Playwright-director Ted Swindley is undoubtedly best known for his hit Always…Patsy Cline, which debuted nearly 40 years ago and has been playing somewhere ever since. His love of country music, though, especially for its female writers and singers, is so strong that a decade after Patsy, he came up with Honky Tonk Angels, which features not one, not two, but three women seeking country fame. It’s currently launching the mainstage summer season at Florida Studio Theatre.

As you might expect, Honky Tonk Angels is packed full of country songs you’ll remember, from the likes of Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Bobbie Gentry, Tammy Wynette and KT Oslin. Here they’re delivered (with lyrics sometimes tweaked to suit the show’s characters) by Angela (Alexandra Melrose), a Texas housewife and mother of six; Darlene (Hannah Taylor), a young woman in Mississippi taking care of her father after her mother’s death; and Sue Ellen (Hailie Lucille), a twice-divorced “career woman” in Los Angeles who’s tired of being chased by her boss.

What the three have in common, of course, is their love for country music and their wish to make it big in Nashville. In Act 1, as we get to know them and their situations, the tunes we hear (“Stand By Your Man,” “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “9 to 5,” “Ode to Billie Joe”) tell us something about where they’re coming from and where they’re headed, as they eventually all end up on a bus headed to Tennessee.

Naturally, they decide to perform as a trio, and by the beginning of Act II, they’re onstage at a club in Nashville appropriately called Honky Tonk Heaven. There’s little background on how they got the gig, and the script of the show (slight to begin with) becomes paper-thin as we are just treated to a slew of numbers delivered in various entertaining setups, costumes and wigs. Don’t expect any further character development here, folks; what you see (and hear) is what you get.

That’s probably just fine for most audience members, who on opening night were primed to enjoy the show from the moment the four-member band played the first notes. All three performers have strong voices and country music styles, with Melrose sometimes a little over the top in her comic moments; Taylor presenting some pathos as a young woman finding her way; and Lucille demonstrating her physical skills in dance (“These Boots Are Made for Walkin’”) and even as a skating waitress. They sound fine, whether solo or together, and the onstage band, under the musical direction of Nathaniel Beliveau, adds immeasurably to the sense of a true country show.

Director-choreographer Ben Liebert directs even small moments to maximum effect, and it’s impressive how the show’s crew manages to execute quick set and costume changes. But the show’s second half just doesn’t offer much beyond the music. Again, I may be in the minority for wishing there were more to it.

Honky Tonk Angels continues through June 21 in FST’s Gompertz Theatre (with possible extensions). For tickets, call (941) 366-9000 or visit floridastudiotheatre.org.