The Highwomen: Rock & Roll Rewind

Posted: September 4th, 2024 | Filed under: Culture, Music, Rock & Roll Rewind | 1 Comment »

Back when, you know, in the day, there would be more than occasional Saturdays that arrived without evening plans.

So, they began at the record store.

Karma.

ear x-Tacy.

Looking for somebody to flirt with.

Knowing some similar music obsessives would be there to chat up, maybe with knowledge of where that night’s action was.

Thumbing through the racks you’d thumbed through oh so many times before. Pulling out albums you hadn’t chosen in the past, giving them one more consideration.

How many times did I pull out the Velvet Underground Nico album, the one with the Warhol banana on the cover? A lot. Never bought it. A hole in my resumé I suppose. 

Before leaving I’d always have two, three, four under my arm. If one’s good, ya know, more is better.

Soon enough, maybe even that night if no intriguing destination was to be learned of, I’d sit down to listen, hopefully savor.

Paying attention with total focus. Unless of course there’d be knock at the door. A pal dropping by, maybe with a new Moody Blues release, “I had to hear.” Probably toting some exotic herbal repast.

Anyway, often an album would get glossed over. I’d just give a quick glancing listen and if it didn’t immediately grab me, put it on the shelf.

Then, maybe, months, years, even decades later, I’d be rifling through my collection, looking for something “new” to listen to. And, pull out an LP or CD,  say to myself, “Chuck, you never really gave this one a chance.”

Happened not so long ago with that Elton John/ Leon Russell collaboration.

And this week with The Highwomen.

They’re an outlaw country supergroup of sorts. Amanda Shires and Brandi Carlile, with whom I’m otherwise familiar. Natalie Hemby and Maren Morris with whom I am not.

Their eponymous release came out in ’19. Silly me I never paid enough attention.

Until now.

Their signature tune is yet another take and extrapolation of the Jimmy Webb classic “Highwayman,” previously adopted by that Willie/ Johnny/ Waylon/ Kris ensemble.

Shires and Carlile have adroitly and creatively feminized the lyrics.

It is in these women’s hands a righteous statement of womanhood.

Anthemic.

We are The Highwomen/ Singing stories still untold/ We carry the sons you can only hold/
We are the daughters of the silent generations/ You sent our hearts to die alone in foreign nations/ It may return to us as tiny drops of rain/ But we will still remain

— c d kaplan

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