Falls Church News-Press
November 10 - 16, 2005
VOL. XV NO. 36

http://www.fcnp.com/536/presspass.htm
with Susan Gibson
By Mike Hume

ãWhy are you covering the Dixie Chicks?ä

ãDo you know any more of their songs?ä

Songstress Susan Gibson has heard those and other Chick-related questions plenty of times after the final notes of ãWide Open Spacesä fade into the bustling din of bar sounds.

Thatâs when sheâll lean towards the microphone and quip: ãFunny story about that · ä

As she relays the story over the phone from her Wimberley, Texas home, the tale is more ãFunny Peculiarä than, ãFunny Ha Ha,ä but the gist of it is something like this: You know that song that served as the title track for the Dixie Chicks debut album? The one that helped propel them to stardom? The one that seemingly every girl/budding woman belts out when she drives off to college/live on her own/(insert adventurous experience here)? That wasnât the Dixie Chicks. That was Susan Gibson.

ãThat has been such an ego stroke,ä Gibson says. ãI just hope I can work my ass off to deserve that sort of good fortune.ä

That good fortune happened when Lloyd Maines, a pedal steel player/producer in Lubbock, and father of Dixie Chick Natalie Maines, heard the song and passed it on to his daughter who had just joined the group. The group began playing the song at live shows, which soon led to an outpouring of requests. Knowing the buzz the song was generating, when the Chicks recorded their first album, they fought to get the song on the album.

ãThe producers at Sony didnât want it on because they didnât think it was country enough, but the girls stuck to their guns,ä Gibson recalls. ãIt was off the album. It was back on the album. It was off the album. It was the first single. It was off the album again. There are 1,000 things that happened to it during that process.ä

Ultimately, it not only made the album, it served as its title track, as well as an anthem for young women across the country.

Gibson doesnât mind that her song made it big without her, and in fact relishes it.

ãIt gives me a little flag to wave whenever I play somewhere to an audience I donât know,ä Gibson says. ãItâs like weâve already had a sixth degree of separation. Itâs automatically familiar. Itâs like the way I feel driving to a gig and then seeing my poster at the venue. Itâs comfortable.ä

Gibson spends a lot of time driving, though sheâll fly to perform at Jamminâ Java this Tuesday, Nov. 15.

She logs about 60,000 miles a year driving from venue to venue in a UPS-style Freightliner, stuffed with her guitars, bags and dog, Jezable.

ãI donât feel far from home,ä Gibson says of her well-packed ride. So much at home, that even when in Wimberley, sheâll occasionally have to venture outside to the van to grab clothes.

Fortunately for Gibson, she enjoys all of the traveling, often using it as an analogy that, by her own admission, appears frequently in her songs.

ãIt happens more than it should. Iâll sometimes be playing a set and find myself saying ÎAnd hereâs another song about making an escape ·âä She jokes. ãI just really see that analogy of life and the road and how you treat people along the way, especially since Iâm always on the road.

ãI always write while Iâm driving. Itâs an active time, but itâs also a quiet time and itâs not like I have to count the little white lines going by. But I do challenge myself to write songs about things other than me toolinâ down the road.ä

That theme manifests itself quite clearly in ãHappiest When Iâm Moving,ä the opening track of Gibsonâs new release Outer Space, which also features a live performance of ãWide Open Spaces.ä The steady rhythm and resonating lyrics of ãMovingä capture a similar ãyou-canât-pin-me-downä feeling as its Chicks-covered predecessor, and serves as an introduction to 11 other songs that deal with friendship, all kinds of love, and of course ãtoolinâ down the road.ä

Gibson has also been writing more songs for other musicians. Since she penned ãWide Open Spacesä as she set out for Missoula, Mon. to start school at the University of Montana, Gibson has been approached several other times by the management and producers, asking her to author songs for their clients, trying to catch that same lightening in a bottle. Thus far, it hasnât worked out (ãThereâs always 1,000 things that can happen.ä), but in each instance, Gibson has sought insight into the artist sheâs writing for, convinced that ãSpacesä took off as it did because of the chemistry between the song and the band.

ãWide Open Spaces was a good song, but I think that had Shania Twain or Lee Ann Rimes, who sell thousands of albums, put it out, it wouldnât have resonated the same way,ä Gibson says. ãItâs the Dixie Chicksâ teen adventurous spirit that achieved that Zen thing. I know itâs that marriage that made it work.ä
In the meantime, sheâll work on the chemistry between her own act and her audiences. And Gibson will look to expand on the success of ãWide Open Spaces,ä and perhaps with Outer Space, the greatest vastness of all, sheâll do just that.
 

The musicians who appear on the album (Drew Campbell, drums; Saunders, bass; Michael O'Connor, lead guitar; and Chip Dolan, keyboards and accordion) also weren't too familiar with the material. That allowed the music to remain fresh, she said, because her band played the songs with the enthusiasm of a kid with a new toy.

Gibson said she's not sure how fans will react to the material. Although the songs on OuterSpace aren't vastly different than her previous work, there always will be people who aren't happy with change, she said.

"I'd almost be afraid to take that poll," Gibson said, referring to asking fans if they like the songs. "Any kind of change is hard for people. It's going to be like a watershed moment. I'm sure I'll lose some fans but gain some others."

Regardless of people's reaction to her music, Gibson said she's proud of the fact that she's still being 100 percent genuine. She's comfortable with her fans making up their own minds about her songs.

"I don't want to try to trick people into liking me," she said.