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The Carter Sisters Radio Transcriptions with Chet Atkins

History Museum

September 25, 2023

Posted on September 25, 2023December 21, 2023 by Guest Blogger

Ed Hagen is a volunteer gallery assistant and guest blogger at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. His recent blog posts include The Carter Family on the Border Radio and Will the Circle Be Unbroken.

The original Carter family became nationally famous after being recorded in the 1927 Bristol sessions. A. P. Carter sang bass and harmonies on many songs, and very occasionally played guitar, but his principal contribution acted as a songcatcher, working to find, rewrite, and rearrange traditional songs. His wife Sara Dougherty Carter was the lead singer, co-wrote many songs, and performed playing either a guitar or autoharp. Sara’s cousin Maybelle Addington Carter, (who was married to A. P.’s brother Eck) also sang, but is remembered today as a guitar virtuoso (more on that later).

Their record sales crashed with the Great Depression of the 1930s, but an opportunity to perform on a radio station on the Mexican border revived the fortunes of the group. In those days, Mexico and the United States had a dispute over AM radio signals, and some Mexican stations were given many times the wattage of U.S. stations. That meant that the Carters’ border radio shows were heard all over the country, reviving their popularity. The border radio station XERA had a massive 500 kilowatts, and could broadcast across 48 states and into Canada. Visit my previous blog post, The Carter Family on the Border Radio, to learn more about that story.

*Carter Sisters and Maybelle September 1944. Left to right: Anita, June, Maybelle, and Helen*

A new generation traveled with the Carters to the Mexican border. A.P. and Sara brought their two children, Janette and Joe. Maybelle and Eck brought their three daughters, Helen, June, and Anita. The children sang on the radio show (but not on records). The original group continued to perform for several years, but that ended when Sara moved to California in 1943.

Maybelle and her daughters continued to perform after the original Carter Family disbanded, performing as “the Carter Sisters and Maybelle Carter” on local radio stations in Richmond, Knoxville, and Springfield, Missouri. They became local celebrities in each city with big crowds as the stars of local “barn dance” radio shows, and they took their act to every town within range of the local radio signal. They were eventually signed by the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville in 1950.

With that extended introduction, and with today being National Daughter’s Day, let’s take a look at the radio transcriptions of the Carter Sisters. Years ago, radio shows were often recorded on “transcription discs,” special high-quality recordings that would be distributed to radio station affiliates. These disks had pauses in them so that the affiliated stations could insert their own commercials. The disks were never intended to be distributed to the public, but thousands of them have survived, later archived to tape and digital recordings by “old time radio” enthusiasts. These include recordings of a dozen Carter Sisters shows from 1949 and 1950 (just before they were signed by the Grand Ole Opry) that can be listened to today via YouTube.

*Carter Family circa 1939. Standing A. P., Janette, announcer Harry Steele, Sara, Maybelle. Seated Helen, Anita, June.*

By the 1950’s, The Carter Sisters lineup included Helen, then age 22, playing the accordion and guitar; June, age 20, playing autoharp and ukulele; and Anita, age 16, playing upright bass. By this time June, a natural comedienne, introduced the songs and pitched sponsored products. Maybelle anchored the group playing her 1928 L5 guitar, which she bought with royalties from the 1927 Bristol Session recordings. What makes these recordings extraordinary is that the costar of the show was a then-unknown guitar player, Chet Atkins. Think about it; here we have recordings of perhaps the two most influential country guitar players of all time playing together just before they joined the Grand Ole Opry.

Why were Maybelle and Chet influential? Let’s start with Maybelle, the inventor of the “Carter scratch.” She would play the melody of songs such as “Wildwood Flower” and “Keep on the Sunny Side” on the bass strings of the guitar using a thumb pick, while rhythmically brushing the other strings with her fingernails or finger picks. Essentially, she played rhythm and lead guitar at the same time. This was revolutionary, because country guitar players didn’t see the guitar as a lead instrument before that.

