Martie Maguire

Martha Elenor Maguire (née Erwin, previously Seidel; October 12, 1969) is an American musician who is a founding member of the country band the Chicks and the country bluegrass duo Court Yard Hounds.

She won awards in national fiddle championships while still a teenager.

Maguire is accomplished on several other instruments, including the mandolin, viola, double bass and guitar.

She has written and co-written a number of the band's songs, some of which have become chart-topping hits.

She also contributes her skills in vocal harmony and backing vocals, as well as orchestrating string arrangements for the band.

Maguire learned several instruments at a young age, honing her skills with her younger sister, Emily Strayer (born Emily Erwin) and two schoolmates (a brother and sister team, Troy and Sharon Gilchrist) for over five years as a part of a touring bluegrass quartet while in high school.

After graduation, the sisters forged an alliance with two other women they had met through the Dallas music scene, Laura Lynch and Robin Lynn Macy, forming a bluegrass and country music band, busking and touring the bluegrass festival circuits for six years.

After the departure of Macy, and the replacement of Lynch with singer Natalie Maines, the band widened their musical repertoire and appearance.

The result was a trio so commercially successful that it took the country music industry by surprise, with 19 singles hitting the Billboard Country Charts, 2 Diamond Albums, 2 Platinum albums, and 13 Grammy Awards.

Martha Elenor Erwin, nicknamed Martie, was born October 12, 1969, in York, Pennsylvania.

Encouraged by her parents – educators at private schools – Maguire began playing violin at age five, and by age 12, started to learn to play "fiddle style" after receiving a birthday gift of fiddle lessons.

She also was active in her school orchestra.

Her sister Emily shared her love and interest in music, and displayed early talent herself.

The two sisters were provided musical instruction on several instruments, and their talent for vocal harmony continued to be nurtured.

Although Maguire became famous for her harmony and mastery of the fiddle, she also plays a variety of strings that include the viola, guitar, mandolin, and double bass.

Maguire composes songs and arranges the use of stringed instruments for concert and recording performances.

By 1983, Maguire was touring with her sister Emily and school friends siblings Troy and Sharon Gilchrist.

The sisters showed an "almost obsessive" interest in busking at small venues and attending bluegrass festivals.

The four students formed the teenage bluegrass group "Blue Night Express", playing together for five years, from 1984 to 1989, while still attending private Greenhill School.

"We'd drive down to the west end of Dallas and open our cases, and that was our job," Maguire said of it in a later interview to 60 Minutes II correspondent Dan Rather.

"That's how we made money in high school."

Also while in high school Maguire performed at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, TX, in a strolling duo with Troy Gilchrist for a summer.

In 1987, Maguire was awarded second place for the fiddle in the National fiddle championships held yearly in Winfield, Kansas.

Upon graduation from high school, with Emily still in high school, she spent a year attending college at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, from 1988 to 1989.

She performed in the school orchestra there and again competed in the national fiddle championships at the Walnut Valley Festival, in Winfield, earning third place that year.

In the 90s she played occasionally with the slo-core band, Bedhead.

In 1989, Maguire and Strayer joined guitarist Robin Lynn Macy and Laura Lynch on double bass in the Dixie Chicks, playing what was at the time predominantly bluegrass music and a mix of country standards.

Originally listed as Martha, and then Martie Erwin, Maguire played fiddle, mandolin, viola and harmonized with Strayer on backing vocals.

In 1999, the Dixie Chicks performed two songs, recording a cover of the song, "You Can't Hurry Love" as well as Maguire's "Ready to Run" for the Julia Roberts/ Richard Gere film Runaway Bride.

Maguire was singled out by BMI in 2000, and awarded Songwriter of the Year for writing and/or co-writing "Cowboy Take Me Away", "Ready To Run" and "You Were Mine".

"You Were Mine" was co-written by the sisters about their parents' divorce.

Maguire had begun writing and recording songs on their debut independent album, Thank Heavens for Dale Evans, and in 2001, one song co-written with Laura Lynch called "Pink Toenails" resurfaced.

The song was featured in the film, Don't Say A Word, with Skye McCole Bartusiak performing the song.

When their second album had a more polished sound, Maguire commented, "I hope our fans won't be disappointed [in The Little Ol' Cowgirl]; it's got drums on every track; it's no longer bluegrass, but we have to make a living and you can't do that playing bluegrass."

Two albums later, after Natalie Maines became the lead vocalist of the Chicks, the band's commercial success skyrocketed.

Maguire said of their music, "It's very rootsy, but then Natalie comes in with a rock and blues influence. That gave Emily and I [sic] a chance to branch out, because we loved those kinds of music but felt limited by our instruments."

Maguire co-wrote the song, "Cowboy Take Me Away" on the Chicks' album Fly for her sister Emily.

It was a tribute to Emily's courtship with country music writer/singer Charlie Robison.

Maguire subsequently stood by her bandmates as they were engulfed in a 2003 controversy for criticizing George W. Bush, which led to the Chicks being blacklisted by many country radio stations.

In 2003, Maguire was nominated for a Tony Award for co-composing the film score to Urban Cowboy; the musical used her "Cowboy Take Me Away".