“Cowboy Take Me Away”
The Chicks
Written by Marcus Hummon and Martie Maguire
Radio & Records
#1 (3 weeks)
January 28 – February 11, 2000
Billboard
#1 (3 weeks)
February 5 – February 19, 2000
What could capture the promise of the new decade better than the Chicks at the top of the country chart with such a traditional and progressive single?
Martie Maguire was inspired by the old Calgon commercials of the eighties, where a weary housewife would sink into the bubble bath after a hard day and cry, “Calgon! Take me away!”
That pop culture moment influenced one of the Chicks’ most enduring hits, capturing how a country girl still longs for the simple life, even as she’s making good on her dreams in the big city. Maines’ growing confidence as a vocalist is matched by the increasingly bold musicianship of Maguire and sister Emily Strayer.
On one hand, it’s hard to fully articulate just how fresh this track from Fly sounded at the turn of the century. Indeed, many of the songs from that album haven’t aged as well in terms of production, but you could drop this on to radio now and it would be an even more of a balm than it was back in the day.
We’ll see the Chicks a few more times before the decade is out, and they’ll be showing up with a classic every damn time.
“Cowboy Take Me Away” gets an A.
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It sure does sound great! Sentimental but my wife choose this song as her walkdown a our wedding so it hold a special spot but even if you took that away it’s a beautiful song and I love the mandolin sprinkled and of course the harmonies. Great way to start the decade.
Favorites from “Fly”
“Sin Wagon”
“Cowboy Take Me Away”
“If I Fall You’re Going Down with Me”
“Let Him Fly”
“Goodbye Earl”
2000 is off to a better start than 1970, that’s for sure! I don’t know if there’s a bad song on Fly (and of course, Home); that this is one of my least favorite songs from that album is not a knock on Cowboy Take Me Away but rather a testament to The Chicks’ artistry. This song makes me want to be taken away by a cowboy too, haha. Its dreamy and soars like the fantasy the protagonist desires.
Of course, The Chicks music is a bright spot of the 2000s. But I’m interested to see how I feel about this decade through the lens of this feature, because I remember a listening to a countdown in probably 2005 and realizing that I didn’t like any song in the top 40 that week. So, I turned off the show. Up until then, I had religiously listened to a country countdown show each week.
2005 is about the time I quit listening to Country Radio on any sort of regular basis
I mostly gave up on the countdown shows in 1999 when radio began pivoting to “nine-week #1 hits” and molasses-paced chart movement. I still kept tabs on radio though, but 2005 was definitely the point where it really started to slump for me as well.
…very interesting remarks, folks. could you possibly point out a little more specifically, what it was in particular around 2005 that put you off listening to country radio. ironically, it coincides roughly with the start of country universe, the beginnings of the careers of future commercial powerhouses like jason aldean or carrie underwood. miranda lambert got into full swing, taylor swift was around the corner. toby keith, brad paisley, keith urban, rascal flatts, kenny chesney were huge. all in all, it seemed pretty standard procedure the way it was going then. the no. 1 songs of that year were not half bad either. so, what was it that seemed to have put you – avid country listeners – off around that point/period in time? any more tangible explanations?
For me, it was that the music was sounding very bland. If I’m remembering correctly, the countdown that I ended up turning off was all just boring to me. All of thesongs bored me.
For me, I bailed on country radio more or less when they turned on The Chicks and most other women and went all-in on a callow brand of “patriotism,” the effects of which we are still very much dealing with. Instead, I was able to use my iPod to curate my own playlists for longform listening to the country artists who I believed were worthy of airplay– Drive-By Truckers, Neko Case, Allison Moorer, Old 97s, and many more– without having to suffer through the era’s biggest stars, most of whom were releasing music that I only occasionally (McGraw), rarely (Chesney), or never (Rascal Flatts, Lonestar) liked at all.
Like Jonathan, the hard pivot toward jingoism and away from women singers was a shot across the bow for me. I still found stuff to like on country radio in the mid-2000s but the direction left a bad taste in my mouth. Things would get worse in the decade to come, but I definitely had an entitled “the music should always be as good as it was in the early-to-mid 90s!” and when it kept drifting away from that high-water mark, I got annoyed.
I wasn’t as big of a fan of this group as most but this was definitely my favorite song by them.
Great song, great vocal and harmonies. Definitely deserves an A.
I’m a sucker for a prominently featured fiddle (see also: Pam Tillis’ Deep Down), so this already gets bonus points from me. That, coupled with one of Natalie Maines’ most affecting, nuanced vocals, lifts a track from my favorite Chicks’ album from very good to great.
This song is so beautiful, the harmonies are on point, and something about it just feels dreamy and has a great atmosphere to it. Also Natalie Maines voice when she sings “Closer to You” sounds so amazing, and like she is genuinely want an escape.
Very good song – this was the last of seven consecutive top ten singles. After this the quality of their singles began to slip, beginning with the ridiculous “Goodbye Earl”. Natalie Maines probably could have had a good solo career – the rest of the Chicks (including former members Laura Lynch and Robin Lynn Macy) really were not good solo singers, at least not within the group context of the Chicks although Macy was an effective bluegrass vocalist.
There are times we do agree, Paul, and then there are times you show up and say a run of singles– “Goodbye Earl,” “Cold Day in July,” “Without You,” “If I Fall You’re Going Down With Me,” “Heartbreak Town,” “Some Days You Gotta Dance,” “Long Time Gone,” “Landslide,” “Travelin’ Soldier,” and “Top of the World”– somehow represents a slip in quality, which is a take so willfully contrarian that even Armond White would question if it reflects the reality the rest of us live in. Good Lord.
I said the “quality of their singles began to slip”, I did not say that none of them were any good, but the consistency was not there. I think part of the problem is that of language having been debased. When I like something (music, food, theater, movies) I usually describe it as good or very good whereas my children and grandchildren describe anything they like as fantastic – nuance has been lost. I have experienced some fantastic things in life (man landing on the moon in 1969 comes to mind) but they are few and far between.
I like most of the singles that Jonathan mentions much better than this one, to be honest.
It seemed like a much quainter time, to see how the Chicks became arguably the most successful all-female group or band in American music history, country or otherwise, with their combination of Emily’s and Martie’s traditional country/bluegrass instrumental virtuosity and harmonies and Natalie’s rock-influenced lead vocals. And the fact that within just a little over three years they’d get ostracized by the country music community that they had always waved the flag for and even get at least one credible death threat because of what Natalie said and where she said that is more than a little sickening to think about.
Fantastic start to the new decade! After the non-event that Y2K turned out be, this song was a perfect anthem as a sigh of relief for those of us warned about airplanes falling out of the sky and prison cells opening up. My love for The Chicks was never as unequivocal as the consensus seems to be on this site and so many other circles, but I was nonetheless a fan and songs like this were the perfect exhibition of why. Natalie Maines’ voice worked best for me when the songs were more restrained, and it was positively soothing on this “take me away” vibe. The Chicks were at their commercial peak here and I wish radio had been gutsy enough to let their outrageous follow-up single do well enough to make this feature as well.
Bouncing from these reviews from the late 80s to the early 2000s has really given me a fashion whiplash. I’d forgotten how frenzied the color schemes were in fashion and pop culture production generally in the late 90s and early 2000s. This video and the “Goodbye Earl” video make me particularly grateful I don’t have photosensitive epilepsy or all of these bright colors might give me a seizure! I was in college at the time and certainly have no memory of fashion being so loud and proud at my Midwestern campus. Anyway, great song to start off a decade that started song but lost me as it progressed.
Grade: A