of gal. 

I'll keep you updated if I happen to hear anything else.  

Baby news! A Dixie Chick is pregnant

Oh I love me some good baby news.  

Emily Robison, the dark haired Chick of The Dixie Chicks and Court Yard Hounds is pregnant with her fourth baby, but first with her boyfriend Martin Strayer. 

Emily's rep confirmed the news to Us Weekly on Thursday, saying, "She's excited!"

Emily is due in early September.  The new baby will join Emily's other children, twins Juliana Tex and Henry Benjamin, 7, and Charles Augustus, 9.

Congrats to Emily and the rest of the family. 

Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain still among album heavyweights

Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks may have been out of the spotlight for much of the past decade, but that doesn't mean that they're being outsold by current chart topping artists.  

According to PerezHilton.com, Nielsen SoundScan has spent the last 21 years tracking Billboard album sales and has compiled their list of the best selling albums of the last decade.  

Check out all the country artists who dominated album sales.  Makes a country blogger proud. 

1. Norah Jones, Come Away With Me, 10,797,000 (released February 2002). 
2. Eminem, The Eminem Show, 10,049,000 (May 2002). 
3. Usher, Confessions, 9,968,000 (March 2004). 
4. Adele, 21, 8,090,000 (February 2011). 
5. 50 Cent, Get Rich Or Die Tryin', 8,086,000 (February 2003). 
6. Evanescence, Fallen, 7,619,000 (March 2003). 
7. Nickelback, All The Right Reasons, 7,582,000 (October 2005). 
8. Carrie Underwood, Some Hearts, 7,177,000 (November 2005). 
9. Avril Lavigne, Let Go, 6,782,000 (June 2002). 
10. Taylor Swift, Fearless, 6,514,000 (November 2008). 
11. Nelly, Nellyville, 6,488,000 (June 2002). 
12. Kelly Clarkson, Breakaway, 6,219,000 (November 2004). 
13. Green Day, American Idiot, 6,056,000 (September 2004). 
14. Dixie Chicks, Home, 6,041,000 (August 2002). 
15. Mariah Carey, The Emancipation Of Mimi, 5,964,000 (April 2008). 
16. Josh Groban, Closer, 5,960,000 (November 2003). 
17. Linkin Park, Meteora, 5,913,000 (March 2003).
18. OutKast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, 5,702,000 (September 2003).
19. Josh Groban, Noel, 5,446,000 (October 2007).
20. Shania Twain, Up!, 5,409,000 (November 2004). 
21. 50 Cent, The Massacre, 5,286,000 (March 2005). 
22. Eminem, Encore, 5,282,000 (November 2004).
23. Rascal Flatts, Feels Like Today, 5,230,000 (September 2004). 
24. Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift, 5,175,000 (October 2006). 
25. Guns N' Roses, Greatest Hits, 5,161,000 (March 2004). 

{via Perez/Yahoo Music}

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Well there's one person who is loving Hank Williams, Jr.'s current controversy

So yesterday Hank Williams, Jr. compared President Obama to Hitler in a round-a-bout sort of way on Fox & Friends and the world was totally shocked. 

Dum dum dummmmmm. 

Then ESPN pulled his Monday Night Football theme song from last night's game in a nice wrist-slap gesture probably meant to appease those out for blood.  All I've heard so far, though, is that this was a one-week suspension and that Hank's toe-tapping theme song will be back next week, but I suppose that remains to be seen. 

Then Hank came out and said basically sorry you didn't like my comment, but it was meant to get attention so screw off.  

I'm paraphrasing of course.  

"Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood. My analogy was extreme – but it was to make a point. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me - how ludicrous that pairing was."

He continues, "They’re polar opposites and it made no sense. They don’t see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the President.” 

Williams Jr. adds, "Every time the media brings up the tea party it’s painted as racist and extremists – but there’s never a backlash – no outrage to those comparisons…Working class people are hurting – and it doesn’t seem like anybody cares. When both sides are high-fiving it on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job – it makes a whole lot of us angry. Something has to change. The policies have to change.”

But while a lot of the world was shocked by Hank's comments, one person was a little gleeful in light of Bocephus' presidential controversy.

Natalie Maines. 

Yep, former (current?) Dixie Chick, Natalie Maines, who is maybe best remembered for ruining the Dixie Chicks' promising career when she said on stage that she was ashamed to say that then President George W. Bush was from Texas, was enjoying the mess Hanks had gotten himself into. 

From Natalie's Twitter: 

We'll never know if country radio would have banned Hank Williams Jr. for badmouthing the President, because they already don't play him;)

And: 

Finished my NFL theme song!It's called Now We're Ready For Some Football.It's a subtle but effective change.My melody is way better too.

Come on, do you blame her?  It's taken since 2003, but someone finally took the reins from her in the presidential ooops department. 

UPDATE: Okay, so I'm honestly not sure if HWJ is gone from Monday Night Football for good or just for one week.  Everyone is reporting that his theme song is no longer the theme song for MNF, but ESPN's official statement was: "We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from TONIGHT'S telecast."

I don't know about you but that sounds like it was a one-night pull to me and not a permanent one. Of course, after all the ruccus, I have a feeling it will eventually become permanent if it isn't already.  

Dixie Chicks reunite to help Texas fire victims

Texas pretty much burnt to a crisp this summer in scorching heat, drought, and massive wildfires, so now a bunch of artists are coming together to help raise some much needed money for the victims of the fires. 

Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel, Lyle Lovett, and the Dixie Chicks have all signed on to perform at the October 17th Fire Relief: The Concert for Central Texas at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. 

The host for the evening is Kyle Chandler, star of NBC's Friday Night Lights.  

If you'd like to go to the concert, tickets go on sale tomorrow, September 23, and can be purchased for $25-$250 with all proceeds going to the Austin Community Foundation.  

Yep, Natalie Maines still has short hair

As I wrote yesterday, Natalie Maines was in Arkansas yesterday for the surprise court hearing that was rumored to be releasing two of the West Memphis Three from prison.  

Despite the fact that most people thought the court would be letting two of the three go, they surprised most people by actually releasing all three, including Damien Echols who was on death row for the 1993 killings.

It's quite the victory for their supporters who have spent the last 18 years fighting to make this release a reality.

Anyway, yesterday I wasn't able to find any pictures of Natalie at the courthouse, but this morning I actually got the picture I was looking for and surprisingly it was posted by Natalie herself on her twitter.  

And yep, she still has the short boy cut going on.