Details on Natalie Maines’ Solo Album ‘Mother’

Natalie Maines and Guitar Photo
Natalie Maines’ Debut Solo Album, ‘Mother,’ Coming Tuesday, May 7. (Photo by Danny Clinch/Columbia Records)

The Dixie Chicks’s Natalie Maines is branching out with her first solo album, Mother. Dropping on May 7, 2013, the Columbia Records release features the Grammy-winning singer going in a new direction.

According to Columbia Records, Mother is edgier and more intense than Maines’ previous work.

Maines partnered with fellow Grammy winner Ben Harper to co-produce the album. And Maines recorded her first solo release in Harper’s studio.

Commenting on Mother, Maines said, “I wanted this music to be very different from the Dixie Chicks. Lots of albums by lead singers might just as well have been made by the band, but I think this is very different from anything the Chicks could make. That separation and distinction was important.”

Maines’ version of Pink Floyd’s mother was included in the soundtrack to the documentary West of Memphis, which followed the case of the three wrongly accused Arkansas men (teenagers at the time of their arrests) who were ultimately released from jail following their appeals. Maines was a steadfast supporter of the men’s innocence, and the track “Free Life” (written by Dan Wilson) on Mother was performed at a rally to help free the men.

Maines explains that her Dixie Chicks partners are writers on “Come Cryin’ to Me.” “That was a song we decided was too rock for Taking the Long Way,” said Maines, “but it really felt right to have a piece of them on here.”

MOTHER Track Listing:

1. Without You
2. Mother
3. Free Life
4. Silver Bell
5. Lover You Should’ve Come Over
6. Vein in Vain
7. Trained
8. Come Cryin’ To Me
9. I’d Run Away
10. Take It On Faith