Hear The Highwomen Recast ‘Highwayman’ as ‘Highwomen’ [Fresh Track]

The Highwomen have been the rightful source of much excitement this year. The core of the group is four of the best songwriters, singers and musicians working today — Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires — and they’ve made it a point to show how inclusivity can lead to achieving even bigger accomplishments. (See: Bringing the house down at the Newport Folk Festival with help from a slew of women, an important happening because women are still underrepresented across the music business, which had as a major bonus a guest appearance from Dolly Parton.)

The Highwomen, as you’ll probably recall, take their name from The Highwaymen, a collaboration between Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson in the 1980s. The Highwaymen, in turn took their name from a song by veteran tunesmith Jimmy Webb. Their recording of “Highwayman” had a 20-week run at the top of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in 1985. 

In the original song, a fiercely independent character gets reincarnated four times: First he’s an outlaw (whose part is sung by Nelson), then a sailor (Kristofferson), then a construction worker on the Hoover Dam (Jennings), then a spaceship captain (Cash). The Highwomen worked with Webb on a re-imagining of the song, called “Highwomen.” The new version applies the concept in a way that highlights stories of women — who’ve been too easily forgotten, and are frankly badass. Carlile sings the part of an immigrant from Honduras who dies getting children safely over the border and Shires performs as a doctor persecuted as a witch. U.K. singer-songwriter Yola appears a guest, singing the part of a Freedom Rider, while Hemby portrays a woman who heeds the call to become a preacher, despite it being forbidden. 

The song is the title track of The Highwomen’s forthcoming LP, set for release Sept. 6. Visit your favorite record store or the group’s website to preorder a copy.