Martha Elenor Maguire (née Erwin, previously Seidel; October 12, 1969) is an American musician who is a founding member of the country band the Chicks and the country bluegrass duo Court Yard Hounds. She won awards in national fiddle championships while still a teenager. Maguire is accomplished on several other instruments, including the mandolin, viola, double bass and guitar. She has written and co-written a number of the band's songs, some of which have become chart-topping hits. She also contributes her skills in vocal harmony and backing vocals, as well as orchestrating string arrangements for the band.
Martie learned several instruments at a young age, honing her skills with her younger sister, Emily and two schoolmates (a brother and sister team, Troy and Sharon Gilchrist) for over five years as a part of a touring bluegrass quartet while in high school. After graduation, the sisters forged an alliance with two other women they had met through the Dallas music scene, Laura Lynch and Robin Lynn Macy, forming a bluegrass and country music band, busking and touring the bluegrass festival circuits for six years. After the departure of Macy, and the replacement of Lynch with singer Natalie Maines, the band widened their musical repertoire and appearance. The result was a trio so commercially successful that it took the country music industry by surprise, with 19 singles hitting the Billboard Country Charts, 2 Diamond Albums, 2 Platinum albums, and 13 Grammy Awards. Maguire subsequently stood by her bandmates as they were engulfed in a 2003 controversy for criticizing George W. Bush, which led to the Chicks receiving less airplay from several country radio stations.
Martha Elenor Erwin, nicknamed Martie, was born October 12, 1969, in York, Pennsylvania.
Encouraged by her parents – educators at private schools – Martie began playing violin at age five, and by age 12, started to learn to play "fiddle style" after receiving a birthday gift of fiddle lessons. She also was active in her school orchestra.
Her sister Emily shared her love and interest in music, and displayed early talent herself. The two sisters were provided musical instruction on several instruments, and their talent for vocal harmony continued to be nurtured. Although Maguire became famous for her harmony and mastery of the fiddle, she also plays a variety of strings that include the viola, guitar, mandolin, and double bass. Maguire composes songs and arranges the use of stringed instruments for concert and recording performances.
By 1983, Martie was touring with her sister Emily and school friends siblings Troy and Sharon Gilchrist. The sisters showed an "almost obsessive" interest in busking at small venues and attending bluegrass festivals. The four students formed the teenage bluegrass group "Blue Night Express", playing together for five years, from 1984 to 1989, while still attending private Greenhill School. "We'd drive down to the west end of Dallas and open our cases, and that was our job," Martie said of it in a later interview to 60 Minutes II correspondent Dan Rather. "That's how we made money in high school." Also while in high school Martie performed at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, TX, in a strolling duo with Troy Gilchrist for a summer.
In 1987, Martie was awarded second place for the fiddle in the National fiddle championships held yearly in Winfield, Kansas. Upon graduation from high school, with Emily still in high school, she spent a year attending college at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, from 1988 to 1989. She performed in the school orchestra there and again competed in the national fiddle championships at the Walnut Valley Festival, in Winfield, earning third place that year.
In the 90s she played occasionally with the slo-core band, Bedhead.
In 1989, Martie and Emily joined guitarist Robin Lynn Macy and Laura Lynch on double bass in the Dixie Chicks, playing what was at the time predominantly bluegrass music and a mix of country standards. Originally listed as Martha, and then Martie Erwin, she played fiddle, mandolin, viola and harmonized with Emily on backing vocals.
Martie had begun writing and recording songs on their debut independent album, Thank Heavens for Dale Evans, and in 2001, one song co-written with Laura Lynch called "Pink Toenails" resurfaced. The song was featured in the film, Don't Say A Word, with Skye McCole Bartusiak performing the song.
When their second album had a more polished sound, Martie commented, "I hope our fans won't be disappointed [in The Little Ol' Cowgirl]; it's got drums on every track; it's no longer bluegrass, but we have to make a living and you can't do that playing bluegrass."
Two albums later, after Natalie Maines became the lead vocalist of the Chicks, the band's commercial success skyrocketed. Martie said of their music, "It's very rootsy, but then Natalie comes in with a rock and blues influence. That gave Emily and I [sic] a chance to branch out, because we loved those kinds of music but felt limited by our instruments."
Martie co-wrote the song, "Cowboy Take Me Away" on the Chicks' album Fly for her sister Emily. It was a tribute to Emily's courtship with country music writer/singer Charlie Robison. Martie was singled out by BMI in 2000, and awarded Songwriter of the Year for writing and/or co-writing "Cowboy Take Me Away", "Ready To Run" and "You Were Mine". "You Were Mine" was co-written by the sisters about their parents' divorce.
In 1999, the Dixie Chicks performed two songs, recording a cover of the song, "You Can't Hurry Love" as well as Martie's "Ready to Run" for the Julia Roberts/ Richard Gere film Runaway Bride. In 2003, Martie was nominated for a Tony Award for co-composing the film score to Urban Cowboy; the musical used her "Cowboy Take Me Away".
After the band achieved massive commercial success with its first two Sony studio albums with Maines, they struggled with their record company over artistic direction on the third. Martie commented, "I don't think any of us ever trusted Nashville. When you're in that town you know everybody is talking about everybody else. Everybody is wishing for the other guy to fail."
Although Martie and Emily often appear quiet and demure compared to their animated bandmate Natalie Maines, the trio have stood united on controversial subjects since they banded together to play in 1995, even when their opinions have had the potential to serve them more harm than good. In 2006, Martie said, "I'd rather have a smaller following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith. We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do."
With Natalie Maines taking a break from music, Martie was working on a solo fiddle album; however, it was announced in January 2010 that she and sister Emily Strayer have formed a side project called the Court Yard Hounds, with Emily on lead vocals. The band made their live debut in March at South by Southwest with an album released in May 2010.
Martie married pharmaceutical representative Ted Seidel on June 17, 1995, and changed her last name to Seidel. She also was stepmother to his son. However, her marriage did not last, and she and Ted Seidel were divorced in November 1999.