Despite a combined sales total that tops 25 million albums and fame that can turn off-the-cuff comments into political firestorms, Dixie Chicks Emily Robison and Martie Maguire aren't relying on their past achievements to drive sales of their new project, Court Yard Hounds. Instead, the sisters and their label, Columbia, say they're treating the act-whose self-titled album is out May 4 - like a whole new entity. But some of the deals they're striking would make many emerging acts green with envy.


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Robison and Maguire first decided to record as Court Yard Hounds when Dixie Chicks lead vocalist Natalie Maines wanted to take more time off and they were itching to create some new music.

"She knew our feelings about wanting to work and to be honest, it took a lot of pressure off her. She appreciated not feeling like we were waiting around for her anymore," Robison says. "We're still the Dixie Chicks and doing things together, but until we get back in the studio, we recorded this new music, just the two of us. She was happy for us that we were able to find an outlet for the stuff that I'd been writing."

The duo took its new moniker from a David Benioff novel Robison had been reading. "I wanted a well-worn name, one that sounded like it had been around for a while," Robison says. "There's an excerpt about talent and how it's a fanatical mistress, how it can be with you at one point and then after a while it can leave you. It's very relevant for our own lives as far as just taking advantage of when you are inspired and not letting the time pass you."

The band's summer will be spent on the road, touring as both the Chicks and the Hounds. The Chicks will be on tour with the Eagles, while the Hounds are doing Lilith Fair, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and other dates.

"There are a lot of acoustic elements. There are a lot of rock elements, a lot of country elements and a lot of folk influences for sure," Maguire says of the group's sound. "Emily just started sending these songs. She had been writing for about two years on a hiatus."

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