HER COUNTRY

Part coming-of-age tale, part hard-hitting documentary of country music’s antagonistic history with women artists, this story is a page-turner even if you know how it turns out.

Best known for her stories in Rolling Stone about country music’s toxic culture of sexual harassment and discrimination, Moss focuses her first book on the rise of three current female stars in an era dominated by men: Kacey Musgraves, Mickey Guyton, and Maren Morris. The author begins by recounting the relevant issues and explaining how the industry’s ostracizing of the Dixie Chicks was about much more than their outspoken stance on the Iraq War. That controversy, Moss writes, “was almost a secret relief to some within [Nashville’s] Music Row—finally, there was something to point to when trying to explain to a new artist why it was vital for them to conform, to not speak up: ‘You don’t want to get Dixie Chicked!’ Later in their careers, Mickey, Maren, and Kacey would hear it constantly. Everyone would. It was a neat and easy way to say ‘shut up.’ ” Further discrimination against women country artists was crystallized in 2015 via what has become known as “Tomato-gate,” when a radio consultant declared, “women were the tomatoes in the salad of country music airplay—in other words, men were the lettuce, which you want a lot of, and tomatoes were for sprinkling sparingly.” With Tomato-gate as a backdrop, the stories of female success become even sweeter, especially for Guyton, who also overcame racial discrimination to build an audience for her hits, including “Black Like Me.” While some of the author’s arguments would have been blunted if she focused on the biggest female stars of the era she chronicles—Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood—the struggles and eventual payoffs she captures are inspiring even for readers who may be unfamiliar with the superstar careers of her book's heroines.

The author’s reporting and storytelling shine as brightly as her subjects.