Mini Playlist: Songs About Girl Singers
It’s no secret that we love girl singers here at The 9513; whether they’re ethereal songbirds or barroom belters, there’s just something about a woman who can sing country music. And as much as we love girl singers, we love songs about girl singers even more. Here’s just a few of the many tribute songs out there.
5. “That Bangle Girl” – Robbie Fulks
Okay, so maybe Susanna Hoffs isn’t typical subject matter for an alt-country song. But Fulks’ song is so catchy—much like the music of The Bangles—that we can overlook it.
4. “Sweet Emmylou” – Joey + Rory
It’s a fact that Emmylou Harris makes everything better. Here she helps cure heartbreak with the power of her soaring vocals; Joey Martin’s no slouch, either.
3. “Mountain Fern” – Laura Cantrell
Alt-country songbird Cantrell delivers one of her “biography songs,” this one all about early country/gospel singer Molly O’Day. Those who have listened to Johnny Cash’s American V know her sentimental ballad “On the Evening Train.”
2. “Song for June” – Slaid Cleaves
From 2003 cover album Unsung comes this tribute. From the autoharp to the whispered lyrics “will you miss me miss me miss me when I’m gone,” this one’s pure June.
1. “Queen of the Coast” – Laura Cantrell
Cantrell’s biography songs are too good to ignore. This one is all about Bonnie Owens, ex-wife to Buck and Merle. Bonnie was before my time, but Cantrell paints such a picture with lyrics like “She was the queen of the coast back in ’65/Prettier than most, she could keep a room alive/With a catch in her voice and a beehive in her hair” that I’m immediately transported back to this golden age of country music.
Listen to this playlist on Rhapsody
Tagged In This Article
Joey + Rory // Laura Cantrell // Robbe Fulks // Slaid Cleaves
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May 26, 2009 at 2:10 pm
I always liked The Bottle Rockets “Nancy Sinatra”
May 26, 2009 at 3:03 pm
I didn’t even realize The9513 liked girl singers especially much.
May 26, 2009 at 4:26 pm
I like Kieran Kane’s “June Carter Sure Can Sing.”
May 26, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Southern Pacific recorded “A Girl Like Emmylou” back in 1991. I liked this song better than the song recorded by Joey + Rory
Also back around 1971 Jethro Burns (of Homer & Jethro fame recorded a song titled “Will You Love Me, Dolly Parton”
The opening lines were
Will You Love Me, Dolly Parton, if I let my hair grow long
If I learn to pick and yodel, and sing a country song
May 26, 2009 at 9:41 pm
I didn’t realise people still used the term ‘girl singers’.
I love the Joey + Rory song, but I prefer Catherine Britt’s version.
May 27, 2009 at 9:15 am
I’ve come across quite a few songs inspired by Emmylou, although I can’t remember them now. The Doc Marshalls have one called “Never Found My Emmylou.”
May 27, 2009 at 10:04 am
Elizabeth Cook did “Dolly, Did You Go Through This?”
May 27, 2009 at 10:47 am
Paul, Southern Pacific’s “A Girl Like Emmylou” is about a former girlfriend named Emmylou who died and the singer is missing her and mourning her loss. I love that song, but I’ve never equated it with Emmylou Harris! (lol)
I like Jamey Johnson’s version of “Sweet Emmylou” the best just because it is so opposite his outlaw tough guy image…
Carlene Carter pays a nice tribute to grandmother Maybelle and “her girls” in the wonderful “Me and the Wildwood Rose” song off her “I Fell In Love” album.
May 27, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Last Train Home’s HENDERSONVILLE is a great song about Johnny Cash and June Carter.
May 27, 2009 at 12:28 pm
True Believers’ “Wild Eyed and Wound Up” about Lucinda Williams. Alejandro Escovedo redid it later with The Setters (with former Lu guitarist Gurf Morlix producing and playing a very Lucindaesque solo) … I think the title changed along the way.
June 2, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Compared to the number of male country singers’ salutes to their musical heroes, though, there are really pretty few salutes over all these years by female country singers to their heroines..
June 2, 2009 at 4:30 pm
“I know all the words to every Tanya Tucker song”
June 2, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Buzz Cason wrote a song about Emmylou, which was subsequently covered by a group called Brush Arbor (there’s one for you Paul!). “Oh oh Emmylou, Emmylou. Just a fan who’s in love with you. I spend my time just trying to get close to you. But heaven is a girl named Emmylou.”
November 7, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Some male singer a couple of years ago had a weird song about riding in or buying Loretta Lynn’s Lincoln.
November 7, 2009 at 4:16 pm
A woman singer did a song a ways back about “A Bottle of Wine and Patsy Cline.”
October 5, 2010 at 6:02 am
would like to know all of song Dolly Partons sweet on me sung Jethro Burns