You_Were

"You Were Mine" is a hit song by the Dixie Chicks, from their 1998 album Wide Open Spaces. It was released in December 1998,¹ and hit number one on the U.S. Country singles chart, spending two weeks there in March 1999.¹ It also placed to number 34 on the U.S. Pop singles chart, and reached number three on Canada's country music chart.

History

The song was written by 1995 by two of the founders of the original band, the Erwin sisters,² who were not strangers to writing music and performing (they are now known as Martie Maguire and Emily Robison). Robison wrote most of the song, and Maguire supplied the bridge. It is a very autobiographical song, about the breakup of Robison's and Maguire's parents and their subsequent divorce. In one interview, when asked about it, Robison said that their parents generally "sweep it under the rug", saying, "They know it's about them, but [whispers] we never talk about it. [laughs] They don't want to bring it up because they're still weird around each other. My dad doesn't want to think it's about him, because it doesn't make him look very good, and my mom thinks she's moved on."³

"You Were Mine" was a key factor in the events that brought the Dixie Chicks from near total obscurity to massive commercial success. Based on a recommendation from session musician and producer Lloyd Maines, sometime after June 1995 the Erwin sisters got his daughter Natalie Maines to come to Lubbock, Texas to sing the lead vocal on a demo recording of the song, rather than using the Chicks' actual lead singer Laura Lynch.² The sisters told the other supporting musicians that this was only because Lynch was unavailable due to being out of town on a personal matter.² In reality, the recording convinced Maines that she could sing the Chicks' new style of country material (as opposed to their past purer bluegrass),⁴ and led to the sisters to decide that they wanted to remove Lynch and replace her with Maines.

When recording for the first-Maines-era album Wide Open Spaces began, "You Were Mine" was the only song the band was certain would be included.⁴ The recording has a solid country music sound. From the start, until the last strains of the song, Maguire's violin draws out a hushed, somewhat sorrowful tune. A dose of Lloyd Maines' steel guitar in the background – which also helped establish the record's traditional country categorization⁴ – and the mixture of Maines' vocals with the sisters' harmony set a tone of loss and regret.

"You Were Mine" was played during the group's 2000 first-headlining Fly Tour, where Rolling Stone called Maines' "powerhouse, nail-it-to-the-wall perfect delivery of [the] achingly beautiful weeper" one of the highlights of the show,⁵ but not on subsequent tours.

Music video

The music video for "You Were Mine" shows the Dixie Chicks checking into the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York. The sisters go up to their rooms looking tired and forlorn, but Maines circles around the revolving door and walks the neighboring Gramercy streets, singing the song. Occasional views of happier couples and families in the hotel are shown. At the end, Maguire is seen playing the song's final phrase on violin.

References

^ ^a ^b "Dixie Chicks Complete Discography: Wide Open Spaces". The All-Inclusive Dixie Chicks Page (2000-04-12). Retrieved on 2008-07-16.
^ ^a ^b ^c Dickerson, James L. (2000) Dixie Chicks: Down-Home and Backstage. Taylor Trade Publishing, Dallas, Texas. ISBN 0-87833-189-1. p. 81.
^ Willman, Chris (September 23, 1999). "Girls' Power: The triple CMA winners tell EW Online about mattress dancing and other fun facts of life", Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 16 July 2008.
^ ^a ^b ^c Dickerson, Down-Home and Backstage, p. 98.
^ Skanse, Richard (2000-07-21). "The Dixie Chicks Take Manhattan", Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 23 October 2008.