POLL of Many Colors - ILM Artists Poll #117 - Women of Country Music

Porter Wagoner had a great duet album with Skeeter Davis too.

Skeeter Davis will be high on my personal list. I did a deep dive on her stuff a few years back and was pleasantly surprised at how many great albums she had in the 60s. Will need to spend some time figuring out which songs//albums I’ll vote for.

Y’all got “Strawberry Wine” yet

re: omar little, thanks for sharing your playlist! Know a whole lot of it, but not all:

-Catherine Irwin is new to me, and what a discovery.
- Like a Rose is definitely my Ashley Monroe preference. I like the persona she carves out on its stories as an extension of her stuff in the Annies.
- Michaela Anne's Desert Dove is one of my favorite country albums in recent years. Dusty, border vibe with lots of space. A really creative record that sounds unique to me.
- I think I was the sole voter for Brennen Leigh's album in the EOY poll--nice to see it represented on your playlist. Also love Jamie Wyatt's Felony Blues; easily digestible at 7 tracks and 30 minutes.
- Will consider Allison Russell's Outside Child from your list -- an absolutely superb country-adjacent album that didn't get much attention here but made ripples a couple years ago.
- Sierra Ferrell from your list has not put out much but is one to watch. Captivating vocals.
- Kellie Pickler's 100 Proof is worth a listen and better than some probably remember
- Tami Neilson hasn't been mentioned yet but I love that record, especially "Cry Over You" below, which has an incredible chorus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry2cRem1AyA

Also know Katie Pruitt's Expectations was a hit here a couple years ago so will add that to the "noms" spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wZG8IgHCDheS-83yJpnIQC0pu-cdciuZ9suKwPs0Q4E/edit#gid=0

Another half a male/female duo but who absolutely belongs in contention - Mary Ford. So many great songs that are great because of her, not just Les Paul’s inventive guitar playing.

100%. Highly recommend the History of Rock podcast episode on "How High the Moon":
https://500songs.com/podcast/how-high-the-moon-by-les-paul-and-mary-ford/

Another modern album that deserves attention is Cam's Untamed, produced by Jeff Bhasker and Tyler Johnson, which did shockingly well on country radio but has since been a bit forgotten. Love this Luke Laird co-write, which has a chorus that recalls his work with Kacey Musgraves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNEuFfmqnrw

A half-truth's still a lie
"I need my space" is still goodbye
A wrong size shoe could look good on you
But you'll be cussin' your feet at midnight
A half-cold beer ain't cold
"I'll be back soon" is still gone
"A half-smoked cigarette's still smoked
And a half-broke heart's still broke

Xpost Catherine Irwin. She sang most of the leads in Freakwater. If you like her voice and approach, highly recommend Freakwater’s Springtime lp which I mentioned upthread.

Thanks! I knew "Hex" from The Tigers Have Spoken but am unfamiliar with Irwin or Freakwater. Will spend some time there for sure.

Extremely 90s content but love this track. This record also had "Bye Bye" on it, and both somehow have over 50M Spotify plays.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-lBN5Jl7iU

Have to share one more...Digging through some old playlists and just rediscovered The Everybodyfields/Jill Andrews. This one always got me. Lovely, unadorned vocals. Looks like she's done a lot since but I lost track of her at some point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7MrKW-nktg

Re: Kacey Musgraves. I want to go on record saying that her most popular songs - e.g., "Merry Go Round," "Follow Your Arrow," "Rainbow" - are justifiably so, and they work. I am not going to contrarianly rep for deep KM tracks, because I just think those three are perfect.

Note that I am omitting "High Horse." I feel it attempts something that it doesn't achieve. That sounds weirdly abstract, but it is the best way I can explain it. In my view, it is not just not a country song, but it is un-country. Anti-country. The brightness of the production and the aggressive melisma make it feel both too glossy and too idiosyncratic.

My choices will never strictly adhere to the formula, which is of course (3 * (number of chords)) + (the truth) = country. But that formula does inform my judgement and "High Horse" is difficult for me to process as a country song.

