Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad: Country Queens & Rockabilly Babies Ladies Febuary 9, 2009

I was thinking a lot about the idea of girldom and how it relates to the identity of being "country." Perhaps it is because I am writing my thesis about blues tourism in the Mississippi Delta, and am currently exploring Raymond Williams's The Country and the City, in any case, the word country is a complex and rich cultural category that indexes a wide range of meanings. This show was my was of thinking about gender and country-ness in terms of music. What does it mean for grrrls to be country? How is country-ness constructed? Who is allowed to be country? and how does this category manifest in musical form? I am concerned with the way that grrrls interact with this country identity. The link below is to the show I did on country ladies. Of course, this remains a reflection of my own tastes in female country music ladies, and by no means, aims to present an exhausted list of all the country queens. I always welcome new suggestions and directions!


This is New Radio Country Grrrls

Track Listing:
Kitty Wells- It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
Anita Carter- John Handy Was a Desperate Little Man
Maggie Dee and the Ramblers- Waitress
Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn- Silver Threads and Golden Needles
Dottie West- I Don't Wanna Play House
Skeeter Davis- Half a Mind
Patsy Cline- Walkin' After Midnight
Lucinda Williams- Can't Let Go
Molly Bee- Bayou Joe
Benda Lee- Walkin' to New Orleans
Mother Maybelle Carter- Foggy Mountain Top
Crystal Gale- Clock on the Wall
Arlene Harden- Lovin Man
Lynn Anderson- Rose Garden
Tammy Wynette- Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad
Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard- TB Blues
Lucinda Williams- Make Me Down a Pallet on Your Floor
Anita Veal & Bob Hooks Band- Daddy Let Me Go
Skeeter Davis- Hillbilly Song
Johnny Cash & June Carter- Jackson
Brenda Lee- Let's Jump the Broomstick
Jerry Lee Lewis & Linda Gail- We Live in Two Different Worlds
Janis Martin- Will You Willyum
Bobbie Gentry- Sweet Peony
Loretta Lynn- Woman Enough
Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard- Long Black Veil
Annie Bird- Wandering Boy
Patsy Cline- Have you Ever Been
Goldie Hill- Live From Tomorrow
Lucinda Williams- Drop Down Daddy
Emmylou Harris- Blue Kentucky Girl
Aunt Molly Jackson- I Love Coal Miners, I Do
Bobbie Gentry- Ode to Billie Joe
Linda Ronstadt- That'll Be the Day
Dolly Parton- You Ole Handy Man
Carolyn Hester- The Rivers of Texas
Brenda Lee- Dynamite

You Don't Own Me: Grrrl Groups January 26, 2009

On January 26, 2009, 4-6 am Central Standard Time, in Chicago, Illinois on WHPK 88.5 the Pride of the South Side, This is New Radio showcased G[ir]rrl groups.

Reflecting on this show, I wish I would have had included more girl groups and added much more information about each song/artist, since every girl's story is simply fascinating, however, two hours is a temporal constraint, which does not allow such elaboration. But lucky for you, I can offer some insight for those interested in learning more about girl groups.

A few books to check out:

Whitall, Susan
1998. Women of Motown An Oral History. Avon Books: New York. (part of For the Record Books edited by Dave Marsh).

Warwick, Jacqueline
2007. Girl Groups Girl Culture Popular Music and Identity in the 1960s. Routledge: New York.

Greig, Charlotte
1989. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? Girl Groups From the 50s On. Virago Press: London.

The Liverbirds- Peanut Butter



Below is the link for the show:

