Songoftheday 10/29/24 - Well I ain't never been the Barbie doll type, no I can't swig that sweet champagne I'd rather drink beer all night...

 

 

"Redneck Woman" - Gretchen Wilson

from the album Here For The Party (2004)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #22 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 8

 

Today's song comes from singer/songwriter Gretchen Wilson, who came from rural southern Illinois. Moving to Nashville in the mid-1990s, she was discovered by John Rich of the successful country acts Lonestar and Big & Rich, was signed to Epic Records, where she released her debut album Here For The Party in 2004.  Wilson and Rich co-wrote the lead single for the record, "Redneck Woman". The lyrics have Wilson waving the flag for what passes as "white trash", including the barefoot and pregnant trope and randomly name-checking "country" artists like (Lynyrd) Skynyrd, Kid (Rock), and (George) Strait (most likely including the latter to not be completely laughed out of the Opry). I mean, it's posturing at a grand scale, but Gretchen does seem authentic, and in a post-9/11 time when the female presence on country radio was already starting to dwindle, it was at least a breath of fresh air to have a woman singing about something that wasn't heartbreak or social pain. The production from Mark Wright and Joe Scaife is a pleasant swing pace that frames Wilson's lightly rough but capable vocals nicely. The music video has Gretchen playing with the boys in the dirt, surely a fantasy for hillbillies with no chance with her. Also, a nice cameo from Tanya Tucker and not so nice ones from others. (They were definitely pushing her career hard...)

"Redneck Woman" became Gretchen's first big hit, and her sole single to top Billboard magazine's Country Songs airplay chart, where it stood for five weeks. It also climbed into the top-40 on Billboard's Hot 100 in May of 2004. Internationally, the single also topped the Canadian country chart, and nearly made the top-40 in the United Kingdom (#42), Ireland (#45), and Australia (#50). The Here For The Party album, released in May as the single was cresting, topped the Country Albums chart and came in at #2 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, spending almost two years on the latter and going on to sell over five million albums. At the Grammy Award in 2005, "Redbeck Woman" won for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Country Song, losing to Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman for Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying". The Here For The Party album was also up for Best Country Album, which went to legend Loretta Lynn for her Van Lear Rose comeback set. Gretchen was also nominated for Best New Artist, which Maroon 5 took home that year. 

Gretchen and the album will be back to the series.

(7/10)

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In November of 2004, when the Saint Louis Cardinals were in the World Series (to be clobbered by the Boston Red Sox in a 4-0 shutout), she released "Red Bird Fever" to get the fans going. It got enough airplay to make Billboard's Country Songs chart at #60...

 

 

Here's Wilson on CMT's Outlaws broadcast in 2004...

Next up, at Farm Aid in 2009...

And lastly, performing with Ashley McBryde from this year...

Up tomorrow: Iconic Atlantan rap duo picks a peck of posies.