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

Tipsy I am no longer able to embrace "I Hope You Dance," or "Seven Year Ache" (both songs got overexposed for me) but Martina McBride's "Independence Day" gets me still.

I'll definitely vote for Lone Justice - their best stuff was probably the live and demo recordings they made BEFORE their first album.

re: k.d. lang, my favorite's always been this one - will probably vote for the album too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaxV7o__ewA

I always loved this song from their debut:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn7bLEigTEw

I feel like some Mekons songs qualify here, but not all

crtl-f Patsy Cline Crazy not found, we can all agree on that yeah?

and check out this amazing compilation tracklist, I could basically vote for these plus Linda Ronstadt

https://www.discogs.com/release/12393307-Various-A-Womans-Side-Of-Love-Vol-1-

damn, this thread's made it through almost an entire day without a mention of ashley monroe. this can not be allowed, ilm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyFD-YevcEM

I feel like some Mekons songs qualify here, but not all

Sally Timms' solo albums do, of course.

Also Carla Bozulich/Geraldine Fibbers, even though I haven't heard much of her solo stuff beyond her cover of the Red Headed Stranger album.

Going to kill me to narrow things down and pick one track or album from the legends:

Loretta Lynn - "Fist City," "You Ain't Woman Enough" or "Coal Miner's Daughter"?
Patsy Cline - "Walkin After Midnight," "Crazy," or my personal favorite, her cover of "Lovesick Blues"
Emmylou Harris - I am partial to Roses in the Snow and Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town, but there are at least three others worth consideration
Dolly Parton - "Jolene," "Coat of Many Colors," "9 to 5," or maybe even "Muleskinner Blues"

Will probably end up voting for a couple of Miranda Lambert albums and Hell on Heels, too. Am still partial to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Platinum, though I know a lot of the board's gotten behind The Weight of These Wings.

Spreadsheet updated with a whole bunch of names I pulled from some of the links shared in this thread. Hopefully this is helpful as a pseudo Nominations list, but please keep the recommendations coming, and I will try to update accordingly.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wZG8IgHCDheS-83yJpnIQC0pu-cdciuZ9suKwPs0Q4E/edit?usp=sharing

Don't think Rose Maddox has been mentioned yet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zu7a3VKQeY

It was technically a bigger pop hit (#1) than country hit (#17), but I still think "Ode to Billie Joe" belongs in the mix.

Bit of a country dilletante, but adore this. Hopefully the brief snatch of George Jones doesn’t rule it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?HLdzZ7ovC8A

Hopefully this works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLdzZ7ovC8A

This list from 2008 has 100 names for your consideration (not all of whom I know by any means): https://www.countryuniverse.net/features/100-greatest-women/

yeah, I discovered this site (and this list) 15 years ago, and it had a pretty big impact on my country taste.

I mentioned McCaslin's Way Out West as a great gateway, and I'm gonna list The Chicks' 2-CD Top of the World Live as gateway-retrospective-sumna of their selectively expansive repertoire up to that point (hopefully there will be a follow-up from more recent tours, like when they added "Nothing Compares To You" a few nights after Prince passed). Title track and others may do for Patty Griffin, whose songs can lend themselves to adventures in country per se, but her albums are more Adjacent--maybe limit mention of that, focusing more on the work of women who are brave-crazy enough to ride the Holy Nashvegas bullshit train for a while---

Deana Carter- Strawberry Wine (her most well-known song)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up06CryWQpE

Her album Story of My Life was talked about a lot back on the Rolling Country threads--more rocking, not a hit, but very cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKepv-_LvEU

Trisha Yearwood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyTriK6qpAQ

And someone has to mention the Judds ffs

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

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

Faith Hill- Stealing Kisses
Masterpiece

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fM_jnS-MjY

Suzy Boggus

Ashton Shepard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjHfGQv9JGE

I mentioned McCaslin's Way Out West as a great gateway, and I'm gonna list The Chicks' 2-CD Top of the World Live as gateway-retrospective-sumna of their selectively expansive repertoire up to that point (hopefully there will be a follow-up from more recent tours, like when they added "Nothing Compares To You" a few nights after Prince passed). Title track and others may do for Patty Griffin, whose songs can lend themselves to adventures in country per se, but her albums are more Adjacent--maybe limit mention of that, focusing more on the work of women who are brave-crazy enough to ride the Holy Nashvegas bullshit train for a while---

― dow, Monday, February 27, 2023 11:42 AM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, I struggle with how to rank Patty, as she's definitely more folk than country; however, her tracks have been covered and cited by so many different country musicians as to qualify her in my book. Living With Ghosts, in particular, feels worthy. Someone shared this ridiculously great video of Dolly and Bette Midler doing "Moses" in the Patty thread a while back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWcFJbXA1X0

yeah, the songs are good for country, though her own production can get pretty out-there, in good-to-great ways, for the most part (now I think I am gonna incl. some adjacent or at least indie, Bloodshot etc. countryiod)

countryoid, that is.

I'll definitely vote for Lone Justice - their best stuff was probably the live and demo recordings they made BEFORE their first album.

re: k.d. lang, my favorite's always been this one - will probably vote for the album too:
---birdistheword

Working on cleaning up and plugging holes in the "nominations" spreadsheet, which now has 113 artists. If anyone has recommended albums for the 70 artists who currently do not have one (or others for ones that do), please post them, and I'll add them.

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

Also gave k.d. lang's Shadowland and Absolute Torch and Twang a spin this morning because of this thread. Good stuff.

