Dixie Chicks Postpone Release of New Album ‘Gaslighter’

Dixie Chicks fans will have to wait a little bit longer for new music. Vulture reported on Tuesday that the country trio has indefinitely postponed the release of their upcoming album Gaslighter, which was scheduled to drop on May 1. A statement from Columbia Records states that “the release of their highly anticipated fifth studio album, GASLIGHTER originally scheduled to drop on May 1, 2020, via Columbia Records, has been postponed. Additional details are forthcoming.”

Gaslighter was to be the Chicks’ first album in 14 years after their 2006 effort Taking the Long Way. Band members Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines and Emily Strayer released the project’s lead single, “Gaslighter,” in March, and it seems the track will have to hold fans over until the trio’s new album finally arrives. The Dixie Chicks are one of a number of acts that have delayed album released amid the coronavirus pandemic — Luke Bryan, Lady Gaga, Bon Jovi, Willie Nelson and more have all announced changes to their planned release schedules due to the virus.

“Well, we’re definitely out of practice,” Strayer told Zane Lowe on Apple Music last month of releasing new music. “It’s just as painful as it was to do all the artwork. We check our own typeset and we do all of that and so it’s a little bit nerve-wracking.”

“Gaslighter” was the first single for the group since 2007’s “The Neighbor,” and they explained that their families had a lot to do with their long absence from the music industry. “Well the kids, our nine kids collectively are why we paused for so long,” Maguire said. “And, I’m finding out that teenagers are a lot harder than babies. Not any easier.”

“Babies pull you off the road,” Maines added. “Teenagers push you back on … My boys are actually really supportive and really excited for the music and they are fans, they’re not too cool to like their mom’s job.”

The musicians’ families have also influenced their new work, and Strayer shared that one of the songs on the project was directly inspired by her daughter. “I definitely played it for my kids, and we actually have a song called ‘Julianna Calm Down,’ and that’s my daughter’s name,” she said. “She was a little mortified at the beginning. But now every time she gets all worked up, her brothers are like, ‘Julianna, calm down.’ So she’s a little mortified about that but it’s a good start to the song. It is exciting since we’ve been working on it for two years.”