Introducing our first guest writer; Heather Taylor is a journalist from California. In her spare time she can be found playing records or blogging on her own Golden State Records page. This article celebrates some of the most important women behind the country and rockabilly sounds of the 1950s and 1960s.
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| Rose Maddox Albums. Image: Heather Taylor |
While the worlds of country, rockabilly, and rock-n-roll music have long been fronted by images of men, there have always been influential and talented women. Whether behind the scenes, out of the spotlight, or occasionally front and center, they are deeply involved and have contributed much to this musical scene. As of late, there has been a renewed interest in some of the women who have been a part of this musical scene, which is well warranted. There are plenty of women whose discography is full of songs you may not have heard, beyond bigger names such as Dolly Parton or Wanda Jackson.
In the following paragraphs, four women will be introduced, who are unsung figures in these genres, to varying degrees. The four women here are lesser known than figures like Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, or Wanda Jackson, but not so obscure that it will be impossible to find some of their songs or albums on vinyl. And through them, you may just discover more women who influenced them, or were influenced by these talented musicians!
The very first woman I naturally think of when the conversation arises around women in country music who deserve more credit is always Rose Maddox. From her unique and pioneering style to her lasting influence on generations of women to follow, to her unforgettable, powerhouse vocals, Rose’s legacy reaches far past country music and into rockabilly and beyond.
Rose Maddox was born in 1925, the only girl in a family with five brothers. Around age 6, Rose’s family was forced by the circumstances of the American Great Depression and Dust Bowl to move from their home in Alabama, across the country to California to become sharecroppers. They embodied much of what would become the stereotypical story of the “Okies,” poor migrants from the American South to the fertile California valleys, where work could be found. The Maddox family packed up their belongings and traveled by car, foot, and by rail, only to arrive in Modesto where they lived out of an empty cement culvert and made low wages sharecropping.
Rose’s family was all quite musical, and like many families of the time in similar situations, turned to music as a comfort and encouragement. Her brother, Fred, took this interest in music further, however, and worked to get a contract with a local radio station. The stipulation was that his family band needed a “girl singer,” so 11 year old Rose was brought into the band. The band started under the name “The Alabama Outlaws,” but soon became famous under the name “The Maddox Brothers and Rose.”
While her appearance in the band’s name may have been tacked on as “and Rose,” Rose Maddox’s presence in the band was anything but an afterthought. While her early style was similar to the Hollywood cowgirls and Patsy Montana, Rose soon established herself with a loud, full, belting voice, well equipped to hold her own not only with her rowdy brothers, but also to captivate noisy crowds. And captivate the Maddoxes did; in 1939 they took first place at a competition at the California State Fair, and had amassed a fairly enthusiastic following across not only their local Modesto area, but beyond.
Unfortunately for the band, the entry of the United States into combat in World War II
saw the young Maddox brothers enlist, and the once burgeoning music career was put on hold. At home, recently married, but with a husband away at war, Rose worked to find an opportunity as a “girl singer” featured with other country and western bands. Whether due to her own loud and singular style, or perhaps in part to her mother’s reputation as an overbearing manager, Rose didn’t find anyone willing to take her on. According to one story, Bob Wills wouldn’t even audition her, though he had an open position, leading Rose to vow that she and her brothers would put him out of business when the war was over.
While they did not put Bob Wills out of business, the post-war success of the Maddox Brothers and Rose must have at least made him nervous! In 1945, the band was back, and they quickly developed a reputation as “America’s Most Colorful Hillbilly Band.” They were colorful not only literally, in their custom embroidered Nathan Turk suits, but also in the sense that their stage act incorporated raucous, sometimes bawdy humor.
In contrast to other acts of the time, Rose was front and center, and had a voice not only in the songs sung, but in the humorous interludes the band was prone to as well. Additionally, the songs that she sang with her brothers often pushed social boundaries, though tempered with humor, with popular hits sung by Rose including “I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again,” and “(Pay Me) Alimony.” This is only natural, as the California that Rose Maddox came of age in was not the California of the movie cowboys and cowgirls, but the California of migrant mothers and working factory girls. If not always represented in the lyrics themselves, these women could at least find their voices echoed in Rose’s tone and attitude.
