At the start of these recordings from 1981, a jumping bluegrass band plays while an emcee excitedly gives Tammy Wynette this warm welcome: “The lady that’s won just about every award you can win in the country music business, for three years in a row was voted the CMA’s top female vocalist of the year, she’s had 35 #1 records, she’s won Grammy awards, the first lady of country music, Ms. Tammy Wynette!”
Indeed, Tammy Wynette, who passed away in 1998, was one of the greats. The country superstar who helped solidify the countrypolitan sound in the late 1960s and early 1970s had the most successful record of her career in the hit 1968 song “Stand by Your Man,” which she performs in two instances during this 1981 concert taped at the Executive Inn in Owensboro, Ky. But Wynette sang about much more than loyalty to a perhaps wandering spouse—in fact, she often spit fire straight in the direction of nasty men. On “Stayin’ Home Woman,” which Wynette says was the “fastest song I ever wrote, and I will admit I was mad when I wrote it. I wrote it special for me and all you ladies,” she bemoans the husband who stays out all night while she stays home and cooks and cleans all day. “He oughta be a Texas rancher, ’Cause he sure spreads a lotta bull around,” she sings. A song called “Stand by Your Man” might be her biggest claim to fame, but don’t say Tammy Wynette never sang about feminism.
Also in these recordings is a beautiful medley of church songs including “Amazing Grace” and “I’ll Fly Away.” Wynette and her backup singers close out the show with a sped-up reprise of “Stand By Your Man.” Listen to the entire 1981 concert below.