Author Bio

Mary A. Bufwack is a cultural anthropologist who specializes in women's studies.

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Robert K. Oermann is a music journalist whose honors include the Country Music Association's Media Achievement Award.

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Main Description

After its initial publication in 1993, Mary A. Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann's Finding Her Voice: The Saga of Women in Country Music quickly became an essential book for country music scholars and fans. Now back in print, with updated material, an additional chapter, and new photos, Finding Her Voice is poised to reach a whole new generation of country music fans.

From country's earliest pioneers to its greatest legends, Finding Her Voice documents the lives of the female artists who have shaped the music for over two hundred years. Through interviews, photos, and primary texts, Bufwack and Oermann weave a vast and complex tapestry of personalities and talent. Long overlooked and underappreciated by scholars, female country music artists have always been immensely popular with fans. This book gets to the heart of the special bond female artists have with their audiences. People seeking to understand the context out of which mega-stars such as Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and the Dixie Chicks emerged need look no farther than this book.

Co-published with the Country Music Foundation Press

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Reviews

This book is not to be missed by anyone interested in country or roots music, and the land that spawned it.
--Paste

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Well-documented and with many photographs of the performers, this volume adds a much-needed balance to the often male-dominated literature.
--College & Research Library News

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Finding Her Voice blends interviews, stunning pictures and concise, incisive summations into the most thorough and comprehensive book ever penned on women in country music.
--The City Paper (Nashville, Tenn.)

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In their sweeping survey, anthropologist Bufwack and music writer Oermann detail an integral interconnection between these women and the music they nurtured and influenced, weaving together a single tale of working women and country music. . . . A lively story of struggle and ultimate survival.
--Billboard

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xiii

1 The Spirit of the Mountains:
Women in American Folk Music 3

2 Southern Sentiments:
Country Females in Nineteenth-Century Show Business 21

3 Single Girl, Married Girl:
The Carter Family and the Birth of Country Music Recording 43

4 The National Barn Dance:
Country Women, Radio, and the Great Depression 63

5 Hungry Disgusted Blues:
Women in Protest 93

6 Hollywood Hayride:
Country Music Women in World War II 107

7 Honky-Tonk Girl:
Kitty Wells and Her Postwar Sisters 141

8 All-Day Sing:
Women and Southern Gospel Music 171

9 Rockabilly Women:
Let's Have a Party 185

10 The Nashville Sound:
Patsy Cline and the Grand Ole Opry 207

11 The Folk Revival:
Come All Ye Fair and Tender Maidens 239

12 You're Lookin' at Country:
Loretta Lynn and Working-Class Pride 263

13 The Heroines of Heartbreak:
Tammy Wynette and Traditional Values 281

14 Just Because I'm a Woman:
Dolly Parton and Her Savvy Sisters 311

15 Hollywood Tennessee:
Barbara Mandrell and the Show Queens of Country Music 335

16 Back to Country:
Emmylou Harris and the Country-Rock Fusion 361

17 Little Darlin's Not My Name:
Women in Bluegrass 391

18 Eighties Ladies and Beyond:
Images for Modern Times 413

19 Meeting the Millennium:
Female Country Triumphs 473

Bibliography 509

Index 583

Photo Credits 607

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