Track Listing

1. I Can Love You Better
2. Wide Open Spaces
3. Loving Arms
4. There's Your Trouble
5. You Were Mine
6. Never Say Die
7. Tonight The Heartache's On Me
8. Let 'er Rip
9. Once You've Loved Somebody
10. I'll Take Care Of You
11. Am I The Only One (Who's Ever Felt This Way)
12. Give It Up Or Let Go

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2317 in Music
• Released on: 1998-09-21
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
The major-label debut from this Texas trio proves their instrumental abilities, blending more traditional twang with slow melodic blues, foot-tapping rockabilly, and bluegrass-inspired pop harmonies. From the opener, "I Can Love You Better", the Chicks let their love of music and genuine joy shine through while the energy on this album reminds one of Carlene Carter. Solid musicianship, top-notch vocal performances, and infectious pop hooks make this a stellar project. --Paula Ghergia

CD Description
The Dixie Chicks' WIDE OPEN SPACES is flavoured with tight-knit harmonies and acoustic instrumentation within the centre of very tastefully understated arrangements. Their own acoustic underpinnings of fiddle, guitar, banjo and dobro are complimented and raised up by Paul Worley and Blake Chancey'srespectful and organic production. This music is decorated with antique store furnishings, not the usual gaudy, regurgitated guitar licks and cheap generic production tricks. The trio is propelled by their delightful vocals and the very natural and easy country sway that the producer and the fine accompanying musicians have created.

Customer Reviews

Best country album ever!
This is definetly the best country music album you can get. It sounds much more modern than a lot of other country music you hear and every song is beautiful. It didn't suprise me to find out recently that this album got into the record books for being the best selling country album of all time, selling something like 20 million. Buy it and even people who think they hate country music, listen to it and you'd probably change your opinion of it.

Quality album that catapulted Chicks to superstardom
This was actually the fourth album by the Dixie Chicks, but the first on a major label and it was also the first since Natalie joined the group. It features many great tracks, including covers of songs previously recorded by Elvis Presley (Loving arms), Marie McKee (Am I the only one who's ever felt this way) and Bonnie Raitt (Give it up or let me go). All those covers are quite impressive, given the distinctive Dixie Chicks treatment. However, it is the original songs that really are outstanding.

The album even yielded a British pop hit (There's your trouble) which is not easy for a country act to achieve, especially one that owes so much to the traditional roots of the music. Somehow, the Dixie Chicks found a way to sound sufficiently contemporary to appeal to people who normally don't like country music, yet still managed to sound traditional enough for the majority of diehard country fans.

Apart from There's your trouble, I can love you better, Wide open spaces, You were mine and Tonight the heartache's on me are other notable highlights, although every song here would be a highlight on most country albums – that's how strong this album is.

Whether singing ballads or up-tempo songs, the Dixie Chicks set a standard that others can only dream of matching. The years of obscurity paid off in a big way with this, one of the best country albums ever released.

The reason I listen to Country Music!
Having seen the performance of what has to be one of the most emotional songs ever written, "You were mine" I was sold on the Dixie Chicks and a listen to the album had me sold on country music. I have bought lots of country music since but this is still the best album I own and it will take another exceptional talent to change that!