Country songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist (fiddle, guitar, viola, bass, mandolin), and founding member of the Dixie Chicks, Martie Maguire (originally Ervin, then Seidel, following a first marriage) was born October 12, 1969, in York, PA, but was raised, along with her younger sister Emily Ervin (later Robison), also a future founding member of the Dixie Chicks, in Addison, TX. Maguire began playing violin at the age of five and by the time she was 12, she began experimenting with playing the instrument fiddle style. While attending Greenhill School in Addison, the two musically talented sisters (Emily was proficient on banjo by this time) hooked up with guitarist Robin Lynn Macy and bassist Laura Lynch to form a busking bluegrass/country group called the Dixie Chicks, the name coming from the Lowell George song "Dixie Chicken." Originally, the Dixie Chicks had a classic cowgirl image, and titled their 1990 indie-label debut Thank Heavens for Dale Evans.
