After featuring The Highwaymen on this week's Saturday Snapshots, it seems only fair to give their contemporary female counterparts a mention. The Highwomen are Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and Amanda Shires - successful country stars in their own right, except they often struggle to get airplay on country music stations in the states because of famously sexist playlisting policies. (A lot's been written about that, so google it to your heart's content.)
For their eponymous title track and mission statement, they roped in original Highwaymen songwriter/creator, who worked with Carlile and Shires, to rewrite his famous tune from a female perspective...
Even better though is the closing track, Wheels of Laredo, which reminds me very much of one of my favourite Warren Zevon songs, Desperados Under The Eaves...
You may be right about airplay, but sales have been brisk. Was No. 1 on the country chart and made the top 10 of the album chart. Darling of the critics too. Rightly so. Nice pick, Rol.
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting for Amanda Shires to reply to my marriage proposal. In the meantime, I'm checking out The Highwomen's cover of "The Chain" with Amanda's soon to be ex husband on guitar...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVLNB3d-2cA
Yes, a nice pick so thanks for introducing me to them.
ReplyDeleteHope Lynchie gets a reply soon!
An intriguing idea to create The Highwomen, and in line with diversity trends to record a female version of the 80s The Highwaymen. Maybe the song needed bigger country stars to be just as iconic.
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