“High Horse” is kind of a disco song, in the vein of late ‘70s Nashville pop crossovers.

Speaking of which: Let’s add Terri Gibbs’ excellent “Somebody’s Knockin’” to the playlist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-_xjKYJ_us

Personally I can do without "Somebody's Knockin'" as well as "High Horse."

But de gustibus etc.

high horse is good, too bad it's not country

Is "Here You Come Again" a country song?

(Sorry, not trying to be contrarian)

Just trying to clarify my own thinking more than anything. Canciones de Mi Padre is a mariachi album by someone who is a country artist. Bonnie Raitt's version of "Angel from Montgomery" is a country song and remains so in her hands, but I still would not classify her as a country artist. Dolly Parton's "look at me, didja know I can RAWK" song is not going to make it to the poll under any rubric.

Hence I am just going to embrace the artists/tracks/albums distinction as Indexed intended. I like that approach. Thanks, Indexed.

xp not really tbh!

lol so you mean I can't vote for disco Dolly?

https://i.discogs.com/uA4T_rhqKdR3WPVAEzppqNEENEH5Zxwya1FGAxnYsLw/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTMzMzM3/OS0xMzgzOTM1NTI3/LTM4NTIuanBlZw.jpeg

On a quick scan didn’t see Reba McEntire mentioned. Both Fancy and The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia should be nominated as tracks. She has such a great storytelling voice.

Is "Here You Come Again" a country song?

does the fact that it hit #1 on the billboard country chart carry any weight? and is it possible to come up with an actual definition of country that excludes it but doesn't exclude, say, "i will always love you" (which also was a country #1)?

Nice to see fcc!

Sometimes that song is presented as her entry to pop, is all. Of course I will vote for it because I am a Dolly stan.

I’m not an arbiter of what you can or can’t vote for!

"I Will Always Love You" (Dolly's version) is totally a country song. "Here You Come Again" is kinda Burt Bacharach-y.

I will reiterate that if you want to vote for something, go for it. I'm keeping the spreadsheet updated with anything that's mentioned in the thread or voted for, so if you see it in there, someone else may be voting for it! "I Will Always Love You" will likely be on my ballot :)

Porter Wagoner had a great duet album with Skeeter Davis too.

Skeeter Davis will be high on my personal list. I did a deep dive on her stuff a few years back and was pleasantly surprised at how many great albums she had in the 60s. Will need to spend some time figuring out which songs//albums I’ll vote for.

speaking of skeeter, the Davis Sisters - "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know" is one of THE great singles of country music, by anyone.

Good call, and will add Rock A Bye Boogie to the list, too

Not sure how people feel about early rock/rockabilly more generally but Wanda Jackson's "I Gotta Know," which shifts back and forth between classic honky tonk and 50s rock n roll, is an old favorite.

My brief tenure in a rockabilly band introduced me to the lovely Sticks & Stones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYr8AUZoIMU

The way Wanda's voice gets that growly breakup is fucking amazeballs. She could bring sweetness as well, as I'm sure, but that distorted sound is... special.

Love Wanda. And as essential as her rockabilly stuff is, her more trad country of the 60s and into the 70s is really great too.

Another one I haven't seen mentioned yet - Connie Smith. "Once a Day" is all-time.

My overall bias in country is toward loads of stuff from 60s and a good amount from 50s and 70s. Then there is a huge drought in the 80s and most of the 90s and 10s, with exception of the alt country trends of the late 90s/00s. Then it comes back fairly strong in the last 5-10 years. That's true of the genre overall but it's exceptionally apparent when I narrow down to women only. Looking at my collection you'd think Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch and Neko Case were the only women doing anything worthwhile in the genre for like 15 years. Ugh. Looking forward to the results of this poll to fill in massive knowledge gaps. And apologies in advance for skewing the results at all.

ha my perception is that the 00s were a golden age

yep

I'm not familiar with careers like Patty Griffin, Kathy Mattea, etc.

i think a lot of the country from the 00s was maybe overlooked by me a bit, w/the most vocal support for country on this board at the time was for big and rich, maybe gretchen wilson, some others...none of which really appealed to me, to be nice about it.

some of the alt-country stuff worked as a gateway drug (freakwater, neko case) as well as some of the classic sounds, but what got me hooked more was probably kathleen edwards and sara evans, then the pistol annies, ashley monroe solo, etc...

