The Women of Country Music: a Reader

University of Kentucky UKnowledge Music Arts and Humanities 2003 The Women of Country Music: A Reader Charles K. Wolfe Middle Tennessee State University James E. Akenson Tennessee Technological University Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Wolfe, Charles K. and Akenson, James E., "The Women of Country Music: A Reader" (2003). Music. 8. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_music/8 THE WOMEN OF COUNTRY MUSIC THE WOMEN OF COUNTRY MUSIC A READER EDITED BY CHARLES K. WOLFE AND JAMES E. AKENSON THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Copyright © 2003 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 07 06 05 04 03 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The women of country music : a reader / edited by Charles Wolfe and James Akenson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8131-2280-5 (paper : alk. paper) 1. Women country musicians—Biography. 2. Country music—History and criticism. I. Wolfe, Charles K. II. Akenson, James Edward, 1943- ML394.W65 2003 782.421642'082—dc21 2003005310 CONTENTS Introduction vii Polly Jenkins and Her Musical Plowboys: A Vaudeville Valedictory Wayne W. Daniel 1 "And No Man Shall Control Me": The Strange Case of Roba Stanley, Country's First Woman Recording Star Charles Wolfe 18 "Do You Want Mustard?" "Yup!": First Lady of Banjo Roni Stoneman Ellen Wright 30 Getting the Word Out: The Country of Bronwen Wallace and Emmylou Harris Gloria Nixon-John 46 Rose Lee Maphis and Working on Barn Dance Radio, 1930-1960 Kristine McCusker 61 "Reconsider Me": Margaret Lewis Warwick and the Louisiana Hayride Tracey E. W. Laird 75 Home to Renfro Valley: John Lair and the Women of the Barn Dance Michael Ann Williams 88 The Voice Behind the Song: Faith Hill, Country Music, and Reflexive Identity JocelynNeal 109 The Cow That's Ugly Has the Sweetest Milk Rebecca Thomas 131 Women in Texas Music: A Conversation with the Texana Dames Kathleen Hudson 148 If You're Not in It for Love: Canadian Women in Country Music Linda Jean Daniel 161 The Yodeling Cowgirls: Australian Women and Country Music Andrew Smith 186 Teaching About Women in Country Music James Akenson 202 Contributors 227 INTRODUCTION This publication marks our fourth annual effort to collect modern country music scholarship in book form under the auspices of the University Press of Kentucky. Starting with this volume, the Country Music Annual title will no longer be used, as it suggests a certain point in time and does not really reflect the timelessness of the discussions in Country Music Annual 2000, 2001, and 2002. The eclectic nature of these three Annuals will be replaced with this volume as a thematically oriented series. We hope that this sharper focus will allow an exploration of one subject in greater depth and generate additional interest among the readership. The Women of Country Music: A Reader obviously explores issues related to gender in country music. It has been a neglected chapter in the music's history, rife with stereotypes and vapid generalizations—often by male historians. This began to change some ten years ago, with the land- mark study by Mary Bufwack and Robert Oermann, Finding Her Voice: The Saga of Women in Country Music. This monumental and well-re- searched history brought hundreds of new facts and artists to light, and inspired a new generation of scholars to look at the history of country music from a new perspective. This perspective, and others developed out of it (or in reaction to it), provides the conceptual framework for this present collection. It is appropriate that this book is being published on the tenth anniversary of the Bufwack-Oermann study. The diversity of scholars and topics found here suggests that a great deal of work has viii INTRODUCTION been done, but points to a continuing labor by scholars sifting through the historical and contemporary structures that give country music its identity. Any collection of articles that includes the quotation "It's a great life for dogs and men but it's hard on women and steers" is bound to stimu- late thought. It also suggests that this reader includes the work of scholars who may be new to the country-music research community. Rebecca Thomas certainly provides worthwhile insights with that quotation, not to mention her analysis of "The Cow That's Ugly Has the Sweetest Milk." Linda Daniel's work on women in Canadian country music evolved from her doctoral dissertation and brings insight to the Canadian country- music scene as well as to the difficulties facing women as country-music artists. Gloria Nixon-John also gives a certain Canadian flavor to this issue, as she deals with the interest and involvement in country music of Canadian poet Bronwen Wallace. A further international tinge comes with Andrew Smith's essay on yodeling cowgirls and women in Australian country music. One need not be smitten only by ingenue Kasey Chambers to find Australian country music of interest. Other essays in this collection run from the alpha to the omega, from the beginning to the very current. Charles Wolfe takes the reader back to the first woman soloist to record country music with his piece on the little-known Roba Stanley. Wayne Daniel's analysis of Polly Jenkins of- fers insight into the complex interplay among country music and other stage and musical traditions. Kristine McCusker chronicles the Rose Lee Maphis saga from 1930 to 1960, and Tracey Laird opens new doors to us in the person of Margaret Lewis Warwick and her pivotal role in the radio show Louisiana Hayride. Radio is also central to Michael Ann Williams's account of John Lair's role in making women visible at the Renfro Valley Barn Dance. Roni Stoneman participated in a virtual chronology of country music, as documented through the work of Ellen Wright. The study of contemporary country music could be no more current than the career of Faith Hill, so ably documented and analyzed by mu- sicologist Jocelyn Neal. Kathleen Hudson provides first-hand percep- tions in her oral history of the Texana Dames. James Akenson takes a classroom-oriented perspective in which he sets forth a variety of ways in which country music might be used in teaching, from kindergarten to the university. All in all, editors Wolfe and Akenson feel that this new thematic reader should engage the wide variety of American music fans and encourage INTRODUCTION ix scholars from diverse fields to further explore this complex and fascinat- ing subject. Anyone wanting to communicate with editors Wolfe ([email protected]) and Akenson ([email protected]) about other thematic collections should feel free to do so. POLLY JENKINS AND HER MUSICAL PLOWBOYS A VAUDEVILLE VALEDICTORY Wayne W. Daniel Vaudeville was America's most popular form of entertainment for some fifty years following the 1881 debut of the first variety show suitable for a "double audience" (suitable for both men and women) at Tony Pastor's Fourteenth Street house in Tammany Hall, New York.1 By the early 1930s, the end was in sight for this American institution, as show- business moguls began lament- ing its untimely death. For vaudeville's demise, they blamed not so much the Great Depres- sion, as one might expect, but rather the competing entertainment media, specifically radio and motion pictures.2 As movies and radio became the favorite sources of entertainment for most Americans, hordes of vaudeville performers, presum- ably seeking higher salaries and better working conditions, began to adapt their shticks to the re- quirements of the camera and Polly Jenkins the microphone.3 Nevertheless, 2 POLLY JENKINS AND HER MUSICAL PLOWBOYS like all Americans, vaudeville performers were also affected by the eco- nomic and social forces of the Great Depression. Droves of jobless enter- tainers found it necessary to take advantage of the various relief organizations made available by the federal government.4 It was into this show-business environment, with all of its uncertain- ties, that Polly Jenkins, a native New Yorker, chose to launch her career as a vaudeville country-music artist. She was not the first performer of this genre with vaudeville ties. Well-known country-music acts with road- weary vaudeville experience include Lew Childre, Uncle Dave Macon, Jimmie Rodgers, and Otto Gray and His Oklahoma Cowboys. Polly Jenkins, however, may be the first—and possibly the only—woman to headline a country-music act on the vaudeville circuit. Her female con- temporaries in the country-music field, among them Patsy Montana, Texas Ruby, the

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