Emily Robison is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and vocalist from the United States. Robison is most known for being a founding member of the Dixie Chicks, a female country band that also features her sister Martie Maguire and friend Natalie Maines. She plays banjo, dobro, guitar, lap steel, bass, mandolin, accordion, and sitar, among other instruments. Prior to joining the band, she spent years attending bluegrass festivals and busking, and later formed a band with her sister, guitarist Robin Lynn Macy, and upright bassist Laura Lynch, but finally changed her mind. Maines took their places to work with the sisters. Their albums Wide Open Spaces and Fly, which both gained diamond record status, were huge commercial successes. For their album, Taking the Long Way, the ensemble received five Grammy Awards.

What is the Net Worth of Emily Strayer?

Emily Strayer (previously Emily Robison) is an American artist with a $40 million net worth. Emily Strayer is a singer, musician, and songwriter from the United States who is best known for being a founding member of the country band The Chicks, formerly known as the Dixie Chicks. She has won numerous Academy of Country Music Awards, American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, and Country Music Association Awards with The Chicks, among others.

Early Life:

Emily Erwin Strayer was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on August 16, 1972, to Paul Erwin and Barbara Task. Strayer spent the majority of her childhood in Addison, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, where she lived with her two sisters, Julia and Martha.

Her parents and elder sister Martha, who was also interested in studying instruments and writing songs, pushed her to start playing music at a young age. Strayer began playing the violin at the age of seven and the banjo at the age of ten. The Blue Night Express is a bluegrass band founded by the two sisters and pals from school. They frequented bluegrass festivals and performed on a regular basis, while Martha and Emily stayed committed to mastering their instruments.

The Dixie Chicks:

After graduating from high school, Strayer and his sister Martha continued to play music together. Initially, they were accompanied by guitarist Robin Lynn Macy and upright bassist Laura Lynch, but the latter two quit the band in 1995, and singer Natalie Maines replaced them. This group went on to have a lot of commercial success.

Both the 1998 “Wide Open Spaces” and 1999 “Fly” albums were huge hits, earning the band diamond status and making them the only female group in any genre of music to have back-to-back certified diamond records. Both albums have won a slew of prizes, including Grammys and Academy of Country Music nominations. “Wide Open Spaces,” “There’s Your Trouble,” “Cowboy Take Me Away,” and “Without You” are among the most popular singles from both albums. Because of Stayer’s and her sister’s virtuoso ability on various instruments, the band stood apart from other groups at the time.

The Dixie Chicks followed up their breakthrough with the release of “Home” in 2002, which featured a unique sound due to the band’s decision to release the album independently while in a legal battle with their record label, Sony. The album was still a hit, with the track “Long Time Gone” becoming the band’s first mainstream singles chart hit in the United States.

The band was embroiled in controversy the following year after lead vocalist Maines expressed her dissatisfaction of then-president George W. Bush and the US invasion of Iraq during a London concert. The comments sparked outrage in the country music world, but Strayer and her sister stood with their bandmate during this period, despite the fact that several music outlets predicted the Dixie Chicks’ demise.

However, such forecasts proved erroneous when the band released “Taking the Long Way” in 2006, which debuted at number one on the US mainstream and country music charts and went gold in its first week. The album was the Dixie Chicks’ third No. 1 album, making them the first female band in history to have three albums launch at the top of the charts. Despite low tour ticket sales across much of the United States as a result of the issue, the group swept the 49th Grammy Awards, winning all five categories in which they were nominated.

The band then went on pause for a few years to spend time with their families, though they remained a group. They resumed touring in the 2010s, appearing at various Canadian festivals, and in 2016 embarked on a globe tour that took them across the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. After a 14-year break, they returned in 2020 with “Gaslighter,” their debut studio album.

The Chicks changed their name to The Chicks in June 2020, removing the connection to the Mason-Dixon line, which has overtones with slavery.

Court Yard Hounds:

During the Dixie Chicks’ hiatus, Strayer continued to make music. Strayer formed the Court Yard Hounds with her sister Martha as a side project, with Strayer as the lead vocalist. In 2010, the duo published an album, which was recorded in Martha’s home studio and comprised mostly Strayer’s tunes. Despite the fact that Maines did not contribute to the record, many of the same musicians and producers who worked with the Dixie Chicks assisted in the creation of Strayer’s side project. The Court Yard Hounds made their first public appearance in 2010 at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. In 2013, the pair published their second album.

Personal Life:

On May 1, 1999, Strayer married country music musician Charlie Robison and changed her name to Emily Robison. The Dixie Chicks’ famous song “Cowboy Take Me Away” is reported to be inspired by their love. Charles and twins Julianna and Henry are the couple’s three children. In August of 2008, the couple divorced after nine years of marriage. Many of the songs in Court Yard Hounds, which Strayer has characterized as “extremely intimate,” were inspired by the breakup of the marriage.

Strayer became connected with musician Martin Strayer, who plays guitar in Court Yard Hounds, while working on music for the band. Violet, the couple’s daughter, was born in 2012, and they married in 2013.

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