Top 20 Upbeat and Empowering Country Songs About Women, Ranked

Loyal fans of country music know that the genre offers awesome songs about just about every topic under the sun. There are "Songs About Rain", as documented by Gary Allan. There are songs about vehicles, like Kenny Chesney’s "She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy" and Tim McGraw’s “Truck Yeah." There are songs about incarceration, like Johnny Cash’s "Folsom Prison Blues." Heck, there’s even songs about insects (Brad Paisley’s "Ticks"), beverage holders (Toby Keith’s "Red Solo Cup"), birth control (Loretta Lynn’s "The Pill") and telling off your boss (Johnny Paycheck’s "Take This Job and Shove It"). There’s just as much diversity when it comes to country songs about women.

There are tunes about mothers (Merle Haggard’s "Mama Tried"), former flames (George Strait’s "All My Ex’s Live in Texas"), children (Martina McBride’s "In My Daughter’s Eyes"), siblings (this Wynonna performance of "Come Some Rainy Day" will reduce you to tears) and even those who keep their Christmas lights on on their front porches all year long (Gretchen Wilson’s "Redneck Woman").

That last one made a lightbulb go off in our heads: Let’s find the best songs about a specific woman, in songs that mention a first name in its title. We were pleasantly surprised to wrangle up this diverse no-boys-allowed list of fantastic tunes — and you just might spot a few famous names in the mix, too!

As an incredibly wise singer (hey, Shania Twain!) once sang, let’s go, girls. Cause Man! I Feel Like a Woman. Read on to discover some great country songs about women.

20. Loretta Lynn’s Lincoln (2006) by Josh Turner

The first hit on our rundown of country songs about women is Loretta Lynn's Lincoln. Yes, technically this is a song about a car, but the coolness of the vehicle in question stems entirely from the Coal Miner’s Daughter.

As an extra bonus, Dolly Parton is also name-checked in this fun, catchy tune on which (bonus!) Chris Stapleton provides backing vocals. “It really paints a visual image in your mind and I’ve had so many people say, ‘You should do a video of that song,’ but I don’t know if I could ever get Loretta or Dolly to agree to do something that wacky,” Turner revealed in 2021.

19. I’m Not Lisa (1975) by Jessi Colter

This is a double-coupon qualifier as it’s a song sung through the lens of a woman named Julie, referencing her lover’s former flame.

“Lisa left you years ago,” the narrator sings, adding, “My eyes are not blue, but mine won’t leave you, ’til the sunlight has touched your face.” This No. 1 gem was written and performed by Colter, Waylon Jennings’ wife and frequent collaborator, and released as her debut solo single.

18. Catherine (2011) by David Nail

“I wrote this song and sang it for years and years, and then I had twins,” Nail explained of this stunner about his better half. Once he started performing it as a father, he got “a little bit more, I guess, tingle — goosebumps on [my] body because it takes on a whole other meaning once your wife becomes the mother of your kids.”

On it, he sings, “All those material things, they don’t matter anymore. You’re mine forever, whether we’re rich or we’re poor … you are all I’ll ever need.” Well, pass the Kleenex!

17. Linda on My Mind (1975) by Conway Twitty

“Now I’m lying here with Linda on my mind. And next to me, my soon to be, the one I left behind. And Lord it’s killing me to see her crying, she knows I’m lying here beside her, with Linda on my mind.” Conway’s sure found himself in a pickle! The High Priest of Country Music took this all the way to No. 1, and it deservedly became his 12th release to do so.

16. Where’s Tammy Wynette (2012) Kellie Pickler

The American Idol alum adds to our list of country songs about when, as she calls upon the wisdom and power of the First Lady of Country Music in this fun tribute song.

“I stay torn between killing him and loving him, he stays torn between neon lights and home. How ’bout a honky-tonk angel to tell me how this whole thing works. Where’s Tammy Wynette when you need her?,” Pickler sings, asking for advice on a whole slew of topics, including “how you fry a skillet of chicken in high heels and a skirt.”

