Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 8, 1993 TAG: 9311090026
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: SHIRLEY JINKINS FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
DATELINE: FORT WORTH, TEXAS LENGTH: Medium
In fact, "Finding Her Voice: The Saga of Women in Country Music" led them to Nashville, where they have remained and settled into careers. That's after 30 states and 13,000 miles logged on research, after their initial proposal on the subject at an academic conference in 1976.
The two spoke of their experiences while writing "Finding Her Voice" during a recent book-signing tour stop.
Country music has always served as "a window into the world of the majority of American women," Oermann said, adding that it is one of the few chronicles of working-class women's thoughts, created by working-class women, for working-class women.
A career in show business was considered unseemly for women in the early half of this century. But there were other reasons why early pioneers of country music traveled as part of "safe" family acts, Bufwack said. "It's that, No. 1, a woman shouldn't place herself in that circumstance, because there are bad men out there," she said.
But that in no way restricted the individuality of those pioneering female singers, Oermann added. "What's interesting is that all the historical stereotypes are there: rockabilly, sweetheart, cowgirl. Women's images are much more diverse (than men's)."
And those images were constantly evolving. "In going back, one of the concepts I appreciate is, you would find women in stages, in progress," Bufwack said. "I didn't expect you'd find so many women operating back in the '20s and '30s. It wasn't like a straitjacket."
The postwar era was characterized by hundreds of rockabilly recordings by women. "I was most amazed that so many women wanted to be Elvis," Oermann said.
"The other thing that became clear was how important the folk music revival of the '60s was on the women in country music today," he added. "For every John Denver, there was a Janis Ian, and I was surprised that so many of these women recorded in Nashville."
Today, Bufwack and Oermann agree there's still inequality on Music Row, where there are few female record-company executives, production people and other power brokers. Only the Nashville advertising-public relations firms are dominated by women, Oermann said.
Even the old booking stereotype that women entertainers don't sell tickets is still operative, Bufwack said. It's still a common perception in Nashville that women consumers aren't interested in women performers, she added.
"Unfortunately, the men on Music Row (don't realize) that women really like K.T. (Oslin), Pam (Tillis) and Reba (McEntire)," Oermann said.
Today's country music women are "acutely aware" of their outdated gingham-and-lace image, Oermann said. He called the genre's essential conservatism "the culture's great strength and great weakness."
Bufwack referred specifically to "that whole anti-materialism theme. Women's roles (in country culture) are very ambiguous," she said. "But, there's this enduringness of love and family."
Bufwack and Oermann say their next project with their mountain of research is to issue a cassette of some of the rare old women's music they unearthed, and some of the forgotten stylists.
A television special on "The Women of Country Music" has already aired, based on Oermann's and Bufwack's work.
by CNB