FEATURED GUITARGIRLS REVIEW:
"BLUES GUITAR WOMEN"2 CD Compilation
Various Artists
(Ruf Records)
~By
Renée Westbrook for GuitarGirls.com
Finally. A double CD filled with nothing but the music of female guitar players. You can thank the goddess for that, but you might want to thank Sue Foley, too. Fully fretboard capable and well versed in the blues, the Canadian slinger and Germanys Ruf Records created a compilation that speaks volumes about women and their guitars.
CD1 features contemporary blues guitar women like Foley (Mediterranean Breakfast, Doggie Treats), Bonnie Raitt & Maria Muldaur, Alice Stuart and Deborah Coleman. Hot young blood Laura Chavez of the Lara Price Band sizzles her way through a cover of Buddy Guys Cant Quit The Blues and Yugoslavian born Ana Popovic pays a jazzy R&B licked tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan with Navajo Moon. Vaughan inspired shred star Tracy Conover (shes recorded with Double Troubles Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon), gets the CD 1 daaaaaaam! prize for setting a fretboard on fire.
No one in good conscience could compile a blues album without paying homage to its purveyors. The second CD is more than just fourteen tracks of blues songs by women who just happen to play guitar. Its the torch bearing sacred ground of female guitarism and emotional expressionism. Algia Mae Hintons Going Down This Road seeps through to the core of musical truth and dignity. Its the saddest song youll ever hear, but when its over youll feel like a much better woman for having listened to it. In My Girlish Days (Memphis Minnie), Fool Me Good (Precious Bryant), and Streamline Train (Jessie Mae Hemphill) remind the world that women guitar players are not a novelty. They are truly the musical missing link.
SAMPLE THE SONGS FROM "BLUES GUITAR WOMEN" CD LINER NOTES from "BLUES GUITAR WOMEN":
"When a woman gets the blues, she hangs her head and cries.
When a man gets the blues, he catches a train and rides."
(Traditional blues verse, author unknown)
Those words reflect the reality of women in the deep south of the United States in the 19th century and they continue to ring true for many women today. However, there are exceptions to the rule and many ofthem are contained right here in this compilation.
The Blues Woman and more specifically the Blues Guitar Woman has blazedher own trail from the start. The guitar is the most versatile and popular instrument of our time. It is the weapon of choice for all modern troubadours and ramblers. Today, it seems more and more females are putting their hands to this instrument and bearing down on itbecause it offers them a means for powerful self-expression and thefreedom to move, a kind of liberation not based on any preordained groups or labels.
Women like Memphis Minnie were light years ahead of the women's movement of the 1960's and '70's. From the 1930's until the end of her career, she was one of the most popular blues artists of the time, known to go head to head with any guitar player and outplay them. She was rough and tough and wild. Memphis Minnie was not one to be confined to the social conventions restraining women in her day. She left home at a young age, refusing to stay on the farm and work, traveled around America in the barren landscape of the depression, writing her own songs, more than 200 of them, many now blues standards and playing the hell out of her guitar while using a series of husbands as her backup musicians. This CD compilation is populated by women like Memphis Minnie who possess that same kind of spirit, that same desire and drive to follow their own paths and write their own rules.
We've taken a slightly different approach with this compilation, deciding to begin with the present and work our way back, breaking it up into two CDs, one featuring contemporary women blues guitarists andthe second, the traditional players. You'll find the odd artist who is represented on each CD. Some of these women are just as adept atplaying modern electric blues as they are carrying the torch for old time country and acoustic blues-- Alice Stuart's contrasting versions of "Rather Be the Devil" from the traditional CD and "The Man is SoGood" on the contemporary being a prime example.
The themes range from the traditional blues subjects of love and rambling to social consciousness and demands for change. Independence is also a running theme as women today are forced to be more independent than ever, and women who get into vans and drive thousands of miles with groups of guys are a pretty sturdy lot. The life of the blues is no picnic, not even for the men, but it seems they have always had that solidarity and we women are often on the outside looking in.
Here on these two CDs, we finally get together to share our stories and talents with each other. How else would we find the time to catch up? The demands of modern life and career building and looking after our households take all our time, not to mention the chaos of the road and the constant need for balance and order.
The fact that there is enough material to fill two CD's is quite alarming for even I didn't realize how many there were and are out there. But it seems the scene for women guitar players is vibrant and growing stronger all the time. There may be more women guitar players in blues than any genre and the styles within the blues are incredibly diverse from the modern rock/blues of Joanna Connor and Ana Popovic to the beautiful simplicity of Etta Baker and Precious Bryant. The lives and backgrounds of these women are as unique as their music. From the hill country of Mississippi, through all corners of the US, Canada, Eastern Europe and beyond, it would seem that no place is safe from the power of the guitar heroine.
Putting the Blues Guitar Women compilation together was a pleasure for me. I enjoyed every discovery from the old wise blues women to the emerging young talent of today. I am really proud to be in such strong and inspiring company. ~Sue Foley