15. Betty’s Got a Bass Boat (1995) by Pam Tillis

The subject of this charmer from the former Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year ain’t no fool. “Betty’s got a bass boat, Betty’s got a truck, all of a sudden things are lookin’ up,” the daughter of country legend Mel Tillis sings about one smart single lady who discovers the secret to having men line up for her hand — and that secret also includes bowling shoes, a big-screen TV, a new camper and a huntin’ hound.

14. Sweet Annie (2013) by Zac Brown Band

The group’s trademark harmonies are strong here, as are the sweet promises being made by the road-weary performer in the song, as he tries to assure his lover that he’s worth holding onto: “Come a little closer so I can show you, my heart still beats fast for you, all over, and over again … Don’t give up on me, sweet Annie,” Brown sings on the plaintive track, which has a cool ’70s vibe and sound.

13. Amanda (1974) by Waylon Jennings

Hoss checks in with his No. 1 version of this melancholy song written by Bob McDill that was also recorded by Don Williams. McDill described the lyrics as being “an apology to my wife,” and, sung from the perspective of an aging performer, it contains such heartbreaking lines as “Amanda, light of my life, fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife.”

12. Priscilla (2014) by Miranda Lambert

“It feels kind of retro and throwback,” Lambert says of this fun tune that came out when she was married to Blake Shelton. It tackles, in a tongue-in-cheek way, how they were hounded by the public and the tabloids.

The song is anchored in its admiration for its namesake, Priscilla Presley, and how she handled her time in the spotlight with Elvis. “Priscilla, Priscilla, how’d you get him to yourself? Between the whistle calls and Southern dolls, it’s enough to put a home through hell … It's a difficult thing being Queen to the King, and I feel ya,” Lambert croons on the groovin’ track.

11. Iris Rose (2022) by Orville Peck

This winner from the mysterious, masked indie artist (a South African who’s migrated to Canada and the U.S.) is a gorgeous mid-tempo number that, according to online fans’ reports, he wrote in honor of his grandmother. “Get along darlin’, sweet goodbye, sit alone, together, watch the sky. You tell me not to cry so I just sigh. That’s how she goes, yeah, Iris Rose,” he sings as a beautiful horn element swells on the lushly produced track.

10. Miami, My Amy (1985) by Keith Whitley

This decidedly ’80s sounding track is about an LA dude taking a leap and moving to Miami after hearing from a love interest he met in that Florida city. “Miami, my Amy, what took you so long? I thought you’d never call,” Whitley sings.

“Now once again I’m Miami bound, can’t wait ’til this plane touches down, because I know my Amy will be waiting at that Miami gate.” As far as Country songs about women go, this 1985 song is still very popular, as it curiously blew up on TikTok in 2022, used in memes about sweet, nostalgic or simply silly scenarios.

9. When My Amy Prays (2019) by Vince Gill

“You know you’re from Nashville if you write a song about your wife and she tells you the third verse could use a little work,” Gill, always the comedian, joked about this deeply emotional ballad about his better half, Amy Grant.

“When my world was torn to pieces, I still couldn’t call his name. But when my Amy prays … that’s when I see His face,” he sings. “Kindness is how she leads her life,” he’s noted of Grant. “It’s just a testament to how much I care about her.”

8. My Maria (1996) by Brooks & Dunn

“She take my blues away, sweet Maria.” This infectious cover of a B. W. Stevenson top ten hit from 1973 quickly shuffled up the Billboard country charts when this popular duo released it in 1996 and it holds number 6 on our list of Country songs about women.

It eventually landed at the No. 1 position while cracking the Hot 100 chart as well. Ronnie Dunn’s oh-so-fine falsetto is in peak form here, and it’s no surprise that the earwormy track won them a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group in 1997.

