New Chicks album

[BTFLCHLD]

I have a renewed appreciation for their music. Did anyone see them perform on the CBS Early Show today? Hopefully the website will post the video soon. The NBC Today Show posted Stevie so CBS better get it in gear!

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/earl...in500202.shtml

[bikerchic]

Originally Posted by BTFLCHLD

I have a renewed appreciation for their music. Did anyone see them perform on the CBS Early Show today? Hopefully the website will post the video soon. The NBC Today Show posted Stevie so CBS better get it in gear!

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/earl...in500202.shtml

I saw it! They were great! I love Natalie's voice. She looked really good too, she's lost alot a weight and looked really hot with those shorts and boots.

[Livia]

They are still #1!

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/..._id=1002649081

June 07, 2006, 10:50 AM ET

Katie Hasty, N.Y.
In a slow week for new album releases, the Dixie Chicks are queens of The Billboard 200 for a second week straight with "Taking the Long Way." Despite a slip of 48% in sales at 271,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the Columbia set also remains No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart.

Out of the 13 albums that have taken No. 1 on the big chart so far this year, only four had a second week sales decline of less than 50%: "Taking the Long Way," Barry Manilow's "The Greatest Songs of the Fifties," Jack Johnson's "Curious George" soundtrack and Il Divo's "Ancora."

The soundtrack to Disney's "High School Musical" holds tight at No. 2 in its 21st week on the chart, selling 103,000 copies (-41%). Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Stadium Arcadium" (Warner Bros.), which sat atop the chart two weeks ago, climbs 5-3 with 87,000 copies, a 22% dip. Rascal Flatts' fourth Lyric Street/Hollywood full-length, "Me and My Gang," shoots up 6-4, though its 79,000 units sold are an 8% decrease from the prior week.

RCA's "American Idol Season 5: Encores" compilation, featuring songs from each of the 12 finalists, falls 3-5 with a sales hit of -56% at 68,000 copies. Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks, who covers "Takin' It to the Streets" on the release, and runner-up Katharine McPhee, who interprets "Think," both scored record deals with RCA-affiliated labels in the last week.

The 21st "NOW! That's What I Call Music" (BMG/Zomba/EMI/UME) installment re-enters the top tier, moving 11-6 with 55,000 (-2%). Tool's "10,000 Days" (Tool Dissectional/Volcano) continues to fall 7-9 with 55,000 (-16%), less than a couple hundred behind "NOW! 21."

Carrie Underwood's "Some Hearts" (Arista/Arista Nashville) ascends 10-8 with 54,000 (-16%) while James Blunt's "Back to Bedlam" (Custard/Atlantic) re-enters the top 10 with a 25-9 explosion. The album sold 51,000 copies, a 53% boost, possibly attributable to Blunt's May 29 appearance on NBC's "Today" show.

With help from the popularity of her "Hips Don't Lie" single featuring Wyclef Jean, Shakira's "Oral Fixation Vol. 2" scoots into the No. 10 spot from No. 13 with 51,000 (+7%), a few hundred short of Blunt's count. It originally peaked at No. 5 in late 2005 and early 2006.

No new releases bowed in the top 100 slots of the Billboard 200. The closest contenders include Mike Patton's new project, Peeping Tom, entering with its self-titled Ipecac debut (No. 103, 10,000) and Les Claypool's third solo studio album, "Of Whales and Woe" (Prawn Song), with 8,000 at No. 115 (his best chart position yet).

At 9.3 million units, overall CD sales were down 7% from the previous week and down 10% compared to the same week a year ago. Sales for 2006 are down 3% compared to 2005 at 231.7 million units.

[carrie721]

i'm so glad they're doing well; i think it's a great album! good for them.

[skcin]

Not surprising. Somehow I really don't think they're too worried, considering they had to add a second Toronto date after the first one sold out fast.


http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Musi...eut/index.html

Red state backlash hurts Chicks' tour

Friday, June 9, 2006; Posted: 10:07 a.m. EDT (14:07 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Country music trio the Dixie Chicks, still taking heat for criticizing U.S. President George W. Bush, are weathering sluggish ticket sales in several cities for their upcoming U.S. tour, industry watchers reported on Thursday.

While early ticket purchases for their first major tour in three years are generally robust in Northeastern cities, initial sales have fallen short of expectations in numerous markets, especially in the Midwest and South, forcing some dates to be scrubbed.

By contrast, the group's latest album, "Taking the Long Way," opened atop the U.S. pop charts last week, selling 526,000 copies during its first seven days and remaining No. 1 in its second week to notch one of the year's strongest debuts.

But with many country music stations denying the Chicks airplay, box office business is off to a slow start in places where the group has sold out in the past, said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of concert industry magazine Pollstar.

