This album was not made for me.<\/p>\n
That shouldn\u2019t be surprising, but it is, because this is a country music album. I\u2019m a white, Southern, evangelical man \u2013 in other words, I am the embodiment of country music\u2019s core demographic. Country radio\u2019s endless parade of rock-infused songs by men with boots and non-threatening twangs is made by men who look like me, think like me, and sound like me, and as a result, the music is almost uniformly made for folks like me.<\/p>\n
The Highwomen <\/i>was not made for me.<\/p>\n
It announces that with its opener, a haunting tapestry of tales that rewrites Jimmy Webb\u2019s \u201cHighwayman,\u201d telling the untold stories of women whom history has ignored or forgotten, from immigrants to preachers. Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Amanda Shirles, and Natalie Hemby, all stars in their own right, deliver the song\u2019s chorus as the unified mission statement it is: \u201cWe are the Highwomen \/ Singing stories still untold \/ We carry the sons you can only hold.\u201d This supergroup has arrived to crash the boys club of country music.<\/p>\n
But don\u2019t think they\u2019re doing so without a sense of humor. The next track, \u201cRedesigning Women,\u201d puts that fear to rest with a self-deprecating yet elevating toe-tapper that relishes stereotypes one minute and busts them the next (\u201cPulling up the floors and changing out the curtains \/ Some of us are saints and some of us are surgeons \/ Made in God’s image, just a better version \/ And breaking every Jello mold.) \u201cLoose Change\u201d keeps the fun going as Morris takes the lead vocals with a radio-friendly song about valuing yourself that enjoys the same spirited, clever wordplay as the song preceding it.<\/p>\n
Family is important to the Highwomen, but here again they refuse to be shoved into a corner. In \u201cMy Name Can\u2019t Be Mama,\u201d the ladies trade knowing verses about the need to be defined by something besides motherhood (even if just for a day), yet in \u201cMy Only Child,\u201d Hemby\u2019s affection for the role couldn\u2019t be more sincere, or more tender.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re just looking for an old-fashioned love song, you\u2019ll have a hard time finding one to beat the Jason Isbell-penned \u201cIf She Ever Leaves Me.\u201d Yet even here the Highwomen are looking to break barriers \u2013 as sung by Carlile, a lesbian, is about a woman\u2019s love for another woman \u2013 hardly the kind of material you\u2019re likely to see performed at the CMA Awards any time soon.<\/p>\n
Each song on The Highwomen<\/i> makes it clearer: this supergroup has something to say, and it\u2019s going to sound different than what you\u2019re used to hearing from country\u2019s establishment. As they announce in \u201cCrowded Table,\u201d which appropriately has no solo performances, \u201cEveryone is broken and everyone belongs.\u201d It\u2019s a message we\u2019re not used to hearing from country music\u2019s stars, but the Highwomen are here to change that.<\/p>\n
Country music has prospered (at least financially) for the last two decades by pumping out stars who look like me and sing straight to me. But The Highwomen <\/i>is a line in the sand, an announcement that times are changing, at least if these ladies have their way. This album wasn\u2019t made for me \u2013 and the result is one of the best albums I\u2019ve ever heard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":33911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10435],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-45738","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-highwomen","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45738"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}