For the past few months, the members of Yellowcard have been teasing fans by saying that they would have a special guest on their upcoming album, “Lights and Sounds,” due out in January.

All fans knew for sure was that she was in fact a female, she sold millions of albums, and that she’s a mega-popular vocalist.

Finally, just over a month before the album is released, Yellowcard are ready for the big reveal.

Yellowcard bassist Pete Mosely has confirmed to andPOP that the special guest is Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, who appears on the track, “How I Go.”

“On our last album, we had a song called ‘View from Heaven,’ and we had a female vocalist on that song. Back then, we had an idea that we wanted to try and get Natalie Maines to sing on our record, and of course back then they were like, ‘you’re idiots, you’re out of your mind. There’s no way you’re going to get a 40-times platinum-selling artist worldwide to sing on your record. You’re stupid. Get over it. Get over yourself. Find somebody else.’ So we got a friend to sing on the record.”

This time around was different, because Yellowcard have established themselves as one of rock’s most promising young bands, having toured the world and reaching multi-platinum status for their major label debut, “Ocean Avenue.”

“We had an idea [again] that we wanted a female vocalist to lend her talents to one of our songs and we had an idea for the same person to try and get her. They ended up being at the same studio as us at the same time recording right across the hallway for their new record. It took us two weeks to get in there and see them out in the courtyard and hang out and pass by and say hello. Finally it came down to, ‘can we ask you to come and be a part of out record with us.’ She came in and took a listen to the song, and took a copy of it home with her over the weekend, and came back in and said, ‘ok this is what I have’ and it was perfect.

“She really gave us a lot more than we expected out of her and changed the face of the song on the whole,” Mosely said.

“How I Go” may be the standout song on the album, not just because of the Dixie Chick’s appearance, but because it also features a 25-piece orchestra.

“It?s a very technical acoustic ballad,” Mosely explained. “We really wanted to add strings to it to give it this large flavour that would carry you through the song. We wanted to take it as far as we can go with it. Shawn wrote and arranged everything on the record and really did something for our band that we haven?t put out before. This will be something from Yellowcard that you least expect.”






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