Maybelle, an extraordinary musician, mastered other styles of playing. She can be seen on videos playing rhythm guitar up and down the neck like a jazz guitarist on some songs, and Mexican-inspired fills on others. She also played something the Carter family called the “blues.” Years later, in a wonderful documentary, Mother Maybelle’s Carter Scratch, Helen explains that Maybelle learned to play the “blues” around 1930 from Leslie Riddle, an African-American man in Kingsport. Riddle taught Maybelle guitar, and therefore played a direct impact on the early styles of country music, but due to race and discrimination was never able to reach the success the Carter Family achieved. This guitar style featured an alternating bass played with the thumb, with the melody played on the top strings (the reverse of the Carter scratch, where the melody was played on the bottom strings). Most people today call this style “Travis picking” because it was popularized by Merle Travis.

*Carter Sisters with Chet Atkins circa 1950*

If you look closely at videos of Merle Travis playing this style, you’ll see that he used a thumb pick and just one finger for the melody. He got a miraculously full sound with this technique, but Chet Atkins, using all of his fingers, took Travis picking to another level. He went on to have a long and successful career, with best-selling instrumental hits like “Mr. Sandman” and “Yakety Axe”.

The shows starts with thirty seconds of their theme song, the “Columbus Stockade Blues,” just enough for one chorus and a sizzling Chet Atkins guitar break. They close each show with “In the Pines.” In between, different sisters are featured vocals, and Chet played instrumentals (check out, for example, Peach Pickin’ Time on show 17 and Humoresque on show 39). He also sings a bit, and plays the fiddle, something he’s not known for. Check out his version of Shortnin’ Bread in show 17.

Maybelle shows off her Carter Scratch on show 17, playing and singing the old Carter Family standard, “You Will Miss Me When I’m Gone”. We sure do, but these old radio shows bring them all back to life.

The Carter Family on the Border Radio

History Museum

September 1, 2023

Posted on September 1, 2023December 6, 2023 by Guest Blogger

By Ed Hagen, volunteer gallery assistant and guest blogger at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.

Here at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, we celebrate the 1927 Bristol Sessions that launched the recording careers of a number of traditional music acts, notably Country Music Hall of Fame artists Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family.

Three members of the Carter Family pose for a promotion photo taken in black and white. Maybelle Carter is seated holding a guitar and facing the camera. She is wearing a unique coat with a wooden clasp at the collar. Seated beside her is Sara Carter - she is holding an auto harp instrument in her lap and pressing the keys. She is wearing the same outfit as Maybelle, a unique coat with a wooden clasp at the collar. Leaning behind them is A.P. Carter, he is wearing a dark suit jacket and tie. — *The original Carter Family: Maybelle, A. P., and Sara Carter*

The Carter Family is now considered to be the “First Family of Country Music” after gaining commercial success and stardom from their 1927 Bristol Sessions recordings. The original group was a trio made up of A. P. Carter, his wife Sara Dougherty Carter, and Sara’s cousin Maybelle Addington Carter, who was married to A. P.’s brother Ezra “Eck” Carter. All three members of the Carter Family were born and raised in SouthWest, Virginia in an area called Poor Valley, Virginia (also known as Maces Springs) and were steeped in mountain musical traditions. Sara was the lead singer of the group – unusual for the time period – singing and playing guitar and autoharp, with Maybelle singing, playing lead guitar, and creating her own style of guitar playing known as the “Carter scratch”. A.P. Carter acted as songcatcher and band leader singing harmony vocals. In November 1927 and following months, the Victor record label released all six songs from the Carter Family’s Bristol Session recordings, and by the end of the 1930’s the group had sold over 300,000 records. As their popularity grew due to the success of the 1927 recordings, for years the group then recorded over 250 songs under the RCA Victor label, Decca and the American Record Corporation, had regular performances and saw great commercial success. But business slowed a bit during the 1930s as the Depression badly hurt consumer spending for things like record players and records. In addition to a collapsing economy, the Carters’ ability to tour was also hampered by the breakup of A. P. and Sara’s marriage, which was finalized in 1936, but the group still continued to record and perform together, even after Sara’s marriage to Coy Bays (A.P.’s cousin).

