The Court Yard Hounds: "Skyline"

 

Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, a.k.a. the Court Yard Hounds

I was a latecomer to country music. In fact, I still haven't truly come around. My boyfriend practically grew up wearing cowboy boots and line dancing, so I'm making an effort, and I've found a lot to like: lovely harmonies, sweet acoustic guitar mixed with melodic violin, lots of blond hair. I speak, of course, of the Court Yard Hounds.

This country duo just released their debut in 2010, but they're no newcomers to the music scene. Sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison are two-thirds of the Dixie Chicks, a group they started together in 1989. They hit paydirt in the mid-'90s, when lead singer Natalie Maines joined up and helped them earn 10 CMA Awards and 13 Grammy Awards between 1998 and 2007. The group has been on hiatus since 2008, so the sisters embarked on this side project.

Maguire and Robison's pedigree and polish is obvious in their performance. They've both primarily been instrumentalists with the Dixie Chicks, playing everything from guitar to fiddle to banjo to mandolin to accordion. But with the Court Yard Hounds, Robison takes the lead on vocals, and her self-penned and personal lyrics weave through warm guitar and violin sounds, reaching climax when Maguire chimes in with tight, shiver-inducing harmonies. This is easy listening, much like the Dixie Chicks' corpus, but it's sans Natalie Maines' bold stage presence and that thing that country singers do with their voice sometimes, where they flip the end of a word to the back of their throat. (Can someone tell me the technical term for that? Check out what I mean with this 2002 DC performance. Listen to Maines' third word, "know.")

The Court Yard Hounds will release their sophomore album this summer, so you'll want to pick that up because they'll probably play it top to bottom during their set on Saturday of Lolla.

Maines is also keeping busy, with her first solo album, Mother, set to drop on May 7. But never fear, Dixie Chicks fans: The three firmly insist that their reign is not over. In the meantime, the mellow music of the Court Yard Hounds will sate the country-minded among you. I wonder if you can line dance to it.