In the past 18 months, the Dixie Chicks' debut album, Wide Open Spaces, has sold more than six million copies. The all-girl trio have been showered with awards and deluged with press accolades. But most of this is news to British listeners, since the Chicks are strictly a Stateside phenomenon.

The Chicks arrived in London determined to change all that. "Ah have to say, London has the cutest boys we have evah seen," proclaimed lead singer Natalie Maines, the feistiest member of this effervescent combo. Naturally this went over well with the local crowd. The girls' music went over even better.

Like many an overnight sensation, the Dixie Chicks had paid a whole heap of dues before a contract with Sony fell out of the sky. Fiddler Martie and banjo-pickin' Emily had both played in the bluegrass band Blue Night Express as teenagers in Texas. Then the sisters hooked up with Natalie (who is the daughter of veteran steel guitarist Lloyd Maines), and built a substantial local crowd via ceaseless gigging and the release of three independently produced CDs.

The extrovert, uninhibited Natalie holds the floor with her wisecracking introductions and jokey asides, but the Chicks' sound is rooted in solid musicianship. They're supported by an expert, albeit deferential, backing band, but the interludes where Emily and Martie get to whizz through some of their favourite bluegrass licks at knuckle-busting speed prove that they don't need a lot of help.

The Dixie Chicks don't play the most original or startling music ever made, but it is recognisably country and it's riotously entertaining. They make ribald jokes about Arkansas, breasts and Bill Clinton, and Natalie proudly announced that getting divorced has done wonders for her songwriting. They get to show off their vocal harmonies in Wide Open Spaces, while Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition is a fiery saga of good-girls-gone-bad, or more likely bad-girls-gone-worse. If Garth Brooks put you off country music forever, the Dixie Chicks might just change your mind.