During the mid- late 1930’s, the Carter Family had a unique opportunity to take a job on the border of the U.S. and Mexico on the XERA radio station in Del Rio, Texas. The Consolidate Royal Chemical Corporation had contacted them with an offer to perform on their border radio station XERA daily. XERA was a 500 kilowatt border blaster, and the station’s location in Mexico had a powerful broadcasting signal with the ability to reach much of the U.S. with its broadcasting ability. With the possibility of reaching a national audience through XERA’s station, the Carter’s took the gig, which led to their next surge in popularity. This opportunity took them from their quiet country home in Southwest Virginia to living just across the Mexican border in Texas.

This is where this story gets odd: John Romulus Brinkley was the station manager at border radio station XERA and also the infamous “goat-gland doctor.” A “doctor” with specious credentials, Brinkley achieved fame and fortune in Kansas in the early days of radio by advertising surgical clinics where he performed xenotransplantations of goat testicles into humans. This supposed cure for male impotence was the foundation of a medical quackery empire worth millions of dollars. Chased out of Kansas and other states by outraged medical boards, he set up business across the border in Mexico, where the American limits on radio station power did not apply. Brinkley’s million-watt station XERA could be heard all the way to Canada and in 48 U.S. states.

a black and white image of a women and a man looking directly at the camera performing surgery on a person laying on a table with a white sheet placed over their body. The women is wearing a surgical hat, and round glasses. The man is to her right and also wearing a surgical hat and round glasses, and is holding a surgical tool in his hand and gloves — *“Doctor” John Romulus Brinkley performing a surgical procedure, date unknown. Image via LegendsofAmerica.com.*

In 1938, Brinkley’s Mexican based border radio station XERA featured obscure hillbilly acts who played on the Good Neighbors Get Together show. That show aired for four hours every night, and again the following morning. For six months out of the year in 1938 and 1939, the Carter Family and their children lived in Del Rio, Texas performing regular spots on the radio with the sessions being recorded. They were offered $75 a week – serious money at the time. The Carters agreed and took the opportunity despite A. P. and Sara’s uncomfortable domestic situation. During a radio segment in February of 1939, Sara dedicated a song, “I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blues Eyes” to Coy Bays who was living in California – shortly afterwards the two were married and Sara moved to California. Brinkley’s empire was eventually brought down by a series of lawsuits and a federal mail fraud prosecution. He died bankrupt and penniless in 1942.

At this point the next generation of Carters appear in our story: A. P. and Sara’s children Gladys, Janette, and Joe, and Eck and Maybelle’s children, Helen, June, and Anita. The Carters did not want to disrupt their children’s schooling, so only the youngest child, five-year-old Anita, went with them the first year. Anita was part of the act and, as you can imagine, the other children, living with relatives in Virginia and listening to XERA at night, got very jealous. In subsequent years all of the children made the trip and sang on the radio shows.

A black and white image of three young girls, Anita, June and Helen Carter. The Girls are singing and dressed in the same overall dress outfit with bows at their necks. Helen is standing, singing and playing a guitar, June is in the middle touching an autoharp on a table in front of her, and Anita is smiling and singing. — *Maybelle’s daughters left to right: Anita, June and Helen during a 1941 photoshoot with Life Magazine that was never published. Image from Life.com*

The border radio shows were a great success. Young listeners to these radio programs included future country stars like Johnny Cash, Chet Atkins, Tom T. Hall, Waylon Jennings, and Buck Owens.

Each show was repeated the following morning. In those days, this was done by recording the evening show direct to “transcription disks”, a special phonograph record intended for, or recorded from, a radio broadcast. Nobody at the time thought much of the historical value of these disks. One story has it that they were sold to a Mexican contractor who used them as roofing tiles. Miraculously, seventeen disks with seventy-eight songs from the 1939 season were discovered in a San Antonio radio station in 1963 and were issued as LPs. The LPs are long out of print, but the recordings are available for purchase on the Internet in CD and mp3 formats, and are also posted on YouTube. Take a listen to these recordings here via this YouTube playlist.

The recordings are interesting alternate takes of previously recorded Carter Family songs, but also include previously unreleased songs. The border transcriptions are a bit shorter than the Carters’ commercial recordings on the Victor label, typically two minutes rather than three minutes long (perhaps shortened to save room for commercials), but the performances are flawless.

The original Carter Family disbanded in the 1940s, still performing together on occasions. Maybelle Carter and her daughters began performing as a separate act as “Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters” featuring Anita, Helen and June and also performed under the groups original name “The Carter Family”, after 1960. The musical legacy of the Carter Family is one that continues to play an impact on musicians and fans of music to this day.

