You’ve heard the new all-girl super group The Highwomen, right? And their debut song “Redesigning Women?” If you haven’t, you’re missing out, and you can remedy that by listening to our Nashville Now and #WCE Country stations, among others.
What you need to know is that four very talented women – Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires, Natalie Hemby, and Maren Morris -- wanted to start a movement, a project that supports and gives voices to the women struggling to find success in country music. Brandi said the idea was to fix the problem from the inside, not to battle it. And the name has two meanings – one, a nod to The Highwaymen (made up of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson), and the other meaning “high, like exalted. Above the fold,” she said in an interview.
And along with the four core members, we can expect collaborations from women across the musical spectrum, including songwriter Lori McKenna, Sheryl Crow, Miranda Lambert, and maybe some “feminist-adjacent” men, like producer Dave Cobb and Amanda’s husband and performer himself Jason Isbell.
It looks like their biggest fan is Dierks Bentley, who, armed with a pipe and a smoking jacket, performed a dramatic reading of the lyrics. Watch here (and then watch it again)