WHERE HAVE ALL THE COWGIRLS GONE, RODEOHOUSTON?
What’s a girl gotta do to catch a female country artist singing her heart out on RodeoHouston’s revolving stage?
This year, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s 20-night concert smorgasbord features 13 acts you could classify as country, which is awesome, given the western spirit of the whole affair. But you know what’s not awesome? Of those 14 nights (Garth Brooks plays twice), only one features a female solo artist: Kelsea Ballerini on Saturday.
Then, beginning Monday, the lineup gives way to six straight nights of generically cute white guys who wear cowboy hats with varying degrees of authenticity: Rascal Flatts, Jason Aldean, Thomas Rhett, Luke Bryan, Chris Young and Cody Johnson.
That’s nearly a week worth of bro country. And honestly? I’d rather not.
We can do better than turning over the stage for an extended period of time to a subgenre of singers who routinely confine women to the role of a “tan-legged Juliet,” rocking daisy dukes and waterfall curls, just hanging on the tailgate, like a pretty piece of prey.
Don’t get me wrong, this country girl will shake it. But not for you, Luke Bryan, for me.
I’ve been dancing to country music ever since I first stumbled onto the sounds of Shania Twain back in elementary school — much to my hippie parents’ dismay. I fell in love with the wanderlust and waxing poetry spun out in the lyrics. The music transported me from my family’s grass-fed beef farm in upstate New York to the anywhere-else places I yearned to discover.
I love the country music of wide horizons. Not tiny boxes.
Sure, I know, I’m not the first one to say that. Maddie & Tae wrote a kick-ass anthem about this a few years back. In “Girl in a County Song,” they shout out that “Conway and George Strait never did it this way,” longing for the days of yore when women had a little bit of agency in mainstream country.
I know, that’s a lot to ask. So for today, let’s settle for agency at the rodeo, where the athletes already are predominately male. Think about it: Have you ever seen a female bull rider at NRG? No. Women get barrel racing, and men get everything else.
To be fair, not all of the remaining 13 country acts playing this year are all-male bands. Little Big Town, whose vocals are powered in large part by the inimitable Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman, is on the schedule, having played earlier this week. They’ve scored the Country Music Association’s song of the year twice in the past three years for songs by female writers — “Girl Crush,” written by Liz Rose, Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsey in 2015; and “Better Man,” by Taylor Swift in 2017. So they’ll be a reprieve from the reductive male gaze emanating from the stage.
But there should be more than just one reprieve. Did y’all know Shania is on tour this year? She’s playing at the Toyota Center in June, two days after Texas native Kacey Musgraves plays that same arena. They could have been great additions to this year’s lineup.
Maddie & Tae would be a great fit too. And what about The Band Perry? The female-led family band killed it at their concert here in 2016 — the same year Texas native Miranda Lambert last appeared at the rodeo. We could bring them back.
And what about the Dixie Chicks? They just cut an album in September, and Dallas isn’t that far of a haul to make a trip for a special appearance.
Since we’re talking about newly rekindled early-aughts mainstays, what about the Wreckers? Michelle Branch just announced that they’re reuniting.
Hell, let’s aim high: Give me Taylor Swift (on tour this year) and Dolly Parton (always on tour in our hearts). Give me the hologram ghost of June Carter Cash.
Just don’t give me six nights in a row of sitting down in a plastic chair, listening to some pseudo-cowboy telling me what it means to be his kind of girl. I’d rather watch a woman I admire show him how it’s done.
THE HOUSTON BAR SCENE IS FULL OF PERSONALITIES — BAR STARS, IF YOU WILL. EACH WEEK IN PREVIEW, WE’LL FEATURE ONE OF THESE MIXOLOGISTS TO LET YOU KNOW MORE ABOUT THEM, ASIDE FROM HOW GOOD THEY ARE AT MAKING YOU FEEL GOOD.