{"id":354067,"date":"2026-06-29T04:37:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/354067\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T04:37:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:37:21","slug":"born-75-years-ago-in-west-texas-the-man-behind-some-of-country-musics-biggest-classics-and-father-of-a-90s-country-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/354067\/","title":{"rendered":"Born 75 Years Ago in West Texas, the Man Behind Some of Country Music’s Biggest Classics and Father of a 90s Country Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

An essential part of the vibrant Texas country music scene, Lloyd Maines has produced some of the genre\u2019s biggest names\u2014Parker McCollum<\/a>, Robert Earl Keen, and Jerry Jeff Walker, just to name a few. As the father of The Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines, he also helped jump-start the award-winning trio\u2019s commercial success in the mid-1990s. Today, we\u2019re diving into the life and career of Lloyd Maines, born in Lubbock, Texas, on this day (June 28) in 1951.<\/p>\n

How Lloyd Maines\u2019 West Texas Upbringing Shaped His Career<\/p>\n

Long before his daughter\u2019s birth, Maines\u2019 life was steeped in country music. His father and uncles formed the<\/a> Original Maines Brothers Band, and he grew up listening to them play in his grandmother\u2019s kitchen.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n

Over the years, Lloyd Maines taught himself to play a multitude of instruments, including acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, banjo, and more. He was especially drawn to the pedal steel guitar. Today, he is one of its most renowned experts.<\/p>\n

He has contributed his steel pedal skills to records by Joe Ely, Guy Clark, Wilco, David Byrne, and\u2014of course\u2014The Chicks.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

When the musician was 14, he and his brothers began playing gigs<\/a> around Lubbock as the second-generation Maines Brothers Band. The siblings went in separate directions after high school. Lloyd studied forestry at Texas Tech University intending to become a park ranger.<\/p>\n

Instead, he went to work <\/a>at a local studio, cementing his musical path. He began his producing career with Terry Allen\u2019s landmark 1979 album Lubbock (On Everything). <\/p>\n

He Has Produced Some of Country Music\u2019s Best Work<\/p>\n

Lloyd Maines\u2019 daughter, Natalie, recalls her father<\/a> bringing her onstage \u201cwhenever I wanted\u201d as a child.<\/p>\n

Nurturing that performing spirit, he passed along his daughter\u2019s demo tape when he heard that a group called the Dixie Chicks (now known as the Chicks) was in the market for a lead singer.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: \u201cStill Not Ready to Make Nice\u201d: The Chicks Announce Taking the Long Way 20th Anniversary Tour]<\/a><\/p>\n

A week later, Natalie, then 21, was performing onstage with founding sisters Emily Strayer (banjo\/guitar) and Martie Maguire\u00a0(fiddle\/mandolin).<\/p>\n

In the late 1990s, Lloyd produced an album, Wayside, by alt-country band the Groobees.<\/p>\n

One track, \u201cWide Open Spaces\u201d, stood out to him, and he persuaded the Chicks to record it. The song became a number-one hit and established the trio\u2019s new image as outspoken, free-spirited trailblazers.<\/p>\n

Lloyd Maines produced many of the Chicks\u2019 albums, including 2002\u2019s Grammy-winning Home.<\/p>\n

Featured image by Rick Kern\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An essential part of the vibrant Texas country music scene, Lloyd Maines has produced some of the genre\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[73637,2172,125999,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-354067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-1950s","tag-country-music","tag-lloyd-maines","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}