A PopMatters Best Non-Fiction Book of 2020

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.

| Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part One. WLS and the National Barn Dance 1. Early Country Music: The Crossing of Musical Hierarchies on Chicago's WLS 2. The Rural Masquerades of Gender: Lulu Belle and Her Radio Audience 3. Gendering the Musical West: Patsy Montana's Cowgirl Songs of Tomboy Glamour Part Two. California Country Music 4. Carolina Cotton: Yodeling Virtuosity and Theatricality in California Country Music 5. Rose Maddox: Roadhouse Singing and Hillbilly Theatrics Part Three. Nashville's Honky-Tonk and Country Music Industry 6. Voices of Angels: Kitty Wells and the Emergence of Women's Honky-Tonk 7. Domestic Respectability: The Marketing of Honk-Tonk Performers Conclusion: Country Vocalities and Gendered Theatrics Notes Bibliography Index Back cover | A PopMatters Best Non-Fiction Book of 2020 — PopMatters
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Stephanie Vander Wel is an associate professor of music at the University at Buffalo.