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Her pleasant smile on the cover notwithstanding, Jean Shepard was no polite "girl singer," and it didn't take long for her to prove it. After Hank Thompson helped her secure a contract with Capitol in 1952, Shepard, not yet 19, recorded her first single, on which she defiantly declares: "I'll go where I could get twice the lovin', baby, in half the time." The ensuing years found Shepard boldly singing about "male subjects" like cheating and drinking, going so far as to ask in "Two Whoops and a Holler": "How come a man can fight and cuss and smoke and drink and chew, step out on their wives and do the things they shouldn't do?" Though Shepard only infrequently pierced the Top 10 between 1952 and 1964--"A Dear John Letter," with Ferlin Husky's recitation, was one of the biggest country hits of 1953--she helped establish the fact that a woman could sing honestly and powerfully without becoming "the lowest thing in town." Thanks to her commitment to traditional hard country, her unwavering crystal-clear voice, and hotshot musicians behind her such as steel wiz Speedy West, Shepard carved herself an important niche in country history. --Marc Greilsamer