“Redneck Woman”
Gretchen Wilson
Written by John Rich and Gretchen Wilson
Radio & Records
#1 (5 weeks)
May 21 – June 18, 2004
Billboard
#1 (5 weeks)
May 29 – June 26, 2004
“Redneck Woman” was such a massive hit at the time that it seemed that it was going to be launching a long-term career for its singer.
It’s since aged more like a novelty hit, but I think that has more to do with what came after it. Wilson captures lightning in a bottle here, and it just took time to reveal that there wasn’t any hidden artistic depth hiding behind it.
To illustrate just how impactful it was, my most enduring memory of the record was from my early days in education, when I was still a teacher. A fellow faculty member knew that I was a country music fan, and we’d only connected before over the Chicks’ Home, which she bought for the “Landslide” cover that had become a crossover pop hit.
She came into work excited that she bought the Gretchen Wilson album because she related so much to “Redneck Woman.” Now this was a first generation Brooklyn Latina who couldn’t have been further from the redneck lifestyle. What Wilson was able to do here was make the specific feel universal, in the same way that bars full of NYC Yankees connected and sang along with “Friends in Low Places.”
Future releases from Wilson would close those doors as she fully embraced the image in a way that was exclusionary of women who didn’t fit that specific life experience. But this one still holds up because anybody could be the redneck woman in this song, no matter where or how they live. It celebrates being your authentic self, and you don’t have to live in a trailer or shop at Walmart to relate to that.
“Redneck Woman” gets a B+.
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