If Pauline Reese had been born in the 1800s, she would have used a plow and a Henry
r***e to carve her place the Wild West. Instead, she’s slinging a guitar and sharp-edged
lyrics to blaze a trail in a man’s world of outlaw country music and staking milestones
along the way, including praise from Willie Nelson as his favorite female vocalist and from
the Texas Music Awards as the reigning entertainer of the year – the first woman to earn
that honor. Legends were born when Pauline rode her horse Blue Diamond into shows at famed
dance halls across Texas and sang the National Anthem from the saddle at rodeos and
sporting events, including one for 83,000 people at a University of Texas football game. Pauline served as an inspiration as the only woman in Texas Music – a no-holds-barred
blend of alternative country, rock, Western swing, honky-tonk, folk and Tejano – going
head-to-head with Jack Ingram, Kevin Fowler, Cory Morrow, Roger Creager, Reckless
Kelly and the Randy Rogers Band. Her advice was sought by the likes of Miranda
Lambert, Sunny Sweeney and Bonnie Bishop. Two years later, she fronted it
as The Pauline Reese Band. About the same time, she met Willie Nelson and was
welcomed into his inner circle of friends including legendary songwriters Sonny Throckmorton (George Strait’s “The Cowboy Rides Away”) and Merle Haggard sidekick Freddy Powers (“Natural High”). While writing songs with them and studying their music and the artists they admired, she
toured and worked odd jobs, from fixing guitars and selling hot dogs on a stick to making
titanium kneecaps in a machine shop. Honing songwriting, guitar, vocals and showmanship
while performing more than 170 concerts a year, Pauline steadily earned a fan base that
allowed her to grow from opening act to headliner. She performed at two of Willie’s Farm
Aid festivals that included Dave Matthews, Neil Young and John Cougar Mellencamp and
six of Willie’s fabled Fourth of July Picnics.
