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

^ Cheri Knight has other good songs but that is the one that sticks with me most.

Here are two utterly perfect songs from Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXF3PXN-h0A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y87LkhrPVg

Okay a few more more recommendations and I will shut up for a while

Kathleen Edwards, "Six O'Clock News"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcm6sdR6jOU

Kathleen Edwards, "Hockey Skates"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7QMVWhLPYE

Honorable mention: Hem's cover of "Angels Wanna Wear my Red Shoes":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYs_vd4bz1c

Paula Frazer/Tarnation

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

(Great posts yall!)
xxxxxxxpost Susan Raye had a duet alb w Buck Owens reissued by Omnivore in 2022: a few keepers, but most of it has no real spark, like maybe each artist rec in sep sessions, studios, even?
Before I forget/note to self, pre-ballot: Ffrom 2018 Nashville Scene ballot comments---"Edd" is venerable ilxor/Scene staple eddshurt, who still comes through these parts comet-like, and has turned me on to so much good-to-great stuff:

Another Edd pick, Jeannie Seely’s The Seely Style,
is also awesome but a bit too signed sealed stylized,
at least for this set of tracks, most of which could register
as bullseye gravitas in other contexts, but altogether they
can seem too slow and heavy, pulling even a rock-ready
wail into relics of ritual---yet/and as a fan of Nico and
Joy Division, I’m about to go listen again, esp. to
“I Fall To Pieces” and “Don’t Touch Me” (and right off,
she’s keeping a close watch on “what you’re turning to,
and turning into.”)
Perils and pearls of a serious adult woman urban country
album made and released in 1966!

x-post

We actually did a 10 year update to that list. Lambert's up to #19 with a bullet:

http://www.countryuniverse.net/features/100-greatest-women-10th-anniversary-edition/

Sara Watkins is on that list so I will rep for the utterly sublime "Reasons Why":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lyZQB1H_Zw

Somebody mentioned Bonnie Raitt---blues is a feeling that can be with country for sure, but in terms of a country-as-genre feel/sound, the only one of hers I can think of is "Sweet and Shiny Eyes"---any others?

"Love Has No Pride"?

Laura Cantrell, one of John Peel's favorites and mine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkac2HkAjC4

This is all fascinating! In addition to my idiosyncratic kinda alt-adjacent and contemporary choices, I will totally endorse any and all praise for Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, Emmylou Harris, and Loretta Lynn.

That said: Linda Rondstadt is, for me, in another league even from Dolly. Considering her as a great country artist (which she is) damns her with faint praise. She would also easily top several other lists; she was a force in rock and traditional Mexican music and light opera. Her work in the movie version of "Pirates of Penzance" alone was frkn all-time.

Cowboy Junkies, Lucinda Williams, Taylor Swift, Kacey Musgraves: very solid modern performers and they all have songs that resonate with me. "2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten" is perfect. So is all of Trinity Sessions.

Moving on... Wanda Jackson, various Carters and Cashes - respected but not necessarily adored.

There is another tier - let's call it the Shania / Miranda tier - that I just don't have much interest in. I won't apologize for being lukewarm about music that I have tried to like but failed to like.

When we submit the first page, with ilxor name etc, do we then get the ballot pages? All I'm seeing is the first page, not having hit Submit yet (please don't tell me it's because I'm stuck with Windows 7!)

I hope LeAnn Rimes gets some love on this poll...

Lee Ann Womack will, from me at least — as corny as it is, I'm a huge sucker for "I Hope You Dance."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV-Z1YwaOiw

^ TS: LeAnn vs. Lee Ann

Suggestions:

Loretta Lynn - Loretta Lynn Writes'em and Sings'em
Rosanne Cash - Rhythm & Romance
K.T. Oslin - '80s Ladies
Patty Loveless - Honkytonk Angel
Lee Ann Womack - There's More Where That Came From

a reminder that this sunny sweeney masterpiece exists

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLOmpgLmtP0

Before we get too modern, wanna make sure no one forgets that Barbara Mandrell could play the HELL out of a pedal steel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2M_J16z9sk

Spotify playlist for tracks — I’m definitely not going to have enough time to explore albums I don’t know. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2B4LdLMbhBNRsJ2wNACJEc?si=zg1p5rQySD6lmL-iPTwupg

That aside, her "The Midnight Oil" is one of my singles of the high Billy Sherrill/Columbia era. xp to me

*favorite singles

From that same Sherrill/Columbia axis, I'd also add Tanya Tucker's "Delta Dawn" and "What's Your Mama's Name" to things people should be voting for. Child prodigies don't come more prodigious.