This blog post is a condensation of a colorful story told at much greater length in the XERA chapter of the excellent book about the Carter Family by Mark Zwonitzer and Charles Hirschberg, Will You Miss Me While I’m Gone. Another source was Ed Kahn, The Carter Family on border radio (University of Illinois Press 1996).

Threads of History: Safeguarding The Birthplace of Country Music Quilt

Collections Exhibits Museum

August 21, 2023

Posted on August 21, 2023August 21, 2023 by Julia Underkoffler

The Birthplace of Country Music Museum’s quilt

By Julia Underkoffler, Collection Specialist at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum

Since the opening of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in 2014, a quilt donated by the Bristol TN/VA Chapter of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America has been one of the first objects visitors have seen when entering the museum and heading up the stairs to the main exhibits.

A closeup image of the details of the BCM quilt. The image features a closeup of the colorful, detailed quilted squares. — *A closeup of the details on the BCM quilt. Hand stitched along the pink inner border are names of each of the artists who recorded during the 1927 Bristol Sessions*

The quilt, which took two years to complete, has always captivated and inspired museum visitors and guests with its beautiful and complex design. Many aspects central to the 1927 Bristol Sessions and time period were included in the design of the quilt – a marriage of color, concept, and skill. The center of the quilt features the words “Birthplace of Country Music” overlaid across a stunning tree. The inner sage green border framing the center design includes the musical notes and lyrics of the The Carter Family song “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and the inner pink border carries the names of the participants of the 1927 Bristol Sessions – each name carefully stitched along the border of the quilt in a whimsical design. The blocks that frame the entire quilt commemorate quilt blocks from the 1800s to the present day. The quilt’s design is inspired by the Stoney Creek Collections, a published cross-stitch design company. The final piece evokes a powerful emotion of pride for regional heritage, accented by the roots strongly anchoring our history and the growth of the tree representing our future.

A large group of twenty four women standing on a staircase inside of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in front of the handmade quilt. The camera is facing to the right of the group of women and many of them are smiling. — Quilters from the local Bristol TN/VA Chapter of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America gather in front of the quilt they spend two years making on display at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. This photo was taken during the quilt dedication event in 2014 prior to the museum’s opening

The quilt ended up being much larger than the quilters group originally planned – a testament to their passion and creativity! – with the final measurements being an incredible eight and a half feet wide and almost ten feet long. On July 14, 2014 the guild members were invited to the museum for the dedication of the quilt and a preview of the new Birthplace of Country Music Museum. The quilt has since been a focal point of the museum lobby for nearly a decade. The creation of this quilt was a true labor of love and friendship in support of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum and the twin cities of Bristol TN/VA.

One main part of my job as Collections Specialist is to care for and preserve the artifacts we have within our collection, and this role is arguably one of the most important jobs within the museum. My responsibility as caretaker of the museum’s collections, along with the documentation, photographing, and housing of all of the objects, is vital. In early March 2023, the quilt was taken down and placed in our collections storage for safekeeping and proper storage. There were many reasons for this decision, most importantly the preservation of the quilt itself. Institutions that have textiles in their collections must have a regular schedule to take the items off display or be sure that the textiles are located in a very dark area with special lighting to help prevent deterioration. Like any other textile objects, quilts are extremely fragile and sensitive to sunlight, and therefore that was one of the decision-making factors. Another issue that came into play was how our quilt was displayed – hanging from a specially made rod – and how that weight can affect the integrity of the quilt’s fabric, threads, and construction. In other words, it’s necessary to give textiles like our quilt time “to rest” by removing them from their hanging apparatus.

Two museum workers are leaning over multiple folding tables covered in white plastic and are carefully folding the birthplace of country music museum quilt. Julia Underkoffler is to the right of Rene Rodgers; both are smiling and wearing blue rubber gloves and handling the corners of the quilt. Julia is wearing a navy blue shirt and blue jeans and Rene is wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans. They are standing in a gallery room with museum display cases behind them. — *Head Curator Dr. Rene Rodgers and Collections Specialist Julia Underkoffler prepping the BCM quilt for safe storage*

When the quilt was taken down, it was put out on several tables in a secured area for a few days before one of BCM’s board members, a fabric specialist, helped us to roll it on a tube with acid-free tissue paper and 100% cotton sheets, held together with pieces of fabric in four places. The quilt is now safely stored in the museum’s vault resting in the correct conditions, specifically where the temperature stays around 70 degrees and the humidity around 50 percent and with no natural light exposure.

