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Vanessa Feltz: Vanessa's Country Gals

Vanessa Feltz celebrates country music's pioneering female artists including Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette and the one and only Dolly Parton.

Vanessa Feltz celebrates the women of country music and explores how they've shaped the genre throughout the decades. Starting in the 1950s, Vanessa looks back at the pioneers like Kitty Wells, who had the perfect mix of raw talent and determination to make a huge dent in what was then, a wholly male-dominated industry. Vanessa will explore how Kitty and other pioneering female artists liberated women from their typical roles as backing singers and propelled them to centre stage, changing the face of country music forever.

By the 70s, female country singers were pushing even more boundaries. While Tammy Wynette was meekly standing by her man, Loretta Lynn was celebrating women's rights over their own bodies by extolling the virtues of oral contraception in her controversial song 'The Pill' and Wanda Jackson was threatening her philandering spouse with her 'Big Iron Skillet'. Thanks in part to taboo-breakers like Loretta and Wanda, only a few decades later, there are now no topics seen as off limits to women in country - just look at Martina McBride鈥檚 'Independence Day' and The Dixie Chicks' 1999 track 'Goodbye Earl' (both of which deal with the murder of abusive husbands) or Carrie Underwood's 2009 smash hit 'Before He Cheats' where she revels in introducing her ex's car to the business end of her house keys, a penknife and a baseball bat.

Vanessa will shine a light onto as many of country's greatest gals as she possibly can in just sixty minutes

1 hour

Last on

Thu 9 Mar 2017 15:00
Radio 2 Country

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Music Played

  • The Carter Family

    Single Girl Married Girl

    • The Original Carter Family From 1936 Transcripts.
    • Proper Records Ltd.
    • 13.

  • Kitty Wells

    It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels

    • A Sides (1949-1957).
    • Prestige Elite Records Limited.
    • 5.

  • Patsy Cline

    I Fall to Pieces

    • Acuff-Rose Opryland Music: 50th Anniv.
    • Acuff-Rose Opryland.

  • Tammy Wynette

    D.I.V.O.R.C.E.

    • Country Moods (Various Artists).
    • Polygram Tv.
    • 2.

  • Wanda Jackson

    Big Iron Skillet

    • Rockin' In The Country: The Best Of Wanda Jackson.
    • 15.

  • Loretta Lynn

    The Pill

    • Loretta Lynn: The Definitive Collection.
    • Universal-Island Records Limited.
    • 15.

  • Dolly Parton

    9 to 5

    • Dolly Parton: The Ultimate Collection.
    • BMG/RCA.

  • Shania Twain

    Man! I Feel Like A Woman!

  • Reba McEntire

    Fancy

    • Hit Disc 877A.
    • 20.

  • Gretchen Peters

    Independence Day

    • Circus Girl (Best Of Gretchen Peters).
    • 11.

  • The Chicks

    Goodbye Earl

    • Fly.
    • Sony Music Entertainment UK.
    • 5.

  • Carrie Underwood

    Before He Cheats

    • Some Hearts.
    • Sony Music Entertainment UK.
    • 7.

  • Kalie Shorr

    Fight Like A Girl

    • Kallie Shorr.

  • Maren Morris

    My Church

    • CD Single.
    • Columbia.

Broadcast

  • Thu 9 Mar 2017 15:00
    Radio 2 Country

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