To all appearances, Gretchen Wilson went overnight from talented obscurity to phenomenon. Her meteoric rise, the kind experienced by only a handful of artists in the past few decades, was that rare instance where talent and moment meet to form a cultural tidal wave.

Gretchen’s ability to tailor songs as gorgeously rough-edged as she is, have given her the kind of “I am what I sing” originality few women in music history– Loretta, Janis, Dolly and Cher chief among them–have ever been able to achieve.