A large colorful quilt is shown hanging on a display on a wall inside of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. The image shows the quilt on display over a staircase during the daytime with dim spotlights highlighting the quilt. — *A view of the quilt at the top of the stairs in the museum lobby at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum*

The quilt will remain resting in storage for several years before it can return to public display. Being a staff favorite and knowing the love and care that was put into its creation, it was hard for us to take it down – and our repeat visitors have certainly missed it! – but we know that this is the course of action that will ensure its preservation for generations to come. In the meantime, our curatorial team pulled together a variety of wonderful images of the museum and its exhibits and programs over the last nine years that are now on display in the space left behind by the quilt – from a student gospel group’s performance and our Pick Along campers to the Jimmie Rodgers guitar on display and several 1927 Bristol Sessions relatives.

Quick-Witted Women: Comedy and Country Music

Museum Music & Songs

August 16, 2023

Posted on August 16, 2023August 15, 2023 by Toni Doman

Left to right: Promotional images of Roni Stoneman as “Ida Lee” from Hee Haw from the Birthplace of Country Music Museum archives, Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon as Minnie Pearl sporting her signature hat and price tag courtesy of the Grand Ole Opry archives and Cynthia Mae Carver as Cousin Emmy courtesy of Georgia State University Digital Collections

Toni Doman-Vandyke is Grants Coordinator and Curatorial Specialist at the Birthplace of Country Music

August 16th is National Tell A Joke Day! Comedy and country music have a long and enduring history. From the extravagant days of vaudeville variety act performances in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to early barn dance radio programs of the 1930s, comedians and musicians were regularly featured.

The logo for the television show Hee Haw, a variety show featuring country music and humor in the fictional “Kornfield Kounty”

Comedians brought their wit – be it silly, old-fashioned, and sometimes crude – to the stage to entertain audiences, oftentimes with humor focused on a rural country lifestyle. Some of the first comedians to be a part of the WSM’s Grand Ole Opry program in the 1930s included Sarie and Sally, a female comedic duo, and arguably the Opry’s most well-known comedian, Minnie Pearl, who later went on to be a cast member of Hee Haw, which ran for 25 seasons from 1969 until 1993. Humor can break down boundaries, engage and entertain people, and has the ability to connect listeners and audiences deeply through a shared experience of laughter. Comedy is deeply intertwined with the genres of and relating to country music, with many memorable funny and satirical songs by musicians through the years. Today contemporary artists still carry on the tradition of writing ironic, satirical and humorous songs.

I’m a huge fan of side-splitting country songs, with some of my earliest musical memories include “discovering” Ray Stevens and “The Mississippi Squirrel Revival“,and listening to every whimsical goofy tune by Roger Miller (personal favorite: “My Uncle Used to Love Me But She Died”). Upon doing research for this blog post, I found that most “funny country songs” are written and performed by male artists. However, female performers – despite historically facing challenges, such as the assumption that women aren’t funny and gender discrimination surrounding what might be appropriate for a female performer to sing or speak about on stage – have made their comic mark in the country genre too. Therefore, to celebrate National Tell a Joke Day, here’s a roundup of music and stories by some of my favorite funny female country music comedians and entertainers. From Cousin Emmy to Dolly Parton, women have been getting the last laugh for years!

Lulu Belle and Scotty – “Store Bought Teeth”
How are false teeth like stars?
They come out at night!

This novelty song about “store bought teeth” by Lulu Belle (born Myrtle Eleanor Cooper) and Scotty Wiseman features comical lyrics of problems that might just occur should you have fake teeth and you dig into the taffy candy (not advised). Lulu Belle and Scotty were known as “The Sweethearts of Country Music” first meeting one another on the WLS National Barn Dance in the mid 1930s. Together they both had successful careers in country music performing across the Midwest and even appeared in seven films.

