...Chapter 3 continues the focus on WLS’s 1930s radio stars and their treatment of gender by examining the musical and cultural significance of Patsy Montana’s singing cowgirl persona. Like Lulu Belle, Montana included a fluid mix of musical styles and vaudevillian practices. But instead of offering...

... and helped to enliven the rhythmic language of this hybrid style. In film, she continually used the yodel’s historical links to pastoralism, female virtuosity, and vaudeville slapstick to play a variety of roles—the Alpine maiden, the hillbilly clown, the jazz soloist, or the tomboyish singing cowgirl...

...Well before the success of Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton, female artists were integral to the commercial expansion and aural reception of country music. Women in early country music took on and redefined the theatrical and musical roles of the hillbilly maiden, the unruly Okie, the singing cowgirl...