Gretchen Wilson

Gretchen Wilson's voice is one of the more recognisable in modern American country, a gravelly, working-class delivery she has tied to songs about small-town grit and hard-drinking swagger. Born in Pocahontas, Illinois, in 1973 and raised by a single mother after her father left when she was two, she left high school and worked as a cook before turning to music. Her material stays close to the country tradition, with a rough-edged, blunt-spoken attitude at its centre.

Wilson signed with Epic Records in 2003, and her debut single, 'Redneck Woman', reached the top of the Hot Country Songs chart in 2004. Her debut album, Here for the Party, opened at No. 1 on the Billboard country chart and was later certified five-times multi-platinum by the RIAA. Its follow-up, All Jacked Up, set a record for the highest debut by a female artist with its title track, which later peaked at No. 8. Her 2007 album One of the Boys was followed by I Got Your Country Right Here in 2010, after she had launched her own Redneck Records.