Natalie Maines Back With New Music For Her Debut Solo Album MOTHER

Fans have been waiting patiently for new music from the always provocative, multi-platinum, Grammy-Award winning, Natalie Maines. And now, after much anticipation, Natalie Maines of The Dixie Chicks, confirmed today that she will release her debut solo album, MOTHER, on Columbia Records on Tuesday, May 7, 2013.

On MOTHER, people will hear a new direction from the singer. Heavily influenced by the more rock-based, edgy and intense sound of title track, and Pink Floyd cover, "Mother," Maines teamed up with friend and Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and guitar wizard Ben Harper, who co-produced the record with Maines. The album was recorded in Harper's studio.

"I wanted this music to be very different from the Dixie Chicks," she says. "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."

As a member of the Dixie Chicks-the best-selling female group of all time-she has sold over 30 million albums and won 13 Grammy awards. But the ten songs on MOTHER reveal different sides of one of the most acclaimed voices of our time.

One of the initial songs they tackled was the soaring, tortured ballad from Pink Floyd's The Wall that ultimately gave this album its title. The result is a cover, which NPR's Ann Powers has described as "a tender acknowledgment of how fear can entrap all of us, even when we want to do nothing but love."

"Mother" was initially released on West of Memphis: Voices for Justice, the soundtrack to the documentary West of Memphis, a film which chronicles the story of the three wrongly-imprisoned Arkansas teenagers known as the West Memphis Three whose cause Maines has tirelessly championed in recent years.

The song "Free Life" is also included on the album because of its connection to the case. Natalie performed it at a rally when the young men were still in prison, and it became a favorite of the wife of Damien Echols, one of the WM3. "Free Life" was written by Dixie Chicks collaborator and Grammy-Award winner, Dan Wilson.

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