George Bush, murder and nautical infidelity: the Chicks’ 20 greatest songs – ranked!

One of eight singles released from the album Fly. Amazement at the sheer number should be matched by astonishment at their consistency. If I Fall … is just great. Organ-driven rock lent a Nashville twang by the fiddle, it barrels along, rich with the confidence of a band who know they can’t put a foot wrong.

19. Tights on My Boat (2020)

You don’t want for dirt dished about Natalie Maines’ divorce on Gaslighter, the band’s eighth album, but this accusation of nautical infidelity stands out. It’s ferociously angry and very funny – plus its understated, live-in the-studio sound only compounds the sense that you’re eavesdropping on tea being spilled among friends.

18. You Were Mine (1998)

A great country weeper in its own right, You Were Mine is also part of the Chicks’ origin story. It was written by the sisters Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire about their parents’ divorce; they then invited Maines, the daughter of the producer Lloyd Maines, to sing on the demo, rather than the then Chicks vocalist Laura Lynch. A lineup change and vast success ensued.

17. The Long Way Around (2006)

The chief theme of the Taking the Long Way album – being celebrated soon with a 20th anniversary reissue and tour – was the Chicks’ war of words with President George W Bush and Nashville conservatives. The musically sweet-toned opening track suggests that attitude was par for the course – of a piece with a longstanding disinclination to “kiss all the asses” and “do it like everybody else”.

16. Julianna Calm Down (2020)

Over a soft organ backing and something approaching a dancefloor pulse, the Chicks offer hard-won advice to the recently dumped: “Put on your best shoes and strut the fuck around like you’ve got nothing to lose.” Its slow build to a euphoric climax – elevated by Maguire’s fiddle – is great.

15. Ready to Run (1999)

You could suggest the Celtic motifs on Ready to Run are an acknowledgment of Irish folk’s seminal influence on country; equally, they may have something to do with the Corrs’ late-90s success. Either way, Ready to Run’s breezy mood carries a witty lyric that offers a middle finger to marriage and commitment.

14. Texas Man (2020)

Marooned in California post-divorce, Maines pines for the more rough-hewn gents of her home county. But the beauty of Texas Man is really about the music’s experimental bent: a tight, close-miked, new-wave-leaning sound replete with fuzzed-out guitar that’s completely unlike anything the Chicks had released before, but still somehow sounds like them.

13. Cold Day in July (1999)

Five minutes of inconsolable misery. “The moon is full, and my arms are empty / All night long, I’ve pleaded and cried,” it opens, with Maines’ voice at its most angst-ridden. The guitar-driven arrangement is simple, but spot-on: it doesn’t need anything more to work its sob-inducing magic.

12. Sin Wagon (1999)

In the early 80s, there was talk of a subgenre called cowpunk. It never crossed over into the mainstream, but the title perfectly fits Sin Wagon, named after a line in Grease. A thrilling blend of speedy bluegrass with raw, growling energy, its lyrics are home to a splendid celebration of “mattress dancin”.

11. Sleep at Night (2020)

There’s a pleasing circularity about Sleep at Night, which bears the distinct influence of the noted Chicks fan Taylor Swift; you can almost hear her delivering the line: “My husband’s girlfriend’s husband just called me up – how messed up is that?” An extra point for the slapping rhythm track, the perfect accompaniment to the punches landed in the lyrics.

10. Easy Silence (2006)

The negative image of Taking the Long Way’s two-fisted lead single Not Ready to Make Nice, Easy Silence details the downside of being the centre of a media storm. It sounds utterly, affectingly weary – “everyone is running” it notes, before evincing a longing to “keep the world at bay”.

9. There’s Your Trouble (1998)

The Chicks’ biggest UK chart hit offers the perfect example of why their fourth album, Wide Open Spaces, catapulted the former bluegrass/western-swing combo to superstardom: beautifully turned songwriting, a fresh pop sheen that didn’t overwhelm their audible country bona fides, impressively tough and salty lyrics and – in their new vocalist Maines – the ideal voice to deliver them.

8. Landslide (2002)

This version of the Stevie Nicks song is bold – the original is a classic – and ahead of the curve, arriving years before Fleetwood Mac became a hip name for leftfield musicians to drop. Stripped down to country basics, in keeping with the rest of the album Home, the song shines, highlighting the trio’s impeccable harmonies.

7. Long Time Gone (2002)

The back-to-the-land saga of Darrell Scott’s Long Time Gone comes complete with a critique of modern Nashville – “they got money, but they don’t have Cash” – and the Chicks’ version is suitably old-fashioned, with no drums and a distinct bluegrass influence about the banjo and fiddle. The lyrics are biting, but it still sounds like a party.

6. Gaslighter (2020)

The title track of the first Chicks album in 14 years pulled no punches. Its subject, Natalie Maines’ ex-husband Adrian Pasdar, had reportedly been concerned that the group’s unreleased material would violate a confidentiality clause in their prenuptial agreement. Gaslighter was released after the couple finalised their divorce, but it is almost unsettlingly brutal in its frankness – and insanely catchy.

5. Wide Open Spaces (1998)

Wide Open Spaces started life as a student’s poem about returning to Texas from university in Montana and ended up a kind of Stetson-clad She’s Leaving Home. A huge hit – and the kind of Chicks song that one suspects sunk in deep with the young Swift.

4. Travelin’ Soldier (2002)

This is destined to be remembered as the track Maines was introducing in London when she criticised Bush, but the ensuing furore shouldn’t overshadow how fantastic Travelin’ Soldier is. Stark and moving, never mawkish, it isn’t a protest song so much as a heartbreaking story entwined with the Vietnam war.

3. Cowboy Take Me Away (1999)

A song based on the slogan of a US advert – for Calgon bath and beauty products! – should be a novelty. Cowboy Take Me Away is anything but. Instead, it’s a wistful paean to escape, lent a tear-jerking quality by the sense said escape may never happen. Balanced between uplift and melancholy, the music fits perfectly.

2. Not Ready to Make Nice (2006)

The Chicks’ musical response to the Bush incident is a thing of snarling, screw-the-lot-of-you wonder: “It’s too late to make it right / I probably wouldn’t if I could.” The ensuing album slightly belaboured the point, but as a short, sharp burst of bitterness and bile, Not Ready to Make Nice is a triumph.

1. Goodbye Earl (1999)

Long before controversy engulfed their career, the Chicks were entirely capable of causing it. Twenty country stations refused to play Goodbye Earl, apparently horrified by the lyric: high school friends Mary-Anne and Wanda successfully plot to murder Wanda’s abusive husband after he breaches a restraining order and leaves her in intensive care. It still sold a million copies – deservedly so. The chorus is a singalong monster, the lyric is gripping and superbly written and the Chicks’ reading of it is perfect. The vocals switch from cold rage to gleeful celebration over music that is taut and explosive. Tongues firmly in cheek, they stuck a cover of Stand By Your Man on the B-side.