{"id":30141,"date":"2019-11-14T12:45:23","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T17:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=30141"},"modified":"2019-11-28T14:05:54","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T19:05:54","slug":"playing-nashville-cmt-next-women-of-country-proves-theres-a-sisterhood-in-nashville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/playing-nashville-cmt-next-women-of-country-proves-theres-a-sisterhood-in-nashville\/","title":{"rendered":"CMT Next Women of Country Proves There\u2019s a Sisterhood in Nashville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each year in Nashville, the women of country music gather to celebrate one another and provide an important platform for the new artists working to break ground in the genre through CMT Next Women of Country.<\/p>\n

Founded by CMT Senior Vice President of Music Strategy & Talent Leslie Fram in 2013, CMT Next Women of Country shines a spotlight on nearly a dozen promising new female acts in Nashville, providing them with tools and resources to be successful in a male-dominated industry, with past inductees including Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini. During the 2019 CMT Next Women of Country event co-hosted by Fram and Martina McBride at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, the 2020 CMT Next Women of Country class was unveiled, comprised of Gabby Barrett, Caylee Hammack, Hailey Whitters, Madison Kozak, Walker County, Avenue Beat, Abbey Cone, Kylie Morgan, Sykamore, Tiera and Renee Blair.<\/p>\n

A consistent theme carried throughout the annual event is empowerment, whether the artists are championing one another or singing introspective and thought-provoking songs they\u2019ve penned. The 2019 event reflected the variety of the music these women are creating through an acoustic songwriters round that invites each of the new inductees to perform an original song. Caylee Hammack delivered a stirring performance of \u201cSmall Town Hypocrite,\u201d a song inspired by the ex-boyfriend she gave up a scholarship for who ended up cheating on her, while Hailey Whitters also proved to be a compelling songwriter with her depiction of a fictional character named Janice, an 80-year-old woman who offers sage life advice like \u201cstay off the pills, but get on the pill if you ain’t ready to start a family,\u201d the line calling to mind Loretta Lynn\u2019s 1975 feminist anthem, \u201cThe Pill.\u201d Madison Kozak, the first artist signed to Nashville\u2019s new all-female label Songs & Daughters led by groundbreaking songwriter Nicolle Galyon (Camilla Cabello\u2019s \u201cConsquences,\u201d Dan + Shay\u2019s \u201cTequila\u201d), held every heart in the room like it was made of glass with \u201cHousehold,\u201d touching on the universal feeling of wanting to leave home, but longing for that very place when you\u2019re finally gone.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Rick Diamond\/Getty Images for CMT)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The talent displayed in the room reflected country radio\u2019s glaring lack of inclusion for such artists. In December of 2018, it was reported<\/a> that for the first time in the 28 years since the Billboard <\/em>Country Airplay chart launched, there were no women in the Top 20. However, up-and-coming artists are slowly fighting their way out of these alarming statistics, as Hammack\u2019s debut single \u201cFamily Tree<\/a>\u201d has cracked the Top 40 on the country charts, Ingrid Andress is in the Top 20 with \u201cMore Hearts Than Mine<\/a>\u201d and Runaway June became the first all-female trio since the Dixie Chicks to have a Top 5 hit with \u201cBuy My Own Drinks<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the conversation surrounding the lack of women on country radio still lingers, with Mickey Guyton remarking on \u201cthe elephant in the room\u201d the moment she took the stage to open the show. \u201cThere is without question an injustice happening to women in country music. There are a lot of great songs that are not getting a shot,\u201d Guyton professed before performing her new song \u201cSister<\/a>\u201d with her country music \u201csisters\u201d Tenille Townes, Clare Dunn, Rachel Wammack and Leah Turner. \u201cBut one thing is for certain: it is going to take us women to lift each other up out of these trenches.\u201d<\/p>\n

A burgeoning superstar who has gone above and beyond to support her female contemporaries is Brandi Carlile, who was honored with the Next Women of Country Impact Award. Carlile, who scooped up three Grammy Awards in 2019 for her acclaimed album By the Way, I Forgive You, <\/em>has made it an integral part of her mission to elevate the women around her, curating the all-female stage at the 2019 Newport Folk Festival that featured her supergroup The Highwomen and a surprise performance by Dolly Parton, in addition to creating the women-centric festival Girls Just Wanna Weekend. She\u2019s also pivoting her support for women into a behind-the-scenes role, serving as co-producer of Tanya Tucker\u2019s new album While I\u2019m Livin\u2019<\/em> with Shooter Jennings.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Rick Diamond\/Getty Images for CMT)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rather than point a finger at country radio, Carlile encouraged radio employees in attendance to be intentional about the songs they\u2019re sharing through the format while expressing the reverence she has for the genre that raised her. \u201cIf country music is the story of rural America, then what is the story that we’re telling to our young girls?\u201d she questioned. \u201cWhat we’re hoping, and what we’re inviting country radio to do is to catch up with the way that we all understand. I would urge anybody that’s involved in country radio\u2026ask yourself the question every morning before you go to work ‘what do I want my job to say to my daughter today?’ Because she’s an American girl, she’s in love with a boy, she needs wide open spaces, she’s a wild one,” she continued, referencing iconic songs by Trisha Yearwood, the Dixie Chicks and Faith Hill. “She’s more than a pair of blue jeans in a cab of a truck.”<\/p>\n

Additionally, a handful of behind-the-scenes movers and shakers were present at the ceremony, including Cindy Mabe, president of Universal Music Group Nashville, who made it a point to continue to call for change in the industry regarding support for women. \u201cWe can all keep moving through and thinking that things have changed at the rate that they need to change, and they haven’t,\u201d she stated. \u201cThis is about how we give a voice and a perspective to half the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

She encouraged emerging artists to explore other methods of promoting their music outside of radio, pointing to artists like Musgraves, who received little attention from radio for her Grammy winning Album of the Year Golden Hour, <\/em>instead reaching listeners through other formats like social media. \u201cWomen are bringing more adventurous, interesting, state of the art, cutting edge music and it doesn’t go and fit in a box. We will spend the next years figuring out how we get it exposed, one foot in front of the other, \u00a0because great music should always rise and it’s not about fitting into a box,\u201d she said, actively taking Carlile\u2019s words to heart. \u201cI have to get out of bed every day and make a movement towards making women’s voices matter again.”<\/p>\n

The program continues with the CMT Next Women of Country Tour, headlined by Tanya Tucker, in early 2020, with supporting acts and dates to be announced in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each year in Nashville, the women of country music gather to celebrate one another and provide an important platform for the new artists working to break ground in the genre through CMT Next Women of Country. Founded by CMT Senior Vice President of Music Strategy & Talent Leslie Fram in 2013, CMT Next Women of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":30144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9113],"tags":[8359,9302,9263,9264,6769,9303,9304,9301,2274,9305,9306,9300,9265],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/CMTNextWomenofCountryfeatimg.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30141"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30141"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30434,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30141\/revisions\/30434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}