Hillbilly Maidens, Okies, and Cowgirls

Women's Country Music, 1930-1960

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Pub Date 26 Feb 2020 | Archive Date 02 Dec 2019

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Description

Pioneering women and their soundtrack of searching in country music

From the 1930s to the 1960s, the booming popularity of country music threw a spotlight on a new generation of innovative women artists. These individuals blazed trails as singers, musicians, and performers even as the industry hemmed in their potential popularity with labels like woman hillbilly, singing cowgirl, and honky-tonk angel.

Stephanie Vander Wel looks at the careers of artists like Patsy Montana, Rose Maddox, and Kitty Wells against the backdrop of country music's golden age. Analyzing recordings and appearances on radio, film, and television, she connects performances to real and imagined places and examines how the music sparked new ways for women listeners to imagine the open range, the honky-tonk, and the home. The music also captured the tensions felt by women facing geographic disruption and economic uncertainty. While classic songs and heartfelt performances might ease anxieties, the subject matter underlined women's ambivalent relationships to industrialism, middle-class security, and established notions of femininity.

Stephanie Vander Wel is an associate professor of music at the University at Buffalo.


Pioneering women and their soundtrack of searching in country music

From the 1930s to the 1960s, the booming popularity of country music threw a spotlight on a new generation of innovative women...


Advance Praise

"Women’s struggle for inclusion is one of the biggest stories in country music today. Vander Wel’s rich history shows how female artists fought for a voice and made it central to country’s stories of gender, class, and migration in mid–twentieth-century America."--Nadine Hubbs, author of Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music


"Vander Wel sheds important new light on the ways that women in country music have deployed their singing voices and theatrical skills to create female spaces and identities in country music."--Travis D. Stimeling, author of Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks: The Countercultural Sounds of Austin's Progressive Country Music Scene

"Women’s struggle for inclusion is one of the biggest stories in country music today. Vander Wel’s rich history shows how female artists fought for a voice and made it central to country’s stories of...


Marketing Plan

-ARC mailing to Trade and Music Media Outlets

-Author Q&A

-Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram announcement

-E-mail campaign to in-house lists

-ARC mailing to Trade and Music Media Outlets

-Author Q&A

-Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram announcement

-E-mail campaign to in-house lists


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780252084959
PRICE $25.95 (USD)
PAGES 256

Average rating from 9 members


Featured Reviews

This overall was a great book. It was not like I initially expected from looking at the cover and reading the description. I was expecting something light basically highlighting country women from the time period however this book went beyond that and brought light an interesting correlation between the country singers, hillbillys, etc back then and feminists and females in general since. It did seem to read more like a research paper then a traditional book but it included a lot of fun pictures and stories. 3.75 stars.

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A fascinating look at the woman Pioneers of country music full of facts and easy to read i would love to read more.

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An interesting look at how the music industry treated women in the early years. Stephanie Vander Wel obviously spent considerable time and effort in researching these early women and their considerable impact on country music. The in depth descriptions of their daily lives will keep you engrossed.

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You don't have to love country music to fall in love with this book, and I'm not even sure it would help if you do. Quite frankly, this is a glorious read, littered with songs you'll know (and songs you wsh you knew), set against a fertile, fervent world of a kind that modern entertainment simply wouldn't recognise. Some of the stories, it is true, are infuriating to the modern reader, even if they were just "the way things are" at the time, but the triumphs that ring through the book really do feel as though they were worth the tribulations.

In terms of the book's illustrative contet, it's hard to judge on a KIndle. But I'm betting the book is a work of art regardless.

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