Girl/Solo/Live is a showcase-collaborative of women artists occurring on a monthly or quarterly basis. Venues have included the Trolley Stop (Dayton, OH), Canal Street Tavern (Dayton, OH), Plush (Cincinnati, OH), Rohs Street Cafe (Cincinnati, OH) and the Deerhead Tavern (Evansville, IN). The show is open exclusively to women artists, preferably solo or duo songwriters in any musical style, with the aim of showcasing these "women writers in the raw", and displaying the rich diversity of the participants' musical and songwriting styles.
Originally Girl/Solo/Live was itself a solo project hosted and promoted by Emily Strand. Recently, however, Jenny "Jemm" Schmidt of Outrageous Productions has teamed up with Strand to promote and book GSL's Cincinnati shows, adding diversity of style and momentum to the organization.
Below are some reflections by Emily Strand as to the conceptual origins of Girl/Solo/Live and the importance of the feminine voice in the regional scene:
In Fall 2001 I relocated to southern Ohio from Nashville, TN. I lived outside Cincinnati for a year, commuting to Dayton, OH for school and work, and scoping out both cities' musical offerings. In my first estimations, I found the Cincinnati scene creatively conservative and laden with a certain emotional testosterone. Coming from Nashville and a more even gender balance among musical artists, it was unsettling to be in the minority again. Don't get me wrong, being surrounded by men is a great way to get noticed, and although I appreciated the attention (being a girl was never a "gimmick" in Nashville - there were far too many of us) I felt immediately relegated to the lesbian folk scene in Cincinnati, a common generalization of guitar-proficient women songwriters in our culture. Legitimate guitar chops seem to translate into a suspicion of one's true femininity. I heard the compliment more than a few times, "you play guitar like a man!" It is a compliment that comes with a limitation for my gender, and always makes me a little sad, despite its intent.
I moved to Dayton in the summer of 2002 and started to carve out the smallest of niches. I felt like I had stumbled upon something subtle but very intricate and full of life in the Dayton music scene. This town seems to be a crossroads of the Midwest. There are amazing resources hiding around every corner - from Canal Street Tavern (God save it) to some very well-established studios to the numerous regional and national touring artists who've gotten their start here. But where were the women artists? I sought them out instinctually.
I met a few right away: Sharon Lane, for one. I saw her on a Tuesday at the Canal Street co-op. I remember disinterestedly reading a book at a table by myself, never expecting the soul that poured forth from that dusty old instrument. I stared wide-eyed at her, thinking to myself, it's 10:30 on a Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio - who is this woman at the piano?
It's almost as if the mid-sized quality of Dayton breeds an appreciation for originality that many markets miss. Not originality for its own sake, mind you, but a factor "x" that can only result from honest art delivered without pretense to an audience who accepts and expects just that. Many of the artists in this area share this quality, but I became intrigued by the women artists, who I quickly found to be more numerous than in many cities of a similar size. I wanted to begin to study and understand what sort of feminine voice this unique, creatively-charged, if sometimes-sleepy scene would propagate. There are so many expectations for women in music - I was interested in the music that comes from women when the dominant expectation is inimitability, as it seemed to be in Dayton, Ohio.
I already knew some women from the Cincinnati scene: Whitney Barricklow, Carole Walker, and a few others. I put them together with my new-found Dayton acquaintances, folks like Sharon Lane, Maery Lanahan, and Rhonda Everitt to start a series showcasing women songwriters. I called it Girl/Solo/Live because that's how I often see myself as an artist: up there all alone with my guitar and some interesting songs. It can be very alienating to be the only woman at an open mic, showcase, or writerís round, when one's genre is often undeservedly determined by one's gender in the initial estimations of the audience. This showcase not only attempts to alleviate that pressure for the women who perform, but also hopes to build a community of women songwriters and artists in this area and among those who tour in this region. G/S/L aims to promote collaboration and fellowship among women artists both at the show and after.
Thanks for your support and interest in Girl/Solo/Live. Please visit the Live page to find out about upcoming G/S/L shows.
Viva la Diva!
Emily Strand
Girl/Solo/Live began on Wednesday, October 30, 2002 with Carole Walker of the Walker Project in a solo performance with Emily Strand at the Trolley Stop in Dayton, Ohio.
Artists featured in subsequent Girl/Solo/Live shows have included:
Tracy Walker (Cincinnati)
Whitney Barricklow (Cincinnati)
Sara Beck (Nashville)
Marishah Paddock (Dayton)
Maery Lanahan (Dayton)
Sharon Lane (Dayton)
Erin Howard (Dayton)
Kelley Lewis (Dayton-Columbus)
Rhonda Everitt (Dayton-Cincinnati)
Donna Lynn Johnson of Paul's Apartment (Yellow Springs)
Jayne Sachs (Dayton)
Sarah Popejoy (Nashville)
Robyn Leah Case (Dayton)
Donna Mogavero and Maureen O'Donnell (Columbus)
Lisa Miller of Wussy (Cincinnati)
Lin Sanders of Burning Sage (Cleveland)
Shawna Snyder (Cincinnati)
Katie Reider (Cincinnati-Columbus)
Kim Taylor (Cincinnati)
Tracy Walker (Cincinnati)
Abiyah (Cincinnati)
Kelly Evans (Cincinnati)
Dawn Cooksey (Dayton)
Shelly Miller (Chicago)
Ripley Caine (Chicago)
Andrea Bunch and Aerin Tedesco (Dayton)
Frozen Feet (Dayton)
Fluttr Effect (Boston)
Vanessa Peters (Texas)
Pale Beneath the Blue (Cincinnati)
Amy Hedges (Dayton)
Caren Minniti (Dayton)
