“We don’t want more than anyone else, we want the same as everyone else”, explains Maren Morris in her recent music video for Girl. Listening to the country top 30 on a Saturday morning, something becomes very apparent , there hasn’t been a single play by a female musician for at least 20 minutes, maybe it’s just a one off? I continue to listen for at least another hour… still no change. This has become a very apparent problem, specifically in country music. In fact the amount of radio plays that women on country music get, has decreased by at least 50% since the early 2000’s. (Reference) with one radio dj even referring to them as “garnish in an all male salad”, he even encouraged other radio dj’s to reduce the amount of women in their playlists.

We’re living in the 21st century but it seems that radio presenters are living in the past and have yet to learn that in this day and age, we treat women like equals. Female country artists are topping the charts just as much as men, so why the lack of airplay? 

With so many women making high quality and grammy award winning music for this genre these days, we are certainly not lacking in quality when it comes to female country music. So why the lack of representation? There seems to be a very limited availability if you’re a female country artist, some may argue that ‘all ballads by female country artists sound the same’ or ‘the music just isn’t relatable’, but let’s face it most male country artists write about the same topics, beer and girls mainly, and whilst they make some great tunes, it appears that the lack of diversity here is much more prominent, so why just target the women?  It seems like a pathetic excuse to me. 

Sexism in country music, however, has clearly evolved especially in the past decade, but it’s still not enough. Artists like Kacey Musgraves are breaking records for selling out venues and singing about topics that some would say are groundbreaking, anthems of encouragement and perseverance. Four women who recently decided to  come together to create country supergroup, the highwomen, taking on the name of 90s supergroup the highwaymen, to prove that women can be just as important, have spoken up about the inequality in a recent interview with apple music “country music is the story of rural America with a lack of women” (double check who says this) it’s certainly becoming a very one sided story. 

It’s not just female artists who are speaking up about the situation though, country artist Garth Brooks spoke about his wife Trisha yearwood in a recent interview, explaining how ‘by not playing songs by women, country radio is silencing an important perspective’. If only radio hosts had this point of view. Some radio shows have an hour dedicated to female musicians, but to me this still doesn’t seem fair compared to the other 23 that revolve around men.

It’s a sunny Monday morning and rays of sunshine are lighting up my living room. I’ve lost track of the days we’ve been in lockdown for, “the key is having a routine” Georgie Temple tells me down the phone. The Reading born singer, who refines her style as r & b and soul, has been using her voice to help people through these dark times by singing around the neighbourhood, “I sang you’ll never walk alone to an old man who happened to be a Liverpool fan on his birthday”. As much as we are spending time apart she believes that this has brought the community together, especially over the common bond of music.

Music has been a part of Georgie’s life for as long as she can remember, being brought up in a baptist church and singing with choirs. This love of performance continued throughout secondary school as she sang in the lower school assembly, crediting this time for pushing her out of her comfort zone but making her aware of “just how soul crushing the industry is at like 12”. However this didn’t put her off, as she went on to pursue a degree in popular music studies at BIMM. “It’s very humbling” Georgie admits when asked how the experience shaped her, allowing her passion for the craft to grow and her awareness of what her brand is to be established. It becomes apparent to me that the songwriter is very emotionally intelligent and appreciative of other artists, crediting her influences such as Indie.Arie and Ajeet Kaur for the path that she is beginning to pursue.

“If you can’t relate to someone straight away you will be less willing to listen to them in the future”, she explains of her songwriting, crediting her vulnerability and willingness to tell her stories no matter how hard it may be to relive. The ability to tell a story and connect is so much more important to Georgie than just confining to a single genre. “Its the art of letting go that I love”, being passionate about more than one thing, has allowed Georgie to explore so many aspects of creativity including meditation through song. Although continuing to work through the pandemic, she has continued to write at least once a week and is using the current events to inspire a song she has recently written,’  fire, earth and water’, however explains that the message portrayed will still be relevant once this has surpassed.

Georgie has recently released her first single ego, which she tells me is about the times when ‘your ego gets in the way and stops you from taking that leap of faith’. Although her launch gig has been pushed back she’s excited to get out and perform again. There’s so much more to come from Georgie Temple with 3 recorded songs that she wanted to release individually rather than through an ep or album because sometimes the message can get lost in the middle of a record.