By the 1950’s, Rose held three contracts, one with her brothers as The Maddox Brothers and Rose, one as a duet act with one of her sisters-in-law, and one as a solo act. The family band broke up around 1956, around the same time that Rose shocked Nashville audiences by playing on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry in an outfit that showed her midriff, long before Jeannie Seely would make waves wearing a miniskirt on the same stage. Rose saw her greatest success as a solo artist between 1961 to 1963, during which time she collaborated several times with another up and coming artist in the California country music scene, Buck Owens. Owens would, of course, go on to achieve massive success throughout the rest of the decade and beyond, building on much of the style of the Maddoxes.
Outside of the 1960’s, Rose’s musical career began to fade, though she did record occasionally through the 1990’s, and even received her first Grammy nomination, for Best Bluegrass Album, for her 1994 album, $35 And A Dream. However, it was her groundbreaking performances in the 1950’s and 1960’s that would cement her legacy. And what a legacy it is! As the lead singer in a hillbilly band during a time where female vocalists were largely features only, Rose was already set apart, but due to her exuberant voice and energy and the subject matter of her biggest songs, she became truly individual.
Rose Maddox may not be strictly “unsung,” in that she and her brothers have been credited for their contributions to country music more as of late and have received more attention, including quite an in-depth feature in Ken Burns’ recent “Country Music” documentary. Even with this recent attention, The Maddox Brothers and Rose, and specifically Rose, deserve even greater regard. Though she and her brothers may have made their name as disruptive hillbillies, their influence on stars that we consider icons today can not be understated. From working with Buck Owens, to guitarist Roy Nichols of Merle Haggard’s Strangers, the sound of The Maddox Brothers and Rose endures. Rose specifically served as an alternative sort of role model to young girls interested in music, with her self-assured style encouraging future female stars such as Jean Shepard and Wanda Jackson.
Rose, along with her brothers, should be remembered for excelling in subverting well known songs and making them sound dirtier, rowdier, and more fun than ever before. She was key in developing and compiling an idiosyncratic blend of styles that sounded, and still sounds, electric. In the realm of country music, and extending to sister genres, Rose deserves to be talked about, not only in light of her accomplishments with her brothers, but as an individual, far, far beyond “and Rose.”
Another distinctly unique woman in country music who set the stage for bigger names to follow was the incomparable queen of honky-tonk, Jean Shepard. Jean Shepard, like Rose Maddox, is by no means an unknown star, but by all accounts has been overshadowed by female artists of the genre who would come after her.
Shepard started playing music at a fairly young age, and in high school joined up with several friends to form an all-girl band, The Melody Ranch Girls. The band saw local success, and Jean specifically caught the eye of established country music star Hank Thompson, who recommended her to Capitol Records. She was signed on with Capital in 1952, at 17.
While Jean’s first single with Capitol Records wasn’t a big hit, her second went to #1 and crossed over to the pop charts as well. This record, “A Dear John Letter,” with a recitation by Ferlin Husky was an instant success and while it is not a clear example of the Bakersfield Sound, it would be the first hit recording out of Bakersfield.
In 1955, Jean Shepard became the first female country star to create a concept album, Songs of a Love Affair, made up of, as you may have ascertained from the title, songs about a relationship ending in an affair. Early publicity focused on Shepard’s small stature and insisted that she was actually very nice behind the scenes, in an attempt to soften her image, but Jean’s subject matter and her sound remained sharp and hard-edged with a healthy dose of twang.
Shepard’s early success led to her headlining her own tours, which Jean herself is quoted as saying was unheard of at the time. As an excellent book Finding Her Voice: Women in Country Music, written by Mary A. Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann, points out, Jean Shepard was one of the only women of the early 1950’s country music scene to be independently successful, outside of a husband and wife team. While no less successful, and certainly talented in their own right, artists like Kitty Wells and Rose Lee Maphis had the financial and social safety of working and travelling alongside with their musician husbands, at a time when Jean Shepard was largely making her own way.
