So I’ve got a question for you. When someone mentions the outlaw country movement, what names come to mind? OK, probably Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and maybe Merle Haggard, right? Right. But here’s the thing. What about the women? Because there were women in that movement who were just as rebellious, just as defiant, and arguably more courageous given the additional barriers they faced.

Nashville in the 1970s operated on a very rigid playbook for female artists. Women were expected to sing about heartbreak and devotion, look pretty, and defer to male producers and label executives on all creative decisions. The women who became the outlaw women of country music basically told Nashville to go pound sand.

• Today, we are going to spotlight the women of outlaw country who have been largely written out of the story
• Jessi Colter was the first woman to have a song on the legendary Wanted! The Outlaws album
• Tanya Tucker burst onto the scene at age 13 with Delta Dawn
• Sammi Smith’s Help Me Make It Through the Night was groundbreaking in its frank sensuality
• These women weren’t just participants in outlaw country. They were architects of it