Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires and Natalie Hemby were all country music superstars in their own right when they formed the band The Highwomen in 2019. The group established themselves as one of the only all-female lineups in the world of country music, in direct comparison to the all-star band The Highwaymen, consisting of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson. The Highwomen even reworked the Highwaymen's theme tune of the same name as the title track of their debut album. In the song 'The Highwaymen', the four men die whilst doing what is considered to be masculine things, and the women have rewritten this with their up-to-date and non-gender stereotypic version in 2019. The song had the blessing of the original 'The Highwaymen' writer Jimmy Webb, who helped to write some of the new lyrics. The debut single from the album, 'Redesigning Women', was also written by the four members of Highwomen and released in 2019. Other renowned country artists also collaborated on the album, including Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell, Lori McKenna, Miranda Lambert and Ray LaMontagne.