Girl Groups - This is New Radio





Track Listing:
Earl-Jean- I'm Into Something Good
The Supremes- Love is Like an Itching in My Heart
Goldie and the Gingerbreads- VIP
The Cookies- Girls Grow Up Faster Than Boys Do
Lindy Lane- Low Grades and High Fever
Dusty Springfield- Take Another Little Piece of My Heart
The Shangri-las- Give Him a Great Big Kiss
The Angels- My Boyfriend's Back
The Chiffons- My Boyfriend's Back
The Chantels- Well I Told You
The Luv'd Ones- Up Down Sue
Mary Wells- My Guy
The Crystals- He Hit Me (And it Felt Like a Kiss)
Brenda Holloway- I've Been Good to You
The Feminine Complex- Love Love Love
The Shirelles- Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
ID- Those Ever Loving Baby Blues
Lesley Gore- You Don't Own Me
The Puppets- Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart
The Shangri-las- He Cried
The Marvelettes- Please Mr. Postman
The Pleasure Seekers- What a Way to Die
The Liverbirds- Diddley Daddy
Patti and the Bluebelles- Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Dana Gillespie- You Just Gotta Know My Mind
Lori Burton- Nightmare
The Ronettes- You Came, You Saw, You Conquered
Ellaine and the Shandells- Tell Me That You Care
The Starlets- No, No, No (You Don't Love Me)
The Ikettes- I'm Blue
Martha and the Vendellas- Dancing in the Streets
Dusty Springfield- Breakfast in Bed
The Jayettes- Sally Go Round the Roses
The Honeys- The One You Can't Have
The Toys- Lover's Concerto
The Termites- Tell Me
Alma Cogan- Snakes, Snails, Puppy Dog Tails
The Ronettes- Be My Baby

Revolution Grrrl Style Now: Riot Grrrls January 12th, 2009

January 12, 2009. This is New Radio debuted on WHPK 88.5 The Pride of the South Side in Chicago, Illinois at 4 am Central Standard Time. I had never been in a radio studio, let alone produced a radio show. The medium of radio was a complete mystery to me, but I knew that I was bored of hearing the same ten male-centric songs on the classic rock/oldies station, or a complete devalued inauthenticity attributed to any women that happened to, seemingly by mistake, "get played" (notice the pun!) on almost every other station. And, I don't know about you, but I am sick of hearing about how "crazy bitch" Yoko broke up the Beatles, or how great female voices are always "discovered" by some bourgeois male music producer type.

So lets look at this as an attempt to rewrite the grand popular music historical narrative by questioning those seemingly naturalized discourses that permeate our understanding of what it means to be a GIRL making music.

The link below is an Mp3 of my first show, which focused on Riot Grrrls. To contextualize: the whole concept of Riot Grrrl culture impacted my life in a very real and personal way-- it allowed me to realize that girls could really do whatever we want and that was empowering for my confused fourteen year old self. Hearing Kathleen Hanna scream for the first time, dancing to Bratmobile with friends, or reading Riot Grrrl zines showed me that girls were special and had a culture that could subvert conventional ideologies in a radical way. Girl music and girl culture stands in opposition to practices that write women and girls out of histories or questions their involvement and authenticity. To summarize, I think experiencing women-- particularly those labeled "Girls"-- making music in any capacity is exciting, empowering, and all together fun. This is New Radio is an attempt to understand "Girl Music" as important.

Riot Grrrls - This is New Radio

Track Listing Below:
Bikini Kill- New Radio
Bratmobile- The Real Janelle
Julie Ruin- V.G.I.
Heavens to Betsy- Me & Her
Spider and the Webs- Mister Hypnotist
Kathleen Hanna's Message to Mike Watt
Huggy Bear- Blow Dry
Team Dresch- Seven
Cadallaca- Two Beers Later
Suture- Pretty Is
Sleater-Kinney- Banned From the End of the Earth
7 Year Bitch- Chow Down
Slant 6- Soda Pop-Rip Off
The Bangs- Sweet Revenge
Go Sailor- Ray of Sunshine
Excuse 17- 5 Arces
Babes in Toyland- Ripe
Chicks on Speed- For All the Boys in the World
The Peechees- Pepper
Bikini Kill- Suck My Left One
Tribe 8- Manipulate
Star Sign Scorpio- Eskinaut
The Frumpies- Weird Machine
The Frumpies-Intertube Tomorrow
Emily's Sassy Lime- Bait & Switch
Sleater-Kinney- Get Up
My New Boyfriend- Thurston Moore
Kathleen Hanna- I Wish I Was Him
Le Tigre- Hot Topic
Red Aunts- Poison Steak
The Need- Crown
The Casual Dots- I'll Dry My Tears
The Gossip- Got All This Waiting
Bikini Kill- Alien She
Bratmobile- And I Live in a Town Where All the Boys Amputate Their Hearts
Spider and the Webs- Do you Really Wanna?
The Bangs- Into You
Julie Ruin- Break Out A Town
Bratmobile- Where Eagles Dare

The Frumpies- Be Good