Just yesterday, country superstar Miranda Lambert played a low-key show in Nashville at a venue called 3rd & Lindsley. Almost immediately after she mentioned the show—which was of course much smaller in scale and in attendance than most of her tours—it sold out. The singer-songwriter titled the event “Dubbed Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars Unplugged”, and it featured several other female country musicians of various levels of fame, including Clare Dunn, Raelynn, Courtney Cole, as well as successful songwriters such as Natalie Hemby (who has penned tunes for Kacey Musgraves, Kelly Clarkson, and Blake Shelton, to name a few).
Lambert has announced that the proceeds from the show are all going towards the Miranda Lambert Women Creators Fund, which has created a new scholarship with the the goal of empowering women looking to get into country music. The scholarship is worth $40,000, and will go to one woman per year who plans to attend Belmont University’s Mike Curb College of Music and Entertainment. The recipient can be planning to study anything from business in the music world to songwriting.
The country music world has been receiving quite a bit of negative attention lately for its lack of women at the top of the charts. While a select few may receive the lion’s share of attention, it is men who lead radio play and sales more often than not, and there are many more male stars than females, though talent is certainly not one-sided. Lambert is one of the most successful names in the genre, but she is outnumbered by male counterparts. In fact, a woman has not had a number one on BIllboard’s chart that measures country radio play in over two years, despite big songs from some of its leading ladies.
On the awards side of things, women seem to be doing fairly well. In the last ten years, women (or bands with women prominently featured, such as Lady Antebellum or Alison Krauss and Union Station) have won the Grammy for Best Country Album seven times, including Lambert herself last year. Similar track records can be seen when looking into the records of one of country music’s biggest awards, the ACMs (Academy of Country Music Awards).
Lambert is using her position as one of the most famous faces and as a respected songwriter and musician to do what she can for her sex in the country world. Her new scholarship is sure to help at least one more woman per year traverse the tricky road of getting into the country music world, but her speaking up about the issue in the first place might have an even more profound effect.
