Country newcomer Hailey Whitters created a motley playlist of sorts in a recent Instagram post that includes her influences going all the way back to Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill from 1995.
That was back when Whitters was in kindergarten, but it stuck with her. As did the music of Trisha Yearwood, the Dixie Chicks, Avril Lavigne, Dolly Parton, Brandy Clark, Matraca Berg, Maren Morris and Lori McKenna.
In the post, Whitters explains that she doesn’t necessarily seek out just female influences, but that she could never make her own music without theirs.
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“When I was in kindergarten, a high school boy used to get on the school bus and walk to the back everyday with a boombox on his shoulder playing @alanis Jagged Little Pill, the first song I remember learning by heart was @trishayearwood ’She’s in Love With The Boy,’ the @dixie_chicks were the reason I wrote my first song, on a family vacation to the amusement park when I was 13, I broodily listened to @avrillavigne’s Let Go record on repeat all the way to St. Louis and back… I still remember the first time I ever heard @dollyparton voice in an Arkansas souvenir shop,” Whitters wrote.
“Still to this day, when I need a drink from ’the well,’ I look in the work of my sisters: @thebrandyclark, @matracaberg, @marenmorris, @lorimckennama and so many others.
“Gender is never a cognizant thought when choosing my music, but there’s no denying a significant part of my soul is touched and fed by the female perspective,” she shared. “I can’t imagine my music without theirs.”
You may remember hearing about Whitters recently when Brothers Osborne talked about her and her gift for songwriting on the red carpet at the ACM Awards.
