43 Women Who Shaped ’90s Country

The Chicks

Photo by Sherry Rayn Barnett/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

It’s impossible to overstate the impact The Chicks (originally known as the Dixie Chicks) had on ’90s country. I can still remember the first time I heard the trio (Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer) sing “I Can Love You Better” and thinking who are these women? (I had to find out everything I could about them, leading to my first late ’90s foray into fan pages.)

I must’ve listened to Wide Open Spaces approximately 10 million times on my new Sony 5-disc stereo (if you know, you know), reveling in the dreamy title track, “There’s Your Trouble,” “You Were Mine” and the JD Souther-penned “I’ll Take Care of You.” (It should’ve been a single.)

I didn’t think my Chicks fandom could get any more intense. Then, Fly was released. The group endured their first round of controversy with “Goodbye Earl,” flirted with disaster on “Sin Wagon” (probably the first country song to use the phrase “mattress dancin'”) and released one of the greatest love songs of the ’90s with “Cowboy Take Me Away.”

In the 20+ years since the release of the trio’s debut album, they’ve dealt with controversy, vitriol aimed at them over their political beliefs and much more. But through it all they’ve remained committed to speaking out on causes that matter, not to mention releasing some of the best music of their career, including 2020’s Gaslighter.

Long may they reign.

Best ’90s Lyric: “She needs wide open spaces, room to make her big mistakes/ She needs new faces/ She knows the highest stakes” (Wide Open Spaces, 1998)