Then there is a huge drought in the 80s and most of the 90s and 10

That should read 00s, not 10s.

Keyes, which artists do you have in mind when you say that? I'm sure it's true. It's only in the last few years that I've really been trying to catch up on so much of the genre that I missed.

a lot of the artists mentioned in this thread, especially Lee Ann Womack, Sunny Sweeney, Miranda Lambert, Sugarland, etc. Along with male artists like Eric Church, Gary Allan, Jamey Johnson, and Alan Jackson's "Like Red From a Rose" one of my favorite albums ever.

Seconding my affection for Like Red from a Rose

I liked Kellie Pickler's 2012 album a lot and it holds up.

Yeah for me there was a lot going on from 1998 onward, because I got into a huge amount of folk-adjacent country.

Say, between Other Voices, Other Rooms and Red Dirt Girl.

Then came Van Lear Rose and the prominence of duderiffic alt-country like Whiskeytown, Ryan Adams, Jason Isbell, etc.

Before that, my favorite country music would prolly have been, like, Hal Ketchum or Rodney Crowell.

early '90s reminder: lorrie morgan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr3GcGGu4dQ

@Alfred re: Patty Griffin, she has been touring and collaborating with Emmylou Harris for ages -- see: "Mary," a song Lucinda Williams has said she wished she wrote, but also don't miss "Truth #2," which The Chicks play live and will likely make my ballot. The Chicks named Fly after closing track "Let Him Fly," which was on Patty's first album, the mostly acoustic Living With Ghosts. "Top of the World," which closes Home, is a tune from Patty's Impossible Dream, one of my favorite albums. That one also has "When It Don't Come Easy," which LeAnn Rimes chose for her first dance (ditto), and Emily Scott Robinson covered beautifully last year. Would recommend those two albums for starters. Also noteworthy: Miranda's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend contains a Patty cover ("Getting Ready").

(Crowell, yeah, and he's been pretty consistent for quite a while, though a bit too woolgathering lyrically at times, always a good producer, of self and others.)
Cosign w Keyes---I only started keeping up with country in the late 90s and early 00s, because Chuck Eddy was paying me to, and I got spoiled, thought it was gonna keep being like that re frequently amazing country pop, at least for an album or two (Montgomery Gentry!), but did have the rise of those artists cited by Keyes, also the great decade of Justin Townes Earle, plus other hardy indie country.

Griffin's "Top of the World" made another top Chicks track.

Oh yeah but if you want some heavy shit here it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VPpAZ9_qAw

like, I remember hearing this on the radio and wondering how many listeners grasped how fucking heavy it was

Ditto this offering from Beth Nielsen Chapman ("Sand and Water"), who had every reason to go there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M_HYg2S870

Like, I'm pretty sure we all love music about drinking and fucking and being silly and having fun. Like, those are three of my five favorite things. But listen to those songs. Please.

Sean Hannity used to use Independence Day as the theme song of his radio show, which seemed like a lot of not getting it

"Independence Day" is one of the greatest singles of the '90s in any genre.

She came close to matching it only a couple times. "Love's the Only House" for instance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzM_lxnzi64

Sean Hannity used to use Independence Day as the theme song of his radio show, which seemed like a lot of not getting it

― INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Wednesday, March 1, 2023 12:30 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I did not know this. Amazing.

"Independence Day" was problematic and Hannity-vulnerable for being simultaneously female agency x gun solution---obviously sometimes it comes to that in real life, but in country music esp. ending song w celebration, even if heavy sound, eliding the aftermath, like maybe legal and certainly what it feels like to have done that as well as what led up to it, and what now, in life, longterm: could be fascinating for follow-through on that but this ain't that---