“Well a feller called and said his name was Slim, and he wanted me to work for him
And I said boy I always aim to please
So I signed upon the dotted line and everything was just going fine
Then he led me to a 90 foot trapeze

Well he handed me some kites like them folks wear
And he pulled me way up in the air
Then hollered “hang on by your teeth and wait!”
And then it happened the things I feared
When the screaming stopped and the dust had cleared
The only thing hanging was my plate

Store bought teeth and taffy candy
Store bought teeth and taffy candy”

Cousin Emmy on Pete Seeger’s Rainbow Quest
What kind of music do balloons hate?
Pop.

Cynthia Mae Carver, known professionally as Cousin Emmy, began playing music as a young girl, mastering the fiddle, banjo, guitar, harmonica, ukulele, and musical saw, and even playing music on a rubber glove. She performed on local radio stations, and in 1935 she won the National Old Time Fiddlers’ Contest, which brought her better gigs and eventually larger radio markets in Knoxville, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri. Very few recorded performances exist of Cousin Emmy, though this excerpt from the 1944 film “Swing in the Saddle” by Lew Landers features one of her stage performances during her career heyday. The video below features another rare recording from Pete Seeger’s Rainbow Quest, a program focused on folk music. At mark 7:30 of the video, you can catch Cousin Emmy playing “You Are My Sunshine” on the rubber glove!

Roni Stoneman – “Going Up Cripple Creek”
How can you tell the difference between all the banjo songs?
By their names.

Veronica “Roni” Stoneman is an accomplished banjo player and comedian, and she was a long-time cast member of Hee Haw from 1972 to 1990, known for playing the skillet-wielding “Ida Lee Nagger” character, as seen in this YouTube clip. She is the 14th child and youngest daughter of Ernest and Hattie Stoneman, old-time artists who recorded at the 1927 Bristol Sessions. With a career spanning a lifetime in music and stage performances, Roni is a true entertainer. This video of “Going Up Cripple Creek” features a performance by the Stoneman Family from 1967, with Roni playing the banjo with a stoic attitude and expression-less face, totally out of character (but still a hilarious performance) from her normal upbeat and energetic stage personality.

Mother Maybelle and The Carter Sisters – “Well I Guess I Told You Off”
Did you hear about the cow that tried to jump the fence and missed?
Utter disaster.

Some of my absolute favorite funny recordings feature Mother Maybelle Carter and The Carter Sisters with tunes like “Root Hog Or Die”, “Too Old To Cut the Mustard” and “Well I Guess I Told You Off” when sisters Helen, June, and Anita each take turns singing lines of the chorus. Their amusing performances always make me laugh!

The three daughters of Maybelle Carter began performing with her publicly as The Carter Sisters after the original Carter Family (A. P., Sara, and Maybelle) disbanded in 1943. The Carter Sisters appeared on numerous radio and television shows, performed live, and became regulars on the Grand Ole Opry. June, in particular, honed her comedic skills with the group, bringing a folksy charm and humor to many of their stage performances.

“If brains were thousand dollar bills
I’d tell you what we’d bet
You wouldn’t have enough
To buy a cup of coffee yet

Well, that ain’t the way I heared it
But here’s a thought for you
Your’s might as well be coffee grounds
For all the thinking they’ll do

Well I guess I told you off
That ought to hold you for a spell
Furthermore if you don’t like it
You can pack tonight, get out of sight
And go jump in the well!”

Dolly Parton – Songwriter and Storyteller
“I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb…and I also know that I’m not blonde.” – Dolly Parton

Finally, this clip features legendary living musician and singer-songwriter Dolly Parton, highlighting her character and charisma through humor and storytelling – a regular hallmark of her shows and appearances. With a successful career spanning over 50 years, she released her first album Hello I’m Dolly, in February of 1967, which included her first hit, “Dumb Blonde,” a song that called out female stereotypes. Soon after she was invited to be the regular “girl singer” on The Porter Wagoner Show. At the six-minute mark in the video below, Dolly dives into a witty and humorous tale as a guest on The Tonight Show, cracking the entire audience up by the end of her tale.

If you liked the female artists and their featured funny songs, check out these additional hilarious comedic country songs by female artists: