Throughout the month of March, RADIO.COM will be celebrating the Leading Ladies of Country music with special interviews and performances from some of the biggest female names in the genre -- all culminating with a virtual end-of-month concert event.
Listen to your favorite Country music now on RADIO.COM.
In honor of Women’s History Month, we're celebrating the power of Women in Country by honoring iconic heritage female artists, showcasing the genre's rising stars, and spotlighting today’s hit female artists. Today RADIO.COM welcomes Country group Runaway June!
Blazing trails and taking names since 2015, the ladies of Runaway June (Naomi Cooke, Natalie Stovall, and Jennifer Wayne) got right into our celebration with Rob + Holly discussing some of the iconic female artists in Country music who have shaped each of their musical ambitions.
For Natalie, it's Dolly Parton, hands down. "She seems to always know the right thing to say and everybody loves Dolly!" Jennifer agreed, relating the common phrase that has been defining Dolly for years. "She's a national treasure, she really is. That's the perfect thing to say about her."
WATCH MORE: 5 Reasons Why Dolly Parton is An American Treasure
"She always leads by example, she puts her money where her mouth is... Also her contribution to music," Natalie added. "She truly paved her own way. She was such a pioneer because she came from literally nothing and is this icon that we all look to..."
"For 'inspiration,' I have a lot of different women who inspire me in different ways," says Naomi. "Dolly was definitely a musical inspiration, we both have a lot of childhood similarities... she was like a North Star. Some of my biggest inspirations for women are people that are kind of in my life everyday. People that told me I could do it when I didn't know that myself. There's a lot of different areas I'm inspired by a lot of different women at different times. It's not always a celebrity."
"I'm probably going to give you one that you don't have on the list," says Jennifer. "Patty Griffin has been my complete inspiration and idol as far as a songwriter, a singer -- musically she's just unbelievable."
For any new singers and songwriters looking to break into Country music, Natalie offered some valuable advice: "Something that's been resounding for me lately is just blocking out all the noise. Everybody's got a lot of opinions about how you should do things, the way you should go about doing things. The way that that's sent to us all is like, 'find out who you are and go after it.'"
"But you might be a lot of different things," she explained, "and that can be confusing at times. But it's blocking out all those opinions and trying to focus on what brings you the most joy. That's the things that will serve you best -- and make sure you're having fun doing all the things as you're doing them."
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