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May 30, 2023Liked by Cathy Reisenwitz

When I was looking at songs for the father/daughter dance for my wedding, a ritual that made me uncomfortable but I did in order to avoid controversy, one of the suggestions was Lee Anne Womack's "I Hope You Dance", which is absolutely revolutionary compared to the other songs.

Nobody waxes poetic about wanting their daughter to live a life and test her limits and get hurt and keep on going.

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I grew up listening to a lot of 70s and 80s country. Even in that era there was a strong feminist streak in country music, even though payola and the awards nonsense sometimes suppressed it. Dolly Parton. Emmylou Harris. Rosanne Cash. Jessi Coulter. Loretta Lynn. Tammy Wynette. Fantastic stuff. But The Chicks really brought it to the forefront and to another level. Still listen to their first 3 records all the time. That Lilith Fair era was a really great time to be a music fan. I'm not sure what happened after that but agree that something changed around 9/11. I will have to think on that more.

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Why yes, I *have* listened to “Earl” on repeat more than once. It’s frankly brilliant. (And no, I have no idea who the folks in the pictures you included are -- so much for pop culture I guess.)

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I love that song (Earl), that podcast, and of course specifically that episode of that podcast.

For some reason Earl always makes me think of a quite narratively different (but then, also about going to extremes for justice) Kenny Rogers song The Coward of the County, which I had on 8 track in the late 70s as a tween.

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