According to Pollstar, dates in Memphis, Tennessee, Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, and Fresno, California, have been dropped from the tour schedule for now, while box-office sales also were canceled for Houston.

Billboard magazine reported that ticket counts for shows that went on sale last weekend were averaging 5,000 to 6,000 seats per date in major markets, and less in secondary locales. Arena capacities on the tour generally top 15,000.

"Basically, they're having to rethink the entire tour at this point," Bongiovanni told Reuters. "Clearly their problems seem to be strongest in the red states," he said, referring to those areas carried by Bush in the 2004 presidential election.

A key factor in tepid sales was the continuing backlash against the Dixie Chicks by many country music stations over the anti-Bush remarks of lead singer Natalie Maines in 2003.

Publicists for the band declined to comment, as did officials for AEG, one of the companies promoting the tour.

Maines sparked an uproar when she declared during a London concert in March 2003 that the band was embarrassed to come from the same state -- Texas -- as the president. She fanned flames anew by retracting an earlier apology for "disrespecting the office of the president," telling Time magazine in a recent interview: "I don't feel that way anymore. I don't feel he is owed any respect whatsoever."

"Country radio in many places has really closed the door on this group," Bongiovanni said, adding that some stations have not only refused to play the Chicks' music, they have refused advertisements for their tour as well.

Still, ticket sales were strong in cities such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Toronto, where a second October show was added to the schedule after the first concert quickly sold out, he said.

Further complicating the Chicks' commercial outlook has been their recent transformation as a band, Bongiovanni said.

"They've moved away from being a purely country group, so their audience is changing," he said.

Bongiovanni said it was not unusual for concert schedules to be altered after being booked, but he said the Dixie Chicks tour was drawing more attention than usual "because of the politics behind it." After two shows in London this month, the tour was set to begin on July 21 in Detroit.

Copyright 2006 Reuters.

[JazmenFlowers]

Originally Posted by skcin

Not surprising. Somehow I really don't think they're too worried, considering they had to add a second Toronto date after the first one sold out fast.

damn. I probably would've went to the Memphis show.

[estranged4life]

Originally Posted by skcin

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Musi...eut/index.html

the OKC show was dropped, DC receiving airplay is virtually non-existant here (While I will never be a fan, after reading the TIME magaine article last week as Deb had another PET scan, They do have my respect.)

But this summer concert season in OKC is dead/tits up, except for a few acts that could be considered 'nostalgic' acts, no one of major interest is coming here...Thus the sluggish ticket sales.

[skcin]

Chicks concert being brodcast LIVE on MSN tomorrow!

http://dixiechicks.msn.com/article.a...42549&GT1=8227

[bikerchic]

Ho **** man, thats cool. Thanks for the heads up

[MacMan]

They just added my city (Winnipeg) to the tour this week probably after having to drop a few midwest shows - pre sale tix are onsale now with the rest on Saturday...

[bikerchic]

^ Let me know how ticket sales go. They sold out in Toronto in 8 minutes and added another show.

[MacMan]

bikerchic ^ Let me know how ticket sales go.

Guess tickets sales were good! They just added a second show for Winnipeg.

[DestinyRules]

Originally Posted by sparky

I like the chicks. Natalie is a little shrill, but great with harmonies. These girls are talented as musicians, singers, and writers. A rarity these days. And I didn't mind their Landslide. Of course Stevie should work with Rick Rubin. She has never had a producer who was able to tell her that her songs or lyrics were crap - it might actually produce a solo record that wasn't 40% bad songs. If only.

Didn't Jimmy Iovine do that?

[sparky]

Originally Posted by DestinyRules

Didn't Jimmy Iovine do that?

Indeed. He did. Somehow those slipped my mind. He marked the end of an era. But hey, he did let Gate and Garden slip by. And The Highwayman. Best track record of them, without a doubt.

[golddustwoman77]

Originally Posted by JazmenFlowers

damn. I probably would've went to the Memphis show.

Come to the Knoxville show! I'm going to it. Also, you can fly from Memphis to Knoxville on Northwest Airlines---Very inexpensively. My husband and I do it some. My brother in law lives in Memphis. As a matter of fact, we are flying to Memphis in July, and we just got the tickets. They were like $240, if you get them way early they are even cheaper. Just a thought.

To add to the Reba and Toby conversation, if you watched Larry King Live, Natalie said that she and Toby did have a few problems, but it wasn't about politics. It was about her saying one of his songs was crap. She said that Toby was a "good Democrat" like her, and that it was water under the bridge. Toby Keith in a recent interview has said the same thing. Natalie also stated that Toby has done little to nothing to hurt their career. Then, she added that Reba McEntire, on the other hand, had done a great deal to try to hurt their career, and that they have a "real" problem with her. I had no idea. This part of the interview was very enlightening.