In the '60s they were known as girl singers. Every big country package tour and TV show had one-a pure and passive, teased and lacquered, gingham-clad gal (sequins came later) thrown into the shows' all-male lineups to add a dash of sex appeal. Norma Jean, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton-they weren't supposed to worry their pretty little heads too much, circa ''Stand By Your Man.'' These days you're more likely to hear Lyle Lovett crooning the Tammy Wynette hit than K.T. Oslin or Trisha Yearwood. Call it Nashville's new integrity-or just keeping up with the times commercially. But as The Women of Country, a prime-time CBS special airing Thursday, May 6 (see review on page 46), points out, there's a fresh crop of female stars who are smartening up country music and lifting it out of its low-rent, high glitz stereotype. Some of them with a higher profile than others: New traditionalists Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Patty Loveless, and Kathy Mattea-three of the dozen country singers featured on the special-have hit the charts jackpot. But the no less critically acclaimed Rosanne Cash and Lucinda Williams-neither of whom made the CBS cut-have yet to make major mainstream inroads. All five of these women are country's thriving present, but perhaps Cash and Williams, extremists in the integrity department, are its future. MARY-CHAPIN CARPENTER Back in 1987 she seemed the least likely female to go the distance on the country charts. Raised in the Washington, D.C., area with an Ivy League education (Brown '81), Carpenter wrote literate songs about decidedly noncountry themes like Halley's Comet and the spiritual life of old shirts. And she affixed them to melodies and instrumentation aimed more at the acoustic- music crowd (read: folkies) than at the country audience. Five years later the Country Music Association named her Female Vocalist of the year. And she has won two Grammys, for 1991's Cajun-spiced ''Down at the Twist and Shout,'' and last year's ''I Feel Lucky.'' ''It's been a real identity crisis these last few years,'' admits Carpenter, 35, who grew up with a Life magazine executive father and a mother who worked at a private school. ''I never thought of myself as a country musician either.'' But two things happened. First, as country began incorporating '70s folk sounds and attracting college-educated baby boomers in the post-Urban Cowboy & boom days of the '80s, Carpenter was at the right place at the right time. Second, she gave her record company enough commercial tunes (''Never Had It So Good'') to get her on the radio, while also insisting that her albums include the more thoughtful, in-depth material (''I Am a Town'') that made her rep as a songwriter.
If Carpenter has garnered great respect from her peers (''Chapin's brilliant,'' says Rosanne Cash), the rest of the industry-especially the good ol' boy faction-has been slow to recognize all of her talents. ''Sometimes I'll go to a radio station and it's clear that the guy has only heard my radio stuff and not the rest of the album,'' she says. ''He'll look at me and say, 'Did you write this?' And I'll say, 'Yeah.' And he'll say, 'That's great, little lady.' I swear that happens, and I don't know how to describe that feeling. I just want to punch 'em.''
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