The Highway Women - The Highway (2020)

The Highwomen come steeped in history — a history they rewrite, literally and figuratively. Their name, and the title track of their terrific self-titled debut, alludes to “The Highwayman,” Jimmy Webb’s 1977 song-turned-hit signature of the Highwaymen, the Eighties supergroup of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson. Rewritten with Webb for a new singer-songwriting collective — Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires, and Natalie Hemby — “The Highwomen” swaps the original’s mythic male narratives for female ones: an immigrant mom who dies fleeing Honduras through Mexico, a “witch” hanged in Salem, a murdered Freedom Rider, a preacher persecuted for her gender. “We are the highwomen, we sing of stories still untold/We carry the sons you can only hold,” the women declaim over sparkling guitars. It’s as powerfully primal as musical storytelling gets.