With so much happening in the four years since their debut album, including their first label going bust,  it’s no wonder that Maddie and Tae’s new album, the way it feels, feels like a breath of Tennessee fresh air and a celebration of freedom sprinkled with a new level of maturity. Their debut was just about to start her first year of high school, sweet and innocent, their sophomore album, laced with knowledge and a new leash on life, already graduated. 

Led by Maddie Marlow’s soft, yet powerful vocals and Tae dye’s perfectly encrypted harmonies, the Nashville based duo sing life’s lessons to all who listen. The duo takes us on an emotional rollercoaster with lyrics such as “I wanna look him in the eyes and see someone I recognise”, which Maddie agonisingly sings in the devastatingly beautiful ballad ‘water in his wine glass’. 

The duo have opened up and allowed themselves to be vulnerable with this record, allowing fans to connect and relate, everyone can relate to the feeling of calling up a loved one in a state of heartbreak, which the girls elaborate on in ‘die from a broken heart’ . They also speak about having that one friend who’s always felt like something more in “friends don’t” which most of us can relate to.

With a blues and soul feel, laced in pop country, maddie and Tae experiment with a sound that could only be described as its own genre.

Rating: 7/10

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‘Born in a hurry always late’ Kacey musgraves sings as she walks out perfectly on time to a deafening cheer at Nashville’s Bridgestone arena. 

“We literally couldn’t cram one more human body into this place” she exclaims as she gazes in disbelief into her sold out audience, they even had to open up the closed off area of the arena to fit everybody in, breaking the record for biggest audience for a female at the arena proving that small venues are a thing of the past for the small town girl. A big voice, a loyal band and very few outfit changes were all this small town girl needed to catch every single audience member’s attention.

Musgraves had the crowd in her hands as she graced us with hits from her grammy award winning golden hour from ‘velvet elvis’ which had everybody up on their feet dancing along, to tear-jerker ‘rainbow’ that, with the help of a fan project involving coloured confetti, lit up the room with transcending colours. 

After bringing out opening act Maggie Rogers to perform an energetic rendition of Whitney Houston’s’ I wanna dance with somebody’, midway through space cowboy the lights dim and a silhouette appears behind a large curtain, a deafening roar shakes through the arena as Harry styles is revealed from behind the curtain. 

Golden hour had long surpassed, and it was time for the show to finish. The show proved that kacey musgraves is so much more than just a dime store cowgirl.

You wouldn’t spot a rhinestone cowboy walking the streets of Liverpool, but you would spot a couple thousand of them walking round the o2 arena in mid March each year as the ever popular country to country music festival makes a return with acts riding in from near and well very far with stars from Nashville and also more locally, artists from Hertfordshire. The festival has become increasingly popular throughout the years beginning in 2013 at London’s Wembley arena but as it rodeoed in thousands more it expanded, taking on locations in Dublin, Glasgow and London. And it seems that 2013 was a crucial year in the rise of popularity of the genre with the first dedicated country radio station, Chris country, gracing the uk. But it’s still far from the norm to be a country music fan in the uk.

Why is it that the genre is becoming increasingly popular, especially over the last decade? Is it the risk taking from popular country artists like Kacey Musgraves speaking up about things you wouldn’t normally expect to hear from a gracious southern belle? Or how the genre has evolved from twangy strings to more rock orientated? Was it just not cool enough back in the day?

With the evolution of the internet it is so much easier these days to access an array of different artists and hear what our friends across the pond are finding popular. An example of this is internet sensation lil Nas X with his viral hit ‘old town road’ which even had country legend Billy Ray Cyrus jump onto its bandwagon becoming one of the most recognisable songs of 2019. With mainstream sound being so different from that of country it’s no wonder the public are so heavily influenced by what they hear, decades ago you would hear a song on the radio and the only way to hear it again would be for you to wait until it’s back on the radio. With country just not being a popular option no wonder the brits couldn’t delve into the rich sound of rural America and unless you were lucky enough to have a relative or a friend with taste, it’s unlikely that you would come across anything that you haven’t heard before. You couldn’t Shazam or YouTube, it was what it was. There was no Spotify suggesting artists you may like, which is how many country stars are discovered these days. 

Crowds of American country artists are beginning to expand at gigs, one artist who this applies to is American country artist Maren Morris, but you could thank her chart topping collaboration with the chainsmokers, “the middle” for growing her audience. It’s often unheard of that a pure country artist that doesn’t feature elements of pop is played on popular stations like radio one but maybe this will change in the near future? Who knows with the growing trend maybe in the future you will see a rhinestone cowboy gracing the streets of Liverpool.