Watch this special and you will come away with a fair sense of the role women have played throughout country-music history. Although selected primarily to feature vocalists such as Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Lorrie Morgan, Trisha Yearwood, and Tanya Tucker singing their recent hits in concert, the performances in The Women of Country are interspersed with comments from many female artists about the history of their music and their influences.
I wish the vintage clips of such singers as Wanda Jackson, Jean Shepard, and early-period Dolly Parton were longer, and that the more articulate interviewees, such as singer-producer Gail Davies and songwriter Felice Bryant, had spoken more frankly about wo-men's struggles in this field. There's also some foolishness, as when K.T. Oslin mentions the word ''feminism'' and the show cuts to a picture of Bella Abzug leading a protest march. But as an entertaining overview, this show does its job with accuracy and intelligence. B+
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