Welcome to my overview of women in country music, with reviews ranging from folk and bluegrass to honkytonk, rockabilly and Nashville pop. This is the first page covering the letter "L"
Lace "Lace" (Warner Brothers, 2000)
Bland, prefab, Top 40 stuff. The three-part harmonies (from the trio of Corby Dyann, Giselle, and Beverly Mahood) have their moments, but both their vocals and the studio backing lack feeling or finesse -- the melodies are clumsy and blunt, the songs are unmemorable and overly poppy. Given the era this came out, many would be tempted to compare these gals to the Dixie Chicks -- y'know, three wimmin in a country band -- but they're nowhere near that challenging or dynamic; Olivia Newton-John or Maureen McGovern with a backbeat would be more like it. I'll pass.
Bobbi Lace "Holding My Own" (GBS, 1986) (LP)
La Costa (Tucker) "Get On My Love Train" (Capitol, 1974) (LP)
This is the first album from La Costa Tucker, Tanya Tucker's older sister. It includes her big hit, "Get On My Love Train" (which hit #3 on the Country charts) and the follow-up, "He Took Me For A Ride, which hit #10. After this promising start, La Costa slowly crept down the ladder, first into the Top 20, then the Top 40, and finally into the Back Forty before Capitol dropped her at the decade's end. But if you're searching for some missing-years, disco-era country music, and want to hear La Costa's biggest hits, this album may be worth checking out.
La Costa (Tucker) "With All My Love" (Capitol, 1975) (LP)
La Costa (Tucker) "Lovin' Somebody" (Capitol, 1976) (LP)
La Costa (Tucker) "LaCosta" (Capitol, 1977) (LP)
La Costa (Tucker) "Changin' All The Time" (Capitol, 1980) (LP)
Lady Antebellum "Lady Antebellum" (Capitol-Nashville, 2008)
Tragically bad, prefab pop-country, with alternating male/female vocals. Like their predecessors, Sugarland, they seem at least as equally rooted in rock and pop as they are in country (or what passes for country these days...) There are also some tepid nods towards some watered-down version of old-school R&B... I can't help thinking of Hall & Oates or John Mellencamp... But that's really giving these guys way too much credit. This is not worth listening to. Although the band is coed, gal singer Hillary Scott is generally overshadowed by the dude, Charles Kelley, and his vibe doesn't do much for me. They were wildly popular, of course, scoring several #1 hits and winning all kinds of industry awards. For a twangfan, though, this music is simply dreadful.
Lady Antebellum "Need You Now" (Capitol-Nashville, 2010)
Tragically worse than before, the band delves deeper into what seems to be a frightfully sincere love of really, really bad pop music. Hillary Scott forcefully comes into center stage, and with her increased exposure reveals herself to have even worse taste in pop music than what we'd heard before -- the worst, most vapid fake-soul melodrama, etc., etc. It's really horrifying -- while their first album wasn't one you'd want to waste time on, this one is sheer torture. Blech. I'll pass.
Lady Antebellum "Own The Night" (Capitol, 2011)
Barbara Lamb "Fiddle Fatale" (Sugar Hill, 1993)
A swingin' set of fiddle tunes, mostly instrumental (but not all!), with high-powered pickers like Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Tim O'Brien, Tony Trischka, et al pitching in (along with a bunch of other folks you may or may not have heard of...) Barbara Lamb, from the all-gal band Ranch Romance, has a nice, hoedown-based style that can slip and slide between swing and bluegrass styles... This disc is a little on the safe side, but it's still quite nice. Worth checking out!
Barbara Lamb & Vivian Williams "Twin Sisters" (Voyager Recordings, 1994)
Barbara Lamb "Tonight I Feel Like Texas" (Sugar Hill, 1996)
Barbara Lamb "Blue On Dakota" (Lots Of Coffee, 2000)
Yikes. Fiddler Lamb decided to go out and record a "funk" album... And while it's not nearly as scary as it could have been -- the level of musicanship is very high, and sometimes quite soulful -- you ought not go to this album expecting to hear some bluegrass. Nary a twang to be heard.
