Gendering the Musical West

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 parodies of southern culture, Montana’s gender-bending songs took place in the imaginary West. In her musical depictions of tomboy cowgirls and glamorous western heroines, Montana combined virtuosic yodeling with what her listeners described as a “sweet” singing style. As such, she refashioned the West into a place where standard models of gender could include autonomous cowgirls who yodeled to the heights of their vocal range while singing sweetly about the symbolic freedoms associated with frontier individualism.