Texas

Kacey Musgraves is looking to change a mammoth, 44.6 million-albums-sold-last-year music machine from the inside out. And she's going to use pot, homosexuality, and atheism to do it. "EGADS!", one might say. "POT, HOMOSEXUALITY, AND ATHEISM?!" And then one might think for a moment. "No, wait. Those aren't that exciting anymore," one might realize. "Pfffft, Kacey Musgraves, nice try, with your 'controversial' singing music record. NEXT."  But wait. How often do you hear about any of the above in a COUNTRY album? How often are small-town Texas and big-town Nashville starting those conversations? ZING! That's what I thought. Kacey Musgraves is a native of the former, and a product of the latter, and she's changing the genre that made  her one song at a time.

Approximately 100% of the time that someone mentions the name Selena outside of Texas, they are talking about Selena Gomez. Approximately 100% of those times, I wish they were talking about Selena Quintanilla, and I pretend in my heart that they are. In Hill Country, though, que viva La Flor. Selena, Selena of my heart and of Jennifer Lopez's breakthrough role, lives on, and she's one of many. Don't let the cowboy/machismo-fueled street harassment, Governor, ex-President, sky-high teen pregnancy rate and matching refusal to accept sex-education funding associated with the Jumbo State fool you. There is a fabulous tradition here of women rebelling (look up Angelina Eberly, for example) and making great music to boot. Here's a mix of lady Texans who make being a Lone Star sound gooood.

Ann Richards, born Dorothy Ann Willis, was Texas's second female Governor and one in a long line of Texan women badasses.

Friday Night Lights continues its fourth season tonight on NBC, to the excitement of one Texan feminist music geek.