Her Country

How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be

By: Marissa R. Moss

Narrated by: Kelli Tager

Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

The full and unbridled inside story of the last twenty years of country music through the lens of Maren Morris, Mickey Guyton, and Kacey Musgraves—their peers and inspirations, their paths to stardom, and their battles against a deeply embedded boys’ club, as well as their efforts to transform the genre into a more inclusive place for all (and not just white men in trucker hats), as told by award-winning Nashville journalist Marissa R. Moss.

It was only two decades ago, but, for the women of country music, 1999 seems like an entirely different universe. With Shania Twain, country’s biggest award winner and star, and The Chicks topping every chart, country music was a woman’s world: specifically, country radio and Nashville’s Music Row.

Cut to 2021, when women are only played on country radio 16% of the time, on a good day, and when only men have won Entertainer of the Year at the CMA Awards for a decade. To a world where artists like Kacey Musgraves sell out arenas but barely score a single second of airplay. But also to a world where these women are infinitely bigger live draws than most male counterparts, having massive pop crossover hits like Maren Morris’s “The Middle,” pushing the industry to confront its deeply embedded racial biases with Mickey Guyton’s “Black Like Me,” winning heaps of Grammy nominations, banding up in supergroups like The Highwomen and taking complete control of their own careers, on their own terms. When the rules stopped working for the women of country music, they threw them out and made their own: and changed the genre forever, and for better.

Her Country is veteran Nashville journalist Marissa R. Moss’s story of how in the past two decades, country’s women fought back against systems designed to keep them down, armed with their art and never willing to just shut up and sing: how women like Kacey, Mickey, Maren, The Chicks, Miranda Lambert, Rissi Palmer, Brandy Clark, LeAnn Rimes, Brandi Carlile, Margo Price and many more have reinvented the rules to find their place in an industry stacked against them, how they’ve ruled the century when it comes to artistic output—and about how women can and do belong in the mainstream of country music, even if their voices aren’t being heard as loudly.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Co.

©2022 Marissa R. Moss (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Her Country goes beyond true and takes you all the way to TRUTH.

WOW! I can’t wait to read it again. And I’ve been telling everyone I know about this book.

It’s for anyone who has a desire to dive deep into the history of where the status quo in Country music comes from. It reminds me of why I love this industry. AND also why it makes me so angry.

This book isn’t for people who live in surface level thoughts. It’s for those who love going deep & loves asking the hard questions!

making room for women in country

this story is fascinating and Moss connects so many dots -- from the Dixie Chicks being banished in 2001 to the rise of Taylor Swift to the rise of the latest talented game changers, particularly focused on Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris, and Mickey Guyton. I was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of so much queer representation and this book also fills in the gaps and hopefully will inspire someone to continue to tell more of it. This is for anyone who is a fan of female singer-songwriters and maybe thinks country isn't a genre they like or understand. essential for any music fan or pop culture know it all.

great insight into women finding a way to succeed

at times the story rambled but, it was a story that needed to be told.i did feel good that every lady/ singer i not only knew but owned at least one if not two of their albums.

Easily the worst Audible performance I’ve heard

When the reader kept oddly pronouncing the word “their”, I forgave her. When she started a sentence over, I checked the hardback book. Then she started sentences over at least 3 more times! And she mispronunciation the name of 1 city and at least 1 of the musical artists. Do your research!

No thanks

Stopped listening in the first chapter. The unapologetic political and social slant was a huge turn off.