Barbara Lamb "Fiddle Piggy" (Lots Of Coffee, 2003)
Barbara Lamb "Bootsy Met A Bank Robber" (Lots Of Coffee, 2003)
Barbara Lamb & David Lamb "Swedish Design" (Lots Of Coffee, 2007)
Barbara Lamb "Twisty Girl" (Lots Of Coffee, 2009)
Miranda Lambert "Kerosene" (Sony, 2005)
(Produced by Frank Liddell & Mike Wrucke)
Newcomer Miranda Lambert was a finalist on the Nashville Star talent, er -- reality -- show. But since I don't get cable, I can't hold that against her. All I've got to go by is the album in front of me, and it's pretty damn good. Lambert has a distictive, plaintive voice that makes up in sincerity and emotional directness what it lacks in richness of tone. She also has an unusual repertoire of seemingly awkward lyrics wed to sleek-yet-twangy tunes... Sound familiar? It should: listening to Lambert's debut is a bit like listening to a theoretical solo album by Nathalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks. And I don't mean that as a slam -- hardly! I like the 'Chicks a lot, and I think there's plenty of room in the Country charts for like-minded gals, particularly when they pen memorable material like the songs on this album. Several melodies echoed around in my head on the days that I was listening to this disc, and yet these tunes -- all but one of which was written or co-written by Lambert -- have little of the overblown, over-the-top pop feel of contemporary Nashville studio music. There are a few raspy, Sheryl Crow-ish blues/rock touches that could've been left out, but other than that, I gotta say I'm impressed. And I'm looking forward to her next album!
Miranda Lambert "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" (Sony, 2007)
(Produced by Frank Liddell & Mike Wrucke)
First-rate top country... On the opening tracks, Lambert lays it on pretty thick with the bad-gal/outlaw schtick... On "Gunpowder And Lead," she follows the Dixie Chicks' example of glorifying murder as a solution to domestic violence: Lambert's character sits at home in the dark, a shotgun on her lap just waiting for Mr. Wrong to come back, so she can get to the gunshot heard at the end of the track... This is followed with the similarly rowdy, but funny "Dry Town" about the arcane liquor laws of the Midwest and South (and, hey, it's written by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings! Nice indie roots, there, gal!) From there on out we are treated to a wealth of original tunes written or co-written by Ms. Lambert, all of them impressive, in various ways. "Famous In A Small Town" is a great tune about life inside a goldfish bowl, while the title track brings us back to the Gretchen Wilson-esque tough-girl routine... but it's also a funny song, and not just a gimmick. Then come some slow, sad ballads, and the force of personality that propelled us through her rowdy songs suddenly gives way to some genuine interpretive powers: this gal really can sing country, when you take the neo-Southern rock guitars out of the mix! I'm not fond of a few tunes -- "Down" and "Getting Ready" are real clunkers -- but overall this is a very impressive record. Lambert emerges as a potent songwriter (as well as an anomaly in the Nashville machine, where most singers are interpreters first, songwriters second...) and with this batch of self-penned smashes, Miranda firmly establishes herself as a force to be reckoned with. Plus, her cover of Susannah Clark's "Easy From Now On" is a nice way to close the album... Hey, I'm sold!
Miranda Lambert "Revolution" (Sony/Columbia Nashville, 2009)
Miranda Lambert "Four The Record" (Sony, 2011)
Lynda K. Lance "A Woman's Side Of Love" (Buddah/Royal American, 1969) (LP)
Cristy Lane - see artist discography
k. d. lang - see artist discography
Dee Lannon "Honkytonk Nighttime Gal" (Iloki, 1994)
Dee Lannon "Town Casino" (Blue Puffer, 1996)
An irresistibly adorable -- though admittedly sometimes uneven -- countrybilly filly with a major Rose Maddox/Wanda Jackson jones... Working at an ultra-indie level, Dee sometimes had trouble balancing out her production, but her choice of material -- especially her originals -- is always first-rate. Word has it that she has been living in Austin for the last couple of years, and she's even turned up as a guest on an album or two... (For more info, check out Dee's website.)
Dee Lannon "Dance And Sing With Dee Lannon & The Daredevil Dillies" (Tail Records, 2002)
Dee Lannon "Vinylly On CD" (Norge Texas, 2004)
Zora Layman/Frank Luther "Pioneers Of Country Music" (Binge Disc/Cattle Records)
Hillbilly Fillies - More Letter "L"
Hick Music Index
Sisters Who Swung: Women In Jazz & Blues