7. Martha Divine (2020) by Ashley McBryde

Taking number 7 on this list of Country songs about women is Martha Divine. This wicked song about “the most delightful trollop of a human being…gets down underneath the fingernails of the uncomfortable truth about family dynamics,”

McBryde told NPR of the track that co-writer “Jeremy Spillman wasn’t afraid to get weird with me” on. The story follows the narrator as she deals with her father’s mistress. It kicks off with the lines “I've got this feeling, and I got this shovel. Between me and you and it, you’re in a little trouble,” and later promises “Jezebel, you’re bound for hell.” Then, well, just check out the movie-worthy video …

6. Elvira (1981) by The Oak Ridge Boys

“I heard it once and never forgot it. That’s when you know a song is a hit,” band member Duane Allen has shared of this monster crossover hit that we DARE you to not sing along to. In fact, that was the group’s plan all along.

“We wanted ‘Elvira’ to be a summer record for families of four — two kids, a mother and a father — on vacation in an automobile, listening to the radio,” Allen revealed. “Mom’s singing the verses, the kids sing the ‘giddy up’ hook, and dad comes in with the ‘oom papa’ chorus. It’s the best planning we ever did.”

5. Annie’s Song (1974) by John Denver

The Country Boy scored big with this sentimental hit he wrote while on a ski lift, shortly after a quarrel he’d had with his then-wife, Annie Martell. “Suddenly I was hypersensitive to how beautiful everything was. All of these things filled up my senses,” the artist wrote in his 1971 autobiography, Take Me Home. “That song was the embodiment of the love that I felt at the time. In the ten minutes it took to reach the top of the mountain, the song was there.”

4. Lucille (1977) by Kenny Rogers

When The Gambler released this song, it startled his mother, who was also named Lucille, as she thought it was about her. “She thought I was putting her business out on the street,” Rogers shared with Billboard. “She said ‘How dare you tell people I had four hungry children.’ I told her, ‘First of all, you have eight kids. Secondly, I didn’t write it, and thirdly, it’s not about you. Then she tamed down a little bit.” The No. 1 record proved to be his first major hit as a solo artist.

3. Fancy (1991) by Reba McEntire

“You know, I might have been born just plain white trash, but Fancy was my name!” Fans understandably lose their minds whenever Reba does her version of the 1969 Bobbie Gentry song live in concert, especially since the entertainer usually packs in a surprise or two during her performances. “I never close a show without ‘Fancy,’” the red-hot Voice coach has said of the crowd favorite. “It’s a rags-to-riches story song that I just love.”

2. Delta Dawn (1972) by Tanya Tucker

“She’s 41 and her daddy still calls her, ‘baby.’ All the folks around Brownsville say she’s crazy,” starts this sobering song, recorded by Tucker when she was just 13.

The track — a sad tale of a misunderstood, childlike woman who insists a former lover is coming to take her to “his mansion in the sky” — was inspired by co-writer Alex Harvey’s mother. “I never get tired of singing it,” insists Tucker, who fell in love with the tune upon first hearing it in producer Billy Sherrill’s office. “When the song was finished, I said, ‘That’s my song!’” And, with its stark a cappella opening, it’s been a powerful trademark tune of hers ever since.

1. Jolene (1973) by Dolly Parton

“Jolene is Parton’s most heartrending triumph and the most devastating cheating song of them all,” raves Rolling Stone of Dolly’s masterpiece, which landed at No. 9 on their 100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time list. Of all the country songs about women, Jolene is by far one of the most iconic. Parton says the song, written about a woman who was flirting with her husband Carl Dean, has stood the test of time.

Well, sort of. “I just joke about it now. I look at [Carl] when I say, ‘Every time I see you over there in that La-Z-Boy chair, snorin’ and sleepin’, I think, where is Jolene when I need her? You can have him now Jolene!,” Parton quipped on the BBC’s The One Show.

For more Country music, click through the links below!

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Tammy Wynette Songs, Ranked: 14 Iconic Hits From the First Lady of Country Music

Patsy Cline Songs, Ranked: 10 Classics That Can Get You Through Any Heartache