Songoftheday 8/4/23 - Daddy sits on the front porch swinging looking out on a vacant field, used to be filled with burley t'bacca now he knows it never will...

 

 

"Long Time Gone" - The (formerly Dixie) Chicks 

from the album Home (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 7

Today's song comes from the (Dixie) Chicks, whose second major label album, Fly, became one of the biggest success in the history of country music, selling over eleven million copies and placing nine of its fourteen tracks on Billboard magazine's Country Songs airplay chart, with five of those also crossing over to the top-40 on the Hot 100 with "Ready To Run", "Cowboy Take Me Away", "Goodbye Earl", "Without You", and "If I Fall You're Going Down With Me". However, behind the scenes the trio were in legal battles with their label Columbia, accusing them of misappropriated funds and fudged royalties. It was eventually settled without trial with the Chick getting their own imprint on the label and giving them proper compsenation. 

With that Open Wide Records deal in place, the Chicks released their next album Home in the summer of 2002. It was preceded by the single "Long Time Gone", written by Darrell Scott and produced by the act's Martie Maguire, Emily Burns, and Natalie Maines along with the latter's father Lloyd Maines (a revered Texan musician in his own right). The song, originally a track on Scott's own album from a year prior, is a jaunty trip to the past with bluegrass production and lyrics about how things used to be, to the bitter closing verse about how country music itself has changed. Names like Cash, Haggard and Hank are given amusing puns while Hank's son is subtly skewered. It's a simple and uplifting song for such melancholy pining, and despite it bucking the Nash Vegas norms of that time found a welcome home on country radio. The music video put the Chicks down in Mexico, a nice juxtaposition to the "down home" bluegrass put in a different setting, with a coy subplot slipped in about three men crossing the border for either work or a better life or both...

"Long Time Gone" became the Chicks' first single to reach the top ten on Billboard's Hot 100 in August of 2002, while spending two weeks at #2 on their Country Songs chart. The Home album, released in August as the single was cresting, and topped both the Billboard 200 sales tally (for four weeks) and the Country Albums list, going on to sell over six million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2003, "Long Time Gone" won for Best Duo/Group Country Performance with Vocal, and the Home album took home Best Country Album. The record was also nominated for Album of The Year, losing to Norah Jones for Come Away With Me. Another track from the album, "Lil Jack Slade", won the trophy for Best Country Instrumental Performance that year as well. 

Both the Chicks and the album will be back to the series. 

(8/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's the original from Darrell Scott and Tim O'Brien's Real Time album in 2000...

Here's the Chicks on their Top Of The World tour in 2003...

And lastly, a performance from the MMXVI concert run in 2016...

Tomorrow I'll have my top hits of this week, and Monday I'll be back with a provocative rapper doing some self-care for a change.