I see Sara Evans on the spreadsheet. I really love her version of Radney Foster's "Real Fine Place to Start"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrdCBkXB91I

album noms:

Sunny Sweeney- Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame, Concrete

xpost Driving back from WI to IL yesterday I scanned through what felt like four country channels, and came across this great Sara Evans song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06o-EYH9svs

more albums:

Elizabeth Cook- Balls
Kim Richey- Chinese Boxes
Tift Merritt- Tambourine
Laura Cantrell- Not the Trembling Kind
Mary Gauthier- Mercy Now
Lydia Loveless- Somewhere Else

Just so many to choose from. Here's a heartbreaker from Reba:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pdSzY5QbxU

xps I was going to post "Suds in the Bucket"; definitely among my favorite country radio hits of the early 2000s. "She left her suds in the bucket and her clothes hanging out on the line -- YEEHOOO!"

i have a spotify playlist of 100+ tracks from women in country music, some superstars and some w/about 40 monthly listeners -- no more than one song per artist (slight overlap w/miranda and ashley and angaleena having a pistol annies track too) -- happy to send via DM for those inclined to hear

it includes Suds in the Bucket!

That time Tuscon's Nancy Mccallion and Catherine Zavala saw The Pogues and Los Lobos on the same bill launched The Mollys. Hard to say which album is their countryest, but might actually be this late 'un, despite and because of its scars, as noted by me in 2004:

Nancy McCallion & The Mollys: TROUBLE (APN): the party's over (on this record, anyway). Now Nancy's hung her name overhead, but isn't (always) quite the right lone frontperson her pungent barstool ballads deserve (really it still takes two---so where are you tonight, Catherine Zavala?). Yet somewhere in the winter West, keyed-up, mixed-buttoned Accordion-Americans still prowl a mining town, ghost town, college town (all the same, if you stay long enough). Seven years after I started listening to these erotic pilgrims, notes begin to multiply again, like (a new generation or ten of) jackrabbits with every spin, so better hit PAUSE and send over my own round of label-peelings (TROUBLE songs' last lines): "I've paid off all the interest with my tears. Put the baby in the shopping cart and run. It's all spanking new like a white dress and vow, and you're a stranger now. If you don't stop to tell me that you want me back again, I won't stop to tell you it's too late. First class patrons be spilling their wine, never make the station on time. You will have him or you won't. This is my round put it here. It has done it before it will do it again. They wish us well and what the hell, tonight is all our own." Just don't let me get to first lines.

*Tucson's*, sorry!!

Thinking The Chicks could get vote split. Favorites? Fly will get my album vote but for tracks I'd struggle to choose a favorite...maybe "There's Your Trouble" or "Give It Up or Let Me Go"

I'm going to vote on all 3 ballots but full disclosure I don't have enough time to prepare so it will be really half-assed.

For Your Consideration this 2022 jam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHpR-vbKEAw

Also I hate to triple post but what about songs/albums by groups with both male and female members, e.g. Little Big Town, Sugarland?

High Greg, I already hyped Gram Parsons feat. Emmylou's Grievous Angel, also Mary McCaslin & Jim Ringer's The Bramble and The Rose, by cracky.

Seems like Sugarland would be OK, Jennifer Nettles def. the main vocal presence.

Not going to impose any rules, so it's up to you all, but I for one am going to skip stuff like GP/GA where Gram's name and face is on the package and Emmylou has a (critical) supporting role. She's got enough incredible solo material to choose from as it is, though I'll consider it when ranking artists.

Country has a long history of male/female duets and albums, but is "Jackson" in contention? "Mississippi Woman, Mississippi Man"? I don't know... There's enough there that it could be its own poll. I'm going to prioritize songs and albums where the female is the lead.

*Louisiana Woman :)

My favorite Dolly track would have to be this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecPCXui2nEU

Sally Timms also does a great version of that!

I'm a country a dilettante at best (more a spectator here than a voter) but some days I'm convinced "Down From Dover" is the best song I'll ever hear in any genre.

Absolutely. (Dolly is also the sole credited songwriter as well.) It was included on her great 1975 Best of LP, but it's crazy that it fell out-of-print for at least decade during a long period when she let most of her best stuff become unavailable and focused on reissuing her later poppier hits. The four-CD Dolly box set was a godsend for that reason alone.

figure i'll just share my playlist here with a few special shoutouts to artists below:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6LaK3szO8vfdTjcw1e0R2x?si=412c5ca7099a4733

Ashley Monroe - Like a Rose

my top country album of recent years, at this point, represented by 'the morning after', which isn't one from this album that folks usually point to but it's my favorite track. really like her subsequent albums too, The Blade is almost as good, might get a vote from me as well. But this one is just her classic, to date.

Ida Red - Harmony Grits

this is from 2021, they have 18 listeners per month on Spotify, but it's a really terrific album. Don't know if they're an ongoing concern, highly recommended.

Michaela Anne - Desert Dove

Really great album from 2019, some pure lush country goodness here.

I did include Freakwater on here, but I also included 'Hex' by Freakwater's Catherine Irwin, which is one of the best country tracks you'll hear. Neko Case covered it on The Tigers Have Spoken, and she kills it, but I think the original version is the best.

on the more mainstream sounding sounds, I did include Little Big Town, Kellie Pickler, Sara Evans, Maren Morris, and some others, but my fave mainstream track here maybe is 'I Can't' by Caitlyn Smith, which feels a bit generic at first pass but she has a certain sui generis power.

But someone who i think is *really* unique in a lot of ways is Lilly Hiatt (John's daughter) -- she's not to be slept on. Every time I hear her i'm pretty impressed.

Overlooked a lot of the time: Whitney Rose, Jaime Wyatt, and Brennen Leigh.

i'm sure i forgot a few, i'll add to it as i go.

Like a Rose is marvelous