Makeover meant career magic for Dixie Chicks

Did the blond hair help?

You bet your britches it did.

The Dixie Chicks used to perform in old-fashioned cowgirl outfits, including calf-length, fringy dresses. They wore their natural-colored hair long and curly and were moderate with their makeup. They projected a down-home, farm-girl look.

And they hardly got noticed. Their three independent-label albums didn't raise much interest outside their circle of friends and fans.

Then perky, platinum-blond Natalie Maines joined the group, and the Monument label in Nashville began to take notice. Whether it was Maines, the label or a combination of the two, the Dixie Chicks underwent a major makeover. By the time of their first Monument album, "Wide Open Spaces," the three had been transformed into sassy bottle-blondes with ruby-red lipstick, rouge on their cheeks and sexy, revealing costumes. Suddenly, they were hot.

Call it the Shania Syndrome - the remaking of female country-music singers as babes. Whatever you call it, it worked. The combination of talent and looks was unbeatable.

Maines became lead singer when Laura Lynch Tull quit the Chicks. But don't feel sorry for Tull. She left the group in 1995 to marry a cattle rancher who later won more than $29 million in the Texas lottery. The couple live on a ranch near Weatherford, Texas, with their three children.

But go ahead and feel sorry for Robin Macy Bennett. She sang and played guitar with the Chicks from their inception in 1989 until she left in 1993. She then was in a short-lived trio called Domestic Science Club with fellow Texas singer-songwriters Sara Hickman and Patty Lege. She now lives in Wichita, Kan., and is a member of a bluegrass band called Blue Plate Special with her husband, Mark Bennett.