In the intervening years between the bulk of the interviews conducted by Kathleen Hudson and the publication of this collection of excerpts from them, numerous changes in the lives and stories of the thirty four women have taken place: changes in marital status; the realization, or not, of stated dreams; and the creation of new music. What did not change, however, is the enthusiasm Hudson demonstrated for gathering the stories and thoughts of the following women of song and story: Emily Robinson, Susan Gibson, Terri Hendrix, Ruthie Foster and Cyd Cassone, Lee Ann Womack, Stephanie Urbina Jones, Jill Jones, Rosie Flores, Betty Buckley, Marcia Ball, Angela Strehli, The Texana Dames, Pauline Reese, Lee Duffy, Shemekia Copeland, Jewel Brown, Trudy Lynn, Lavelle White, Katie Webster, Wanda King, Karen Abrahams, Barb Donovan, Nessie Beal, Christine Albert, Sara Hickman, Melissa Javors, Lydia Mendoza Davila, Mandy Mercier, Bobbie Nelson, Lana Nelson, Rattlesnake Annie, Carolyn Woderland, Elana Fremerman (James), and Eva Ybarra.
The book is structured around these interviews, preceded with the foreword by Lloyd Maines, Grammy Award-winning country music record producer, musician, and songwriter, and the introduction, “The Author’s Story.” Several pages of black-and-white photographs of the musicians complete the introductory material. The transcribed interviews are followed by a coda, mentioning the website where additional material can be found, and a brief eclectic bibliography of reading suggestions. In the foreword, Maines, contending that women in the music business have more obstacles to deal with than their male counterparts, says, “In general, I think women are stronger than men. Baring one’s heart and soul takes courage, and these Texas women artists have a lot of courage. They make me even prouder to be a Texan” (xiv). This sentiment is obviously adhered to by Hudson and echoes throughout the text.
Each of the interviews are preceded by a brief introduction putting the interview into context, the date(s) of the interview(s), and concise background on how the two, interviewer and interviewee, first connected. For Hudson, these connections are a major element of the stories she presents in her text. The interviews vary in the length and breadth of content and several of them have subsequent thoughts by the interviewee appended at the end to further flush out the interview experience. Hudson explains her methodology in the collection of material and voices in the coda: “At times during this project, I made lists and set clear goals. At other times, I talked with the women who showed up in my life. At all times I was inspired by the stories I heard. Each one made a difference in how I see my own life. This book of stories told by women informs us about the human condition. We can see what we all have in common, as well as what we do not share” (255).
Hudson, the founding director of the Texas Heritage Music Foundation, offers these excerpts and commentary in an endeavour to preserve and trace influences and patterns in music created in Texas and by successful female musicians there. She states, in “The Author’s Story,” that “the material gathered in this oral history project provides material for my various classes at Schreiner University: composition, world literature, children’s literature, mythology, and creative writing” (xx). Interestingly enough, there is no mention of music. And it is not the music that Hudson is primarily interested in examining. The women discuss their families, careers, partners, their influences in the music world and beyond, but most of all, they respond to Hudson’s prompts and her own commentary for the stories reflected in the words of their songs. Her agenda is clearly stated in several of the interviews. When speaking with singer songwriter Susan Gibson, Hudson declares, “So, when an audience hears a song, they are listening to it through their own life and identity, and the song that you wrote changes. Stanley Kunitz wrote a book on literacy criticism, saying that the reader creates the text. I say that the listening creates the song! The song is on your CD the way you wrote it. Every single listening creates a new text that then disappears” (10). Gibson deflects this by discussing the influences of vibrations, referring to the influences of both the music and the text on individual listeners. Later, in her interview with Barb Donovan, Hudson reiterates this thesis: “I know that we listen through a filter, and we all create our own story of an experience. Music does affect the brain in a way that is measurable, but the words, although they are sounds, create different responses in each person” (169).
There are frequent flashes of humor, pathos, and freshness in the interviews that kept this reader involved although not all of the artists were familiar to me before I delved into the book. I appreciated the confluence of creativity, musical influences, effort, and proximity that shaped these women and the music they produced and continue to create as I made connections from one interview to another. They furthered my understanding of the country music scene, not only in Texas, but in the world beyond those borders. However, there was a great deal of Hudson in the interviews, and while I may have been able to discern the emerging patterns in the assorted interviews that Hudson was aiming for in the overall project, I was left with a feeling of dissatisfaction at the end. Hudson’s tone was intimate and casual but her voice is always present, not something I expected in a collection of oral histories.
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[Review length: 917 words • Review posted on January 26, 2010]