Essential Dixie Chicks

Appearing a few months after the budget-line Playlist, The Essential Dixie Chicks is the kind of comprehensive collection this trio deserves. Spanning 30 tracks over two discs, The Essential rounds up all of the Dixie Chicks' big hits but runs in reverse, opening with selections from 2006's Taking the Long Way, then running back through 2002's Home, 1999's Fly, and 1998's Wide Open Spaces. Some may grumble about the sequencing, but it flows nicely and has all the hits while illustrating the depth of the band's catalog, which is enough to make it as essential as billed. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine