You Can’t Play Two Women Back to Back

How could you ever tell them apart?

Thank goodness we have the diversity and variety of male voices in country music to keep things fresh.

With deep gratitude to country music programmers for knowing what we really want.   Thanks to your leadership, the genre is so much richer with talent today than it was in 1993.

18 Comments

  1. I’ve heard that mash-up before – it is funny (and sad). I think that overall country music talent was at its peak from about 1963-1977, although I will concede that female country talent was slightly stronger in the early 1990s

    Right now the genre is such a mess that the great Dale Watson prefers to have his music called Ameripolitan rather than country

  2. I respectfully disagree that female country singers were strongest in the 90s. I would say late 70s/early 80s holds that crown. Loretta and Tammy were still heavily played and having #1 hits along with Dolly, Barbara Mandrell, Dottie West, Tanya Tucker, Crystal Gayle, Donna Fargo, Anne Murray, Margo Smith, Emmylou Harris, Janie Fricke, Sylvia, Juice Newton, and Reba McEntire. I don’t think any other time in country music history can compete with those ladies.

  3. the pistolero – thanks for the support. And I’m embarrassed to say I left off Rosanne Cash in my post. I’m sure I probably forgot some others as well, but that just goes to show how deep the female singers were during that time period.

  4. Quote by the pistolero:

    Linda Ronstadt comes to mind as well, although I know she was considered more of a rocker.

    Yes, but in the “good old days”, country radio wasn’t afraid to play her, or for that matter a lot of the great women in country music she influenced with her rock-oriented approach (Rosanne Cash; Trisha Yearwood; Martina McBride, etc.), none of whom necessarily sound alike voice-wise, but who invested all of themselves in the song.

    The point is the notion that you can’t play two female artists back-to-back on country radio (unless, of course, they’re Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert) is typical male chauvinism at best, and wholesale misogyny at its worst (IMHO).

  5. I halfway agree with Paul.
    Late 60’s and 70’s were easily the greatest period of country, but I think the women would be included for that too. Just look at the great songs from Loretta, Dolly, & Tammy. No other generation of country has had 3 women at the same era putting out such great songs.

  6. Oh, I forgot to mention. GREAT post, but yes, very sad.
    I still turn on modern country radio once in a while and hope that it will be good, but I usually only last 10 mins and then have to change. That being said, I still think country is the greatest music when its done right. And that is for any decade from the 50’s to now.

  7. Great to see that women of country video again. I’ll still go with the women of the 90’s as the best and I was born in the 40’s. I hadn’t seen the mashup before. Don’t plan on seeing it again.

  8. @Tom P:

    Would never hate on Loretta/Dolly/Tammy, as their work in the era you cite is legendary. But there were, at minimum, 5x as many women putting out great music in the same era in the early/mid 90’s.

    Then again, if you’re going to include the later 70’s, you can switch out Loretta and Tammy for Emmylou and Linda. Around ’75-’76, you might even claim that all five were putting out strong music.

  9. The late 60s – early 70s also had Connie Smith, Sammi Smith, Jean Shepard and Jody Miller putting out music at least on a par with Dolly, Loretta, and Tammy, and often better

  10. Kevin,
    Good point. We all have opinions and our favorites so no harm meant. I would however say that the material of Connie, Sammi, Jean, etc.; though great would pale in comparison to Dolly, Loretta, & Tammy.
    But hey, that’s what’s great about this site. We can all share an opinion.

    I will say one thing regarding Dolly. There is still an element of people who just can’t get over that she crossed over and left Porter. Its time we all give that up. She had GREAT records in that period but she did what she felt she needed to do. Sorry, this is just a side note to those that always want to make her spot in country a bit lower due to her crossover.

  11. At least they allowed Tammy to sing a small snippet. Too bad her generation and more were all victims of the ‘purge’ at country radio in the early 90s – never to be played again unless a younger artist asked you to sing a duet.

  12. Does it matter if the 70s or 90s were better? The point is more that we aren’t allowed that many strong women artists on radio NOW.

    And even though Carrie and Miranda have been carrying the torch, it should be noted that neither of them have had a #1 at country radio in over 2 years. No solo female artist has had a #1 at radio in that time. It’s crazy.

  13. Jason, no, it does not matter. just interesting chat is all.
    caj- I agree. it was sad what they did to the older generation of country in the early 90’s. Its normal for older artist to fade but they didn’t get a chance to fade naturally. Just shows how bad the business was even back then. All about marketing demographics.

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