Gretchen Wilson Gets Rowdy on Studio 330 Sessions
I've always felt partial to the "Redneck Woman," Gretchen Wilson. I suppose it's because we're both from the same neck of the woods and I figure if I ever meet her we'll have plenty to talk about. But, it's not just that. I've always appreciated the fact that when she sings about being country, I'm pretty sure she means it. Just watch this rowdy performance of "I Got Your Country Right Here" from her live Studio 330 Sessions. When she sings about Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Jr., Charlie Daniels, etc., you get the feeling she knows what she's talking about. Don't believe me? Grab a beer, pull up a chair and see for yourself.
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Joe says:
I Hope she has more success in the next decade :)
IMO says:
I just love Gretchen! Her music is just so real and fun!
I’m with Joe I hope Gretchen hangs around and gives us her great music for a long time to come!
hotelmotel says:
I don’t like the redneck shtick of Wilson. I admit I did enjoy “Redneck Woman” but I’m not a Redneck and have no aspirations to be one, and it just got old very fast.
Tskynyrd says:
Most people don’t know what a redneck is.. City folk called hard workin’ farmers “rednecks” when they brought to town their goods to sell at the market.. The term originated before the turn of the last century when most Americans worked on farms and got “sunburned” necks from being outdoors all day workin’.. City dwellers tended to look down on uncultured country folk and their way of life, and most would have starved to death had it not been for the hard working farmers who produced the food that their “high fallutin’ society” butts enjoyed eating…Nobody ever aspires to be poor and have to work outside from dusk till dawn 24/7 just to feed their family and make ends meet but farmers have to do what they have to do..Real country people know this and Gretchen Wilson is truly a real country woman who works her butt off and owns her own farm about 2 miles from where I live in the country..The air is pure, clean, beautiful hill country and guess what.. Not a hotel or motel or high-fallutin’ city dweller in site.. Now, we got your country and redneck right here!!!Peace :)
hotelmotel says:
The “redneck” that Tyskynyrd describes (hard working farmer) isn’t the “redneck” of “Redneck Woman” and of Gretchen Wilson’s popular songs. Wilson’s redneck does seem to refer to working hard, but hard work takes a back seat to “playing harder.” (Work Hard, Play Harder).
Wilson’s redneck is an excessive partier, and seemingly proud of her ignorance and squalor. Wilson’s redneck talks of working hard but offers little evidence of it. Wilson’s redneck glorifies being “All Jacked Up,” behaving badly in bars late, until told You Don’t Have To Go Home” (but you can’t stay here…), unkempt homes whose problems have little to do with poverty and a lot to do with spending too much time learning Tanya Tucker and Charlie Daniels songs(”I keep my christmas lights on on my front porch….), and making moronic swipes at “California Girls.”
But mostly, Wilson’s popular songs (I’m not counting album songs she doesn’t release) paint a one dimensional, stereotypical image of the redneck as a drunken fool. Tskynyrd is surely right that rednecks are more than that and that some city dwellers are too dismissive of rednecks. But Wilson’s music plays into the reasons that city dwellers dismiss rednecks and it never challenges those reasons. Which is a shame. Wilson is contributing to the negative stereotyping of rednecks, not trying to alleviate it.
Illinoiscountrygirl says:
If you don’t like it then don’t listen, but I’ll tell you this, there are a whole lot more rednecks out here than people think! GO GRETCHEN!!!!!!!
Tskynyrd says:
Once again, thank you Illinoiscountrygirl!!! Gretchen is awesome and a true country woman that before makin’ it in Nashville, worked her butt off as a waitress and bartender.. In her previous line of work, she met alot of good ol’ boys and girls along the way and most were country music lovers who also loved southern rock too..The people she met,served, and mixed drinks for,for the most part, were hard workin’ folks, not spoiled brats livin’ off mommy and daddy’s trust fund allowances..I don’t know where “unkept homes” comes from or where that listenin’ to CDB or Tanya Tucker means you don’t clean your house!!! Comin’ up as a kid in the country, I never knew we were poor and my sweet Mother kept our house so clean, you could eat off the floors!! And now that I think of it, my Mother used to clean our house while listenin’ to alot of Conway and Loretta duets (as well as George and Tammy).. Hotelmotel thinks our girl Gretchen’s “redneck” is just ignorant and a drunken fool, and that’s how all those “high fallutin’ spoiled rotten lazy rich society people” have always thought about rednecks..They would’nt know hard work or true country music if it bit ‘em on the ass !!!! Peace Yall ! :)
jukeboxsouthern says:
Work Hard Play Harder does not have to mean you are a drunken fool. Playing Hard can relate to anything you want. When I “play hard” after working hard. I go fishing and listen to good music. Hells Bells I have spent my last few dollars on bate. Not only do I have fun. I always manage to bring home the killer bluegills. Where have you been hotel motel? Drinking songs have always been a tradition in Country Music. Know one has ever said it was inconsiderate that singers like Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley recorded drinking songs. Does that make Carrie and Brad drunken Fools?
I am as Red, White and Blue as Gretchen Wilson and dam proud of it. IMO Gretchen Wilson IS the best female singer in any genre of music today and I think it is absolutely wrong how Country radio does not spin her music. I have seen Gretchen Wilson 5 times now and her shows are great, her music is great, and she has the audience in the palm of her hand. Now that’s pure talent! Gretchen I love the way you and your band stripped that song down In the 330 sessions. Equally the same country fried or acoustic the song is the best. Superb Job!
hotelmotel says:
No, the phrase “Work Hard, Play Harder” does not necessarily mean you are a drunken fool. But Gretchen WIlson portrays the image of being a drunken fool when she “plays harder.” Its always being “here for the party” staying so late you are told “you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here” getting “all jacked up,” and what not.
I also agree with the idea of working hard and playing hard, but I find Gretchen’s mode of playing hard (constantly getting drunk) to be degrading.
And despite some of the comments above, this isn’t a city/country thing for me. There are more than enough drunken fools in the city, too. Its not the location of the behavior, its the behavior.
jukeboxsouthern says:
Hotel motel
I find it notable that you’re not very fond of Miss Wilson’s music and you find her Image to be Redneck, yet degrading. Especially when there are so many more Country music Artist songs in print and recorded of Alcohol consumption. While Country music is certainly not the only genre of music that is of typical written proof about any association with Alcohol. I take the time to read a lot more into the music than just an effortless assumption that the outcome is going to be the end result of continuous drunken behavior. It’s not a modern-day subject. Alcohol sales and Bartending has been around a lot longer than you and I. This is where YOU fail to realize that Gretchen’s songwriting is alive and well.