Country star knows firsthand about harassment women face

The casting couch isn’t limited to Hollywood. Asked whether sexual harassment in entertainment — recently revealed in the alleged actions of movie producer Harvey Weinstein — extends to aspiring country-music starlets in Nashville, Tennessee, Elizabeth Cook answered with a resounding yes.

Her confidence stems from firsthand experience.

“I’ve been groped. (I) take all kinds of talk,” said the 45-year-old singer/songwriter. “As I get older and more secure in my career and position, it’s easier for me to lower my tolerance, but it’s still a battle.”

In some cases, the battle remains unspoken.

“I’ve had situations that I’d like to be able to come out about but haven't for fear of losing my livelihood,” Cook said. “That’s why we don’t speak out. I would lose my career.”

Such reflections come from the gutsy writer of “Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be a Woman,” an approving appraisal of female strength.

It’s not that Cook hasn’t worked with plenty of “respectful, powerful, wonderful men.” But the few bad apples in the bushel, she said, spread rotten mush over everything else.

“The problem is not being able to speak out and have those apples thrown out.”

In country music especially, she said, she sees loyalty to tradition as a limitation to women’s access and perceptions.

One example is the “Tomatogate” scandal of 2015, in which a radio consultant called women “the tomatoes of our salad” and referred to men as the “lettuce” upon which country music is built.

The industry was outraged, but the comments didn't surprise Cook.

“I think it’s gotten a lot better, but when I was coming up, little boys got handed guitars (and) little girls got handed microphones,” she said. “I think the role of women being seen as a really specific, narrow thing has limited female artists.”

Still, Cook takes heart in the recent dialogue about sexual harassment in show business, even as she tries to overlook inappropriate comments posted on her social-media pages.

She learned resilience during her unusual upbringing.

Her father played bass in a penitentiary band in Atlanta while serving time for operating a moonshine business. Her mother played guitar and sang, and both parents performed at bars after Cook’s father was released. (She sometimes sang with them.)

Even though she started singing as a toddler, Cook worked as an auditor for several years after graduating from Georgia Southern University in Statesboro.

Eventually quitting the desk job to pursue music, her early albums changed from independent releases to

label-backed records and back again.

With a twang to rival Dolly Parton’s and a singing voice to match, Cook kept her early efforts to the country basics: plenty of plaintive ballads and sliding guitars.

Beginning in 2010, though, the musician’s life kept slipping further out of her control.

Her father died. She divorced fellow country singer Tim Carroll. Her family’s house caught on fire. She learned that she has a personality disorder.

As the hits kept coming, Cook headed into the studio expecting to make a country-rock album.

“That’s not what happened,” she said.

What came out instead — titled “Exodus of Venus” — still has plenty of country elements: the strumming guitars, the twang.

But where Cook used to play things straight, she has added darker indie-rock elements by channeling everyone from quirky songwriter Sinead O’Connor to bluesy rockers Little Feat.

The stormy sound puts a time stamp on a similarly turbulent period of her life.

“Everyone has these moments in their lives, if you live long enough, where you’re not shielded from disaster,” she said. “I tend to write from what’s going on, and that’s what was going on.”

Just as she doesn't care what the countrymusic scene thinks about her view of women in the genre, Cook couldn't care less about what comprises the genre itself.

“I’m only beholden to my artistic muse — that’s my job,” she said. “I don’t care if country music is country or not. I care if it’s pure or not. I don’t care if a guitar has distortion or it’s a banjo. I don’t care.”