Over the years, Wilma Burgess has become known as "the lesbian Patsy Cline," which is all well and good. It was one of the worst kept secrets in the late 1960s. But it's a brief career I find thoroughly fascinating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILack5otVfQ

FYI, I’m not adding tracks to the playlist unless they’re clearly marked as a choice for Tracks — e.g. the Wilma Burgess track posted seems to be in support of Wilma as an Artist

If I miss anything, please let me know either in the thread or through ilxmail and I’ll add it. I’ll probably be able to update the list once or MAYBE twice a day.

First time voting in one of these: Do we get some kind of confirmation email after we've submitted, or can we go back and look at our ballot?

xp that's ok, the Wilma Burgess tracks on Spotify are shitty re-recordings. Nothing of her originals exists there.

Kitty Wells forever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKleTa94dC8

also Mother Maybelle & Sara Carter mean a lot to me, not sure what to pick but Wildwood Flower from the 1928 Carter Family is deeply unfuckwithable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyw6G7TPLYo

Ola Belle Reed better get some...

If y'all want "trad" country, Lee Ann Womack's last four albums will satisfy the itch.

This will be a fun poll.

I will vote for Freakwater - Springtime as one of my album selections.

This track, Louisville Lip, about Mohammed Ali, will give a good taste of their sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UHt4U949YE

Yes, Freakwater!
I'm gonna incl. a couple of duet sets on Albums:
Emmylou's voice lifts Grievous Angel from what could have been GP's first-rate solo alb to his and her masterpiece.
Mary McCaslin is the seasoned shotcaller (Parsons figure, in that respect) on The Bramble and The Rose, her collaboration with relative studio noob Jim Ringer, who knows to trust her like Parsons did Harris, and vice-versa.
(I'm only listing one album per artist, but Way Out West is a good place to start with McCaslin's solo joints [she only did this one duo, far as I know].)

Otm re Grievous Angel

Speaking of werewolves of, I was somehow thinking there's a Zevon on The Bramble and The Rose, but no---could've been; she was always known for somehow folding songs from all over into her unassuming country folk 'n' westernverse---"You Keep Me Hanging On," "My World Is Empty Without You, Babe," "Pinball Wizard"---here they go bopping along in "Geronimo's Cadillac," hand-in-hand through "Copperfields," riding up through the night on "Strawberry Roan," to "O Death, ", o shit, the first time I ever heard it, on the resissue out several years before O Brother Where Art Though?.
And yeah she leads the way, seems like, vi though since the song selection is even better than usual overall, maybe he helped.

McCaslin's "Way Out West" is a stone cold classic.
I personally think GP is the better of the Parsons solo records, but I'm not going to argue about it.

For me, the original Carter Family are one of the greatest bands of all time. Maybelle, Sara, and AP. I collect their 78s; I have about 50 of them but they issued well over 100. Mostly for Victor (including Bluebird & Montgomery Ward) but also Conqueror, Okeh, Decca and various dime-store labels.
"Single Girl, Married Girl"
"I Ain't Going To Work Tomorrow"
"Black Jack David"
"The Storms Upon The Ocean"
"On The Rock Where Moses Stood"
"No Depression In Heaven"
"50 Miles of Elbow Room"
"When The Worlds On Fire"
"Wildwood Flower"
"Jealous Hearted Me"
"I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes"
"Cannonball Blues" (w/ a rare AP vocal)

But I will leave you with this one, underrated IMO, from 1932. this is one of those songs that is restorative to me when I am feeling down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzvAfrgxsUg

patty loveless is a personal favorite

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fXV5hMhQ20

a very nice song, also recorded by Nanci Griffith on Other Voices, Other Rooms

Oh man, I love that Kate Wolf song. My wife and aunt actually sang it together at our wedding reception.

I could lobby for a bunch of Tanya Tucker tracks, but this has to be the gothiest country #1 ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFLdZ2JQ-bE

xpost - i'm a big fan of Nanci's version of "Dallas" by the Flatlanders.

also i love and adore kate wolf. writer of one of the saddest songs of all time - "you're not standing like you used to."

