CD Review: First Ladies Of Country by Various Artists

Country music, love it or hate it there's a chance that at some point you've been subject to it by a loved one or a friend.

First Ladies of Country Music stamps out any modern day criticism about the lack of females in the music genre. There are 43 examples her showing how the ladies have kept a stronghold on the country music genre since the early 1960s.

Patsy Cline's Crazy had the distinction of charting again some 30 years after the singers tragic death while Dolly Parton's Jolene and Tammy Wynette's Stand By Your Man have become popular music crossover classics helping to make country music more accessible to the masses.

This musical history tour brings the genre right up to date including Kelly Clarkson's Mr. Know It All, Kacey Musgraves Follow Your Arrow and First Aid Kit's Master Pretender.

An instant country music collection - which can only be equaled perhaps by a male equivalent?

• A version of this review by Andy Howells appeared in The South Wales Argus entertainment supplement The Guide on April 25, 2015