Natalie Maine "Mother" Review; Dixie Chicks Singer Ready To Make Nice On Solo Album[VIDEOS]

Natalie Maines, singer of the Dixie Chicks has a new solo rock album "Mother" and it is quite different from the commercial controversial country music she used to create. Natalie is Ready to Make Nice in her newest venture.

Mother is an album of covers and originals by other writers with one strong original, "Take It On Faith." She leans hard on philosophical lyrics about self-identity. The title song, "Free Life" and the importance of strong relations with "Without You" and "Come Cryin' To Me" are a signs of Natalie's maturity.

Song on the album Lover, You Should've Come Over is "the song Adrian and I woke up to every morning the first year we were together," says Maines.

She returns to her rock roots, covering Pink Floyd's Mother which fans can't wait to hear her take on.

Columbia Records president Ashley Newton calls it a "fascinating feel and direction for Natalie to choose for her first solo project."

The album may surprise her fans. "It sounds like it was almost made in a vacuum without expectations or precedent," says music writer Chris Willman.  "It's probably the first album she's made that wasn't made to be overtly commercial or to satisfy millions of fans or to react to a backlash as the last Chicks album did."

"I think this album is less disgruntled than some people thought it might be," Maines says. "There's no politics on it. It's really just about love and life and simple things."

The Album Mother is the first musical creation Natalie has made since The Dixie Chicks won five categories at the Grammy Awards for Taking the Long Way.

Mother is not a country album, but more of an expression of herself. While she loves her Dixie Chicks bandmates Emily Robinson and Martie McGuire and the music they created, Maines tells NPR that country music was never where she saw herself. After 15 years performing on stage with Robinson and McGuire, however, this new project has its challenges.

"On stage, it can feel a little naked to not have them on either side," she says.

Though Taking the Long Way. Was a beautifully defiant hit, the album was blacklisted by radio in the wake of Maines' anti-Bush comments in 2003.

As the U.S. prepared to invade Iraq, Maines told a British audience that the Chicks were "ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas." Country radio and Bush devotees turned their backs on the group smashing their CDs in front of news cameras and not attending their concerts.

"After we won our fifth award, we went backstage and I went into the bathroom and just was crying uncontrollably, and I didn't know why. I didn't feel sad - I was telling Martie and Emily, 'I don't know why I'm crying.' But I could not stop. And looking back, I think for me, that was the end of a chapter. And I felt victorious. I really did just kind of feel like, 'OK, now I'm going to (expletive) stop fighting.' Because even if all these people hated me ...I felt like people in our industry made a statement with their vote as well, just about what's right in music and free speech," Natalie so generously admitted.

In an interview with Howard Stern Maines talks about her shun from the country music community.

"It still makes me uncomfortable to watch footage from those years. I think, "She's a baby! Everyone leave her alone! She's a child!'

Nat opens up about aging: "When I see my face starting to sag and I'm getting older, I think, 'Oh, my God, I'm 38. And I'm just having my first solo album."

Maines not getting rid of her band Dixie Chicks for good. She is committed to playing festivals with the Chicks in Canada, an obligation that will pull her full focus from Mother until late summer or early fall. Still, Maines admits it's been hard finding a tour to join that knows what to make of her new sound.

On being asked if she still feels stong about any political views Maines says unapologetically, "I'm pro-gay marriage. Pro-gay everything. I'm pro-choice. I'm liberal on every social aspect, probably. More liberal than people would even believe. But there's still some of that Texas in me, as far as the gun debate. I wish there were no guns, I'm all for gun restrictions. But I'm also of the mind-set, if nothing changes, I'm getting a gun."

As a huge Dixie Chick fan I cannot wait to hear her newest album.  It's been too long since I've heard her earth-shattering magnificent voice.