And she sings a remarkable version of this Paul Siebel song -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUF-ZIR7i9A

A couple of early '60s classics here: Skeeter Davis, "The End of the World," and Patsy Cline, "She's Got You."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHa6a3FtPJg

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

Shoutout to another couple of pioneers - Eva Davis & Samantha Bumgarner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMiF8QfmZqo

and this one... goodness me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzZIXHRNVKs

In case nobody has mentioned it... Harper Valley PTA.

Hell yeah. Have you listened to the Cocaine & Rhinestones episode about that?

Spreadsheet has been updated with what was mentioned today. Let me know if I've missed anything.

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

When we submit the first page, with ilxor name etc, do we then get the ballot pages? All I'm seeing is the first page, not having hit Submit yet (please don't tell me it's because I'm stuck with Windows 7!)

― dow, Sunday, February 26, 2023 1:35 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Hm, it should show one large form with 8 questions, not just the 1st username Q. Can someone else verify that the other questions are showing up?

First time voting in one of these: Do we get some kind of confirmation email after we've submitted, or can we go back and look at our ballot?

― jon_oh, Sunday, February 26, 2023 4:23 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't believe you get a confirmation email but I'm happy to verify that I've received and/or share your ballots with you. I got your ballot and can email it to your email address if you like.

Also want to give shoutouts and seconds to the folks who mentioned Hem, Kathleen Edwards, and Lee Ann Womack today. I'd recommend Rabbit Songs, Asking for Flowers, and The Way I'm Livin' from each. I voted for the latter in the 2010's decade poll.

I think this is one of the most powerful country songs of the last decade:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo6jTj1GEGI

re: the Linda Ronstandt discussion upthread, Trio will absolutely be on my ballot, and I may find room for her take on "Willin"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzI6jDqi7OY

Since Alison Krauss hasn't been mentioned, I'll throw out New Favorite (album) and her work on Oh Brother Where Art Thou as must-hears, too.

I went on a tear a few years seeing how many Dottie West albums I could find (there are approximately 873 of them), but this standout from the latter end of her career is fully a JAM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1IDSHa0UUo

Dottie West - A Lesson In Leavin'

There are a probably a handful of others I'll throw into consideration, but I'll need to revisit them to figure out which ones

Same here, but decided to leave out most of the obvious or much-cited choices, unless it was something I just couldn't resist.
Great comments from Frank, and speaking of mixed feelings about 60s, see upthread what I pasted from Scene ballot comments about reissued The Seely Style, though I damn near put it on the ballot. Also, speaking of Connie Smith, I still need to check out her 60s, but here's what I said about her 2021 (60s-wise) album:

Connie Smith's The Cry of The Heart is named for her definition of and specialty in country music, the kind of relentlessly cyclical treks- on-gilded-splinters-of-the-heart trad, sometimes funereal, that I tend to resist, as seen below in comments on Lucinda's urn ov same (wine-and-lipstick-stained butts incl., OK). Nevertheless, she picks songs about being knowing, struggling with being stuck inside a mobile, turning like a vane of dislocation in layers of strangely familiar, the stranger for it, weather: apologizes to her heart for being about to take another chance on prospect they both know better than; later, "I just don't believe me any more—I wouldn't trust my own eyes, if I saw him walking through the door," and gets to overview, "There are three s-i-i-i-des, to ev-ery sto-ry: his side, her side, and the truth": tricky, could get to truthie, jesting Pilate, sense of futility, reckless, even: interesting cusp—also, that chorus reminds me of "Love Is Strange," including a possible cross-influence with proto-reggae, and my other favorites here also have that out of the box, 60s crossover appeal that her accompanists, mainly Mary Stuart & his Superlatives, are so good at—-another starts with an acoustic country suggestion of "Pinball Wizard"—also "A-l-l-l, The Time" could be Orbison singing Jimmy Webb or himself, likewise omg yall fave is "Here Comes My Baby Back Again," with a kettledrum hook, even, also her voice, now reputedly shy of a few top notes of her 60s-70s commercial heyday, especially mighty and booming from the gut here, w/o overdoing it. This song rec also to Everly Bros., and eerie observational "Jesus Take A Hold" for Mavis (who will be doing some shows w Bonnie Raitt this summer btw). But some of the other, more generically constrained trad country ballads, are ballast, for sure, keeping whole thing bubbling just under my Top Ten.

If I'd done a Singles ballot for this thread, would def. have picked:

"Here Comes My Baby Back Again," with a kettledrum hook, even, also her voice, now reputedly shy of a few top notes of her 60s-70s commercial heyday, especially mighty and booming from the gut here, w/o overdoing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_fX0QWTTx4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLloC8P_-ao

^ I prefer the Karla Bonoff version but this is the more country one

Bobbie Gentry - Delta Sweete needs to be on the list.