Jean did have her own romance with a fellow country star, the charming Hawkshaw Hawkins. Hawkins and Shepard were both members of the Grand Ole Opry, with Jean joining in 1955, as one of only four female Opry cast members. Shepard and Hawkins had a romance that their fans were invested in, culminating in an on-stage wedding in 1960 at a Wichita, Kansas show.
Tragically, Hawkins was a passenger on the same plane carrying Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas in 1963, which crashed, killing all three stars. At the time, Jean Shepard was 8 months pregnant with her second son with Hawkins.
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| Jean Shepard Albums, Image: Heather Taylor |
Though heartbroken, Shepard returned to the stage soon after Hawkins’ death, and saw another huge hit with her single “Second Fiddle.” If she was considered to be tough prior to her husband’s tragic passing, she was all the more so after the fact. Fans seemed to appreciate her straightforward demeanor, and supported her new music enthusiastically. As Jean herself stated, “I’ve always been sassy to a certain extent. But I’ve had to survive.”
Through the 1960’s, Jean not only survived, but thrived professionally. Her last big hit was in 1973, but she still remained a popular star of the Opry all through decades, to the 2010’s. Her uncompromising and tough attitude, which was well represented in the lyrics of her songs remained, for better or worse.
While Jean certainly had a successful career, and had the opportunity to make her living doing what she loved, she never quite attained the same status as other female stars to come, like Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Tammy Wynette. What Shepard provided the genre was a different archetype for the female artist: independent, even fiercely so, smart, and willing and capable to call out the wrongs done to her. Her lasting legacy is that of a firecracker of a woman, not to be obscured by anyone’s shadow, one of the first big female country stars, though certainly not the last.
If Jean Shepard was a beacon of consistency throughout her career, Jean Chapel was in some ways the opposite. That is not to say that she wasn’t consistently a hard worker, but her career is marked by reinventing herself over and over. If you haven’t heard her name before, you may have heard some of her work under one of her many pseudonyms, as there were a multitude over the years!
Born Opal Jean Amburgey, Jean would embody many names and styles over her long musical career. Her entry to the music scene was with an all-girl band, The Sunshine Sisters, who played on radio shows throughout Kentucky and West Virginia in 1938. At the time, all-girl bands were popular as a feature on these shows, and sister acts were especially successful. In 1940, Jean and her two sisters joined one such band, the Coon Creek Girls, an all-women stringband based out of Kentucky.
The Coon Creek Girls had begun as a group of sisters, though over the years they added additional members from outside of the family, including Jean and her sisters. Of the girl groups of the time, the Coon Creek Girls were very successful, even performing at the White House for the Roosevelts and the King and Queen of England in 1939. Overall, the Coon Creek Girls would play from around 1937 to 1957, eventually disbanding to raise their respective families. Over their time as a band, the Coon Creek Girls served as a fertile training ground for many up and coming female country musicians.
During her time with them, Jean would play multiple instruments, including the banjo, fiddle, and guitar. Following their time with the Coon Creek Girls, Jean and her sisters formed their own band, the Hoot Owl Holler Girls. With the Hoot Owl Holler Girls, Jean went by the nickname “Mattie.” While playing with her sisters, Jean met and married fellow musician, Floyd “Salty” Holmes of the Prairie Ramblers.
After marrying Salty, Jean started a duet act with him as “Salty and Mattie.” The couple saw moderate success and even appeared on the earliest syndicated Opry television shows.
Jean’s most consistent success would come from her songwriting abilities. In 1950, she wrote and sang her own song “Don’t Sell Daddy Any More Whiskey.” By 1954, it is estimated that she had written over 300 songs. She recorded approximately 150 of her own songs, but saw the greatest commercial success from other artists recording her songs, most notably Eddy Arnold’s #1 recording of her song “Lonely Again.”
Some of Jean’s most impactful singing success, though relatively short-lived, was in the new and exciting genre of Rockabilly. Just over age 30, in 1956 Jean began recording Rockabilly songs with the iconic Sun Records under the name Jean Chapel. Her voice and delivery gained her the nickname “The Female Elvis,” which was how Sun Records began promoting her. Her single, “Welcome to the Club” was placed on the B-Side of an Elvis Presley single.
