When Gretchen Wilson stands on stage and scans her audience, she said she sees three generations of adoring fans: “Redneck Grandma,” “Redneck Woman” and “Redneck in Training.”
After a trip up the Billboard charts and back down again, Wilson said she feels comfortable making music on her independent record label, recently recording an album of ’70s rock covers, and connecting to the country masses.
“I think what’s cool is that it seems like there’s no real generation that I appeal to,” Wilson said. “When look out to my crowd it’s the weirdest bunch of rednecks that you’ve ever seen in your life.”
Playing Thursday at the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium, she will show off tunes from her newest studio album,
Under the Covers, released in June, and perform the mainstays that made her a Grammy-winning artist: namely No. 1 hit “Redneck Woman.”
“It’s my signature song,” she said. “It was the one that made everything happen. It was a time in country music where things were too soft and slick. The female country music models were awesome … but it seemed like someone else’s life, not how a country woman lives.”
Wilson’s own life has drastically changed since releasing the song in 2004, however. She was dropped from Sony in 2009 and has since released four albums on her own Redneck Records, three of which debuted this year.
Wilson said fans have been receptive to her recent musical variety, and the auditorium should be filled to about half capacity for her Thursday performance, said Andrew Holzaepfel, director of the OU Campus Involvement Center.
Her show will be partially composed of covers ranging from Cheap Trick’s “I Want You To Want Me” to Foreigner’s “Hot Blooded” from her June release,
Under the Covers—also the title of her tour.
“I think a lot of people in the industry might look at my career now as if it’s taken a step backward, but I feel like that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Wilson said. “I didn’t get into this business to sit first row at the Country Music Awards.”
And, according to Wilson, that’s not the lifestyle she’s after anyway.
“I’m a woman. I’m a mom. I have a child that’s going to be 13 next month. I couldn’t be pulled in that direction much longer,” Wilson said. “I know there’s a lot of good music left in me.”
jr992810@ohiou.edu
@Jimryan015
If You Go
What: Gretchen Wilson
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium
Admission: First 10 rows: $40; remainder: $25