I’m hopefully going to get mine in tonight before midnight pst!

voted!

voted.

In with three minutes to spare

Thanks, all -- we are up to 16 ballots. If there's anyone who missed that cutoff that wants to get a ballot in sometime in the next ~5 hours, go for it.

Also, Alfred, you voted for the same song twice if you want to add another track to your list.

― Indexed,

Sorry. Still time?

hey i mistitled an album i voted for. the Whitney Rose should be called Rule 62.

sorry bout that but it was 11:45 pm or so :/

i ultimately voted a little strategically and also threw in personal favorite albums by some artists vs ones that were maybe considered more classic. overall pretty happy w/the list though i'm sure i'll remember someone during the rollout and kick myself.

Sorry. Still time?

― the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, March 16, 2023 10:20 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, np

Keep meaning to give a shout to ian for sharing that Kate Wolf song a couple of weeks ago. Had never heard of her before and am hooked.

I've been procrastinating. Torn between bolstering the chorus of enthusiasm for acknowledged great stuff, and throwing curveballs of relative obscurity.

Like, it's one thing to be the lone vote for "The Hatfield Side" by Cheri Knight or the Cowboy Junkies' "Oregon Hill." Quite another to make sure that "She's Got You" or "Drunken Angel" gets its due.

― Minivan Morrison (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, March 15, 2023 10:14 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

You voting?

Got my ballot in, tracks only, with maybe an hour-and-a-half to spare. While my number 30, "Suds In The Bucket," is a rockin' little record, it's surely not the 30th best woman-sung country song of all time, just the 30th best that I, my ignorant self, could think of (while restricting myself to only one song per artist except I invoked The Taylor Swift Exception and gave Taylor two: finally choosing "Should've Said No" over "Lose Yourself" as the second on the grounds of better (in)fidelity).

Only six that I linked/"nominated" above actually made my list; voted a different LeAnn Rimes ("Blue") and a different Sarah Buxton ("Stupid Boy"). My guess is my ballot's the only one with Cassadee Pope and Daveigh Chase. Never saw Big Love but from what I remember people telling me, Chase played either a screwed-up character or a character in a screwed-up situation; anyway, her "Happiest Girl In The Whole U.S.A." adds a grabbing passion to the song's supposedly staid and comfy happiness. I have no memory whatsoever of Cassadee Pope's "Wasting All These Tears" prior to three days ago except I must've heard it when it came out 'cause it made my 2013 Nashville Scene ballot. Is an angry self-pitying wailer that you'd think'd want an Avril Lavigne or an Amy Lee to drive it threw the wall, but Pope's thin reeds manage to do just fine.

As you may have figured, I'd no trouble voting "country" songs that sound like they're invading or being infected by another genre.

Thanks for voting, Frank!

I am done with the Artists tabulation but won't get to Tracks and Albums until tomorrow, so if anyone wants to submit a late ballot for either/both of those, go for it.

And I got your 30th track, Alfred.

Two questions for those who voted:
1. Any preference on order of the roll out? I was thinking Albums / Tracks / Artists.
2. Should I start a new thread, as I believe is custom, for results, or do we want to keep everything in here? Nice to have one thread to come back to in the future, but there's also a ton of youtubes in here that I know are making it awfully slow on my end.

I am somehow unaware of the passage of time, and so did not get round to submitting a ballot, and so of course my opinion counts for nuffin, but I’d be inclined toward Artists/Albums/tracks, as the granularity increases that way & so more surprises/suspense to the end.

1. No preference.
2. No preference. Whatever makes the most sense to you. My CPU is 11 years old so loading can be a problem with all the YT embeds, but they don't embed when I'm logged out so I stay logged out when I read; only log in to post.

Proofreading my text: "want an Avril Lavigne or an Amy Lee to drive it threw the wall" - Avril and Amy must be really strong to throw an entire wall. Anyway, "through."

Whoops, I ran out of time and wasn't able to vote on this, but I'll watch the results with great interest (the results will undoubtedly be better without my ballot anyways, which would have been no more than 1/4 or 1/8-assed instead of the half-assed ballot I promised above)

Anyone who wants to submit an Albums or Tracks ballot before noon CST today (~4 hours), even partial and/or unweighted, is welcome to do so.