Her songs with Sun Records showcase a strong voice and unique style, and pique interest in her music, but those who go looking for more will find that there is not much further to be found. The same year that Jean recorded with Sun Records, she divorced her husband. Following her divorce, she moved to Nashville and turned her focus to writing music.
When she was just 15 years old, a demo recording featuring Martin singing the song “Will You Willyum” captured the attention of record executives at RCA Victor. Shortly thereafter, Martin was signed to a contract with the label, and “Will You Willyum” became a hit. With the blessing of Elvis Presley, RCA Victor began billing Janis Martin as the “Female Elvis,” “The Gal with the Elvis Presley Voice,” and occasionally, the “Rockin’ Country Gal.”
Janis Martin was one of the first female rockabilly artists to receive focused and major label promotion. She appealed, as was true of many other early Rockabilly stars, to both Country and Rock fans, and her wholesome teen image only added to that appeal. Many of the promo photos from the height of her career showcase her youth, with her blond hair in a high ponytail, and a smile on her face. While songs like “My Boy Elvis,” may have been within the vein of a novelty, Martin’s talent and success were anything but a novelty.
She found herself playing on stages all over the United States, including appearances on The Tonight Show and The Grand Ole Opry and, in 1957, she joined Country singer Jim Reeves for a European Tour.
It seemed as though she was on track to continue being a star, if within the shadow of Elvis Presley. Unbeknownst however to Martin’s record label and the general public, the young woman had eloped and married her sweetheart at age 15, right when she was starting her career in earnest. While her parents had encouraged her to keep the marriage a secret, when news got out that she was pregnant, the young, wholesome, teenage image that the record label had capitalized on was no longer applicable. While she had been one of the first female Rockabilly artists to receive major label promotion, Janis quickly lost that support.
Her career hit a standstill, and although she tried to relaunch it around 1960, she had remarried, to a man who did not support her ambitions or work. While she recorded some music in the following decades, she did not regain her standing as a star in the United States and mostly retained audiences and support in Europe. '
In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Janis saw a resurgence of support in her music, with Rockabilly music experiencing a boost in interest. The German record label, Bear Family Records, acquired the rights to her musical catalog and released a compilation album of her work, and in the 1990’s Martin was featured on Rosie Flores’ album “Rockabilly Filly.” While her music is now more accessible than it once was, and she has received much more recognition, Martin’s career never reached the same heights as it had attained during her teens.
Janis’ story is one that almost certainly could be echoed by other female artists of years gone by, even those who did not achieve the same level of success as she did. Her downfall came not from a lack of talent, as she had an excess of that, and a throaty, energetic delivery that set her apart, but rather resulted from the pressures of societal expectations for a woman of her time. While her male counterparts were afforded the luxury of having families and children and continuing their careers, Janis, and indeed other female artists before and after her, were expected to choose one or the other. And of course, any hint of scandal was the demise of a female artist’s career, whereas a male artist could come back from all sorts of messy personal situations. The difference between Janis’ career and that of the man to whom she was so often compared, Elvis Presley himself, should demonstrate that well. This means that the discography of an artist like Janis Martin is limited, but no less worthy of being sought out and listened to thoroughly!
Through just the stories of Rose Maddox, Jean Shepard, Jean Chapel, and Janis Martin, it should be apparent that there are many female artists who are largely unsung in the genres that they explored and contributed to. Each and every one has their own story to tell, however short or limited their career may have been. Their stories and music add perspective to musical genres largely dominated by men and any well-rounded collection would benefit from more of their singles and albums!
SOURCES AND ADDITIONAL READING:
The Encyclopedia of Country Music, Second Edition, edited by Paul Kingsbury, Michael
McCall, and John W. Rumble
Finding Her Voice: Women in Country Music 1800-2000, written by Mary A. Bufwack and
Robert K. Oermann
Hillbilly Maidens, Okies, and Cowgirls: Women’s Country Music 1930-1960, written by
Stephanie Vander Wel
Woman Walk The Line, edited by Holly Gleason
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