Martina McBride happy to be a female country tomato

Martina McBride pulls no punches – or, in this case, throws no tomatoes – when it comes the the state of women in country music.

A superstar for the past two decades, McBride is known for hits including “Independence Day,” “Wild Angels,” “A Broken Wing” and “This One’s for the Girls.” She has sold over 18 million records and charted 20 Top 10 singles and six No. 1 smashes. In short, the singer has nothing left to prove.

So when a national radio correspondent suggests that stations play fewer female artists and calls women the “tomato” garnishes of country music’s male-based salad, she certainly has plenty to say. Radio consultant Keith Hill also advised stations to not play songs by female singers back-to-back in a story for a major country music publication. McBride posted immediately on her Facebook page about his comments.

“Mostly it didn’t surprise me. It was things I’d heard before. But I was shocked at the comments about taking the females out altogether. Still, the thing he said that really got to me was something I heard before, that females like to hear males on the radio and not other females,” she said in a phone interview from Nashville. “So I just asked them on my Facebook page. I read it and just reacted. For years I’ve heard that repeatedly and thought that can’t be right. I look out on the audience and I see a sea of women from of all ages, from 13 to 80. So I just don’t understand, I don’t think that is accurate anymore – if it ever even was. That line of thought being perpetuated was something I thought I’d ask my fans and see how they felt.”

Overwhelmingly, she heard back from them that they did want to hear female artists on country radio. So as a cheeky sign of protest, McBride created “Tomato” and “Tomato Lover” T-shirts, which she began selling on her site. The response was so great she has kept extending the sales, which were planned only as a limited release. All the proceeds from the shirts are going to her charity foundation, Team Martina.

“It was a spur-of-the-moment idea I had. I thought this would be fun to do shirts. With the money going to charity, it is a fun way for people to show support and show they feel strongly about having females on the radio,” she said.

Since she came onto the country music scene in 1992, McBride said, not much has changed for female artists. It’s still hard for them to break through and get radio play. But that doesn’t mean it has to always be that way.

“That’s what I was talking about with all of this, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy if we let this continue. Record labels don’t want to sign female artists because there’s no radio airplay, songwriters don’t want to write songs for female artists because there’s no radio airplay,” she said. “But it doesn’t seem like it needs to matter if it’s a female or male singer, just if it a good song.”

Good songs are something McBride knows plenty about. Besides her own hits, the singer recently put out an album of covers of classic R&B and blues tunes. “Everlasting” was released in 2014 and features her singing hits first performed by Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Sam Cooke and others. She also has mixed up her live show, adding a four-piece horn section and three background singers to her concert tour.

“I wanted to do something different; I’ve loved those songs all my life,” she said. “The song selection process was fun. I searched though thousands and thousands and songs, and it took about seven months. I ended up on the ones I felt like I could sing authentically and bring something new to. I wanted the whole thing to be something you could put on in background while cooking and sitting with friends.”

Speaking of entertaining, McBride also made her first foray into the domestic arena with the release of her first cookbook. “Around the Table” was published in October and features her favorite recipes, entertaining tips, party planning and other advice.

“I’ve always loved to cook and always love to entertain people in my home. So I wanted to write a book that makes that easy for people and takes the worry and intimidation out of it,” she said. “It can be overwhelming to have people in your home. So these are easy recipes and decorating ideas.”

Her favorites in the book include recipes for her chicken and sausage gumbo and short ribs. But are there any good tomato recipes in there?

“No, actually,” she said with a laugh, “there are no tomato recipes in the cookbook.”

This story was originally published July 1, 2015 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Martina McBride happy to be a female country tomato."