The ten classic bluegrass and folk songs on Lindsay Lou’s Bluegrass Women were all written by women, and are performed here by groundbreaking female instrumentalists and singers like Laurie Lewis and Gena Britt, alongside current stars including AJ Lee and Bronwyn.
The album also serves as a valuable introduction to a new generation of talented female musicians — women who are fortunate to be coming up in an era when their gender is less and less of an issue. Earlier generations worked hard to build a staircase so younger musicians can run right up where they belong, and this project is a great way to celebrate that process.
A Nashville singer and guitarist transplanted from Michigan, Lou recorded several albums with her former band the Flatbellys, as well as more recent solo projects. She has never been afraid to branch out in any direction of roots music, but on this recording she stays close to the bluegrass tradition. The album was co-produced with Grammy-winner Shani Gandhi, and is released on Work Of Bart Records/Soundly Music.
“Some of these songs I sang for many years before realizing they were penned by a wife/mother/female artist,” says Lou. “As a woman, it’s easy to feel like an outsider, or like you don’t belong, in a genre where there is a noticeable lack of representation of women among the forebears. To know that women’s voices made it into the traditional songs feels like a quiet win, and I want to draw more attention to it.” Just as Molly Tuttle and Sierra Hull are showing little girls that there is a place for them now in bluegrass, Lou wants to show us the places where women have always been.
The west coast is well-represented here, befitting a part of the country that has long been a supportive environment for female bluegrass artists. In California, women were fronting mixed-gender bands at a time when extremely talented female musicians were shut out of joining many eastern bands, particularly those with, say, “Mountain Boys” in the name.
The west coast connections on this album include Laurie Lewis, Alison Brown, AJ Lee, Sally Van Meter, Molly Tuttle, and Maddie Witler, and one song was written by the late Kate Wolf.
You’ll also hear great picking and singing from Gena Britt, Brittany Haas, Sierra Hull, Bronwyn, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan, along with Tatiana Hargreaves, Hasee Ciaccio, Courtney Hartman, Emma Rose, Phoebe Hunt, Jenni Lyn Gardner, Wila Frank, and Allison de Groot.
Ralph Stanley fans will enjoy All I Ever Loved Was You, penned by Dorothy Skaggs (Ricky’s mom), with nice twin fiddle work and a bit of a country feel, and I Only Exist (lyrics by Joyce Morris), an uptempo 3/4-time classic.
Ola Belle Reed’s two best-known songs are included, with lead vocals on I’ve Endured traded between Lindsay Lou, Sarah Jarosz, and Emma Rose. Jubilee, collected by Jean Ritchie (the project has a fairly loose interpretation of “written by women”), is a fun song, lesser-known but with some familiar verses. We also hear beloved songs by Hazel Dickens, Elizabeth Cotten, and Rosa Lee Watkins (wife of Doc).
Lou’s voice is on the low-pitched side, and she has a bit of contemporary country twang in her ornamentation—think more Dave Evans or Chris Stapleton than Bill Monroe’s falsetto or Del McCoury’s laser cannon. She is clearly in her element on CC Rider, first recorded by Ma Rainey, which reminds us that the blues has always been part of bluegrass.
Every song but one features a vocal trio that is sweet and pretty, with the harmony singers blending smoothly. It might have been interesting to hear one or two hard-edged duets, with the two voices pressing together in that tension that is sometimes found in bluegrass singing.
The musicians vary from track to track, but most are anchored by impressive bass work from Hasee Ciaccio. A North Carolina bassist who has played with Laurie Lewis, Sister Sadie, Alice Gerrard, and Jake Blount, Hasee’s work here is solid, inventive, and tasteful.
Now that every IBMA award except Resophonic Guitar Player of the Year has been won by a woman, we dare to imagine a future where one could record a whole album of songs that happen to be written by women without even remarking upon it. Lindsay Lou’s Bluegrass Women moves us one step closer to that day.
Note: If you enjoy this album, seek out the companion YouTube documentary series of the recording sessions.
