Margie Adam

Last updated
Margie Adam
Born1947 (age 7677)
Occupations
  • Musician
  • composer
Website www.margieadam.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Signature
Margie Adam signature.svg

Margie Adam (born 1947) is an American musician and composer.

Contents

Early life and education

Margie Adam was born in 1947 in Lompoc, California. [1] [2] Her father was a newspaper publisher who composed music on the side, and her mother was a classical pianist. [3] Adam began playing the piano as a child. [2] Adam graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1971. [4]

In 1973, while attending the Sacramento Women's Music Festival, she performed during the open mic session and began her career as a professional musician. [2] The following year, the first National Women's Music Festival was held in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Adam co-headlined the festival, alongside Meg Christian and Cris Williamson. That conference is credited as helping to form the Women's music movement, with Adam at the forefront. [4]

Music career

Her first album, Margie Adam, was promoted with a 50-city tour which concluded with a performance of her song, "We Shall Go Forth" at the National Women's Conference in Houston. The song quickly became an anthem for the lesbian feminist movement and is now part of the Political History archives in the Smithsonian Museum. [2] [5] In 1978, became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP). [6] WIFP is an American nonprofit publishing organization. The organization works to increase communication between women and connect the public with forms of women-based media. Adam During the early 1980s, Adam performed at various concerts and fundraisers for feminist candidates and causes, [7] including representatives for the Equal Rights Amendment, for whom she traveled on a 20-city tour. [4]

Adam composed "Best Friend (The Unicorn Song)", which was later covered by Peter, Paul and Mary. [7] A Cantonese version of the song was also released by Hong Kong singer George Lam in 1984. [8] From 1975 to 1984, Adam worked with manager and music producer Barbara Price, promoting women's music and releasing her own albums on Pleiades Records. Adam challenged conventional management practices by having all-women crews during her performances and tours. [4] After being on a "radical sabbatical," [4] since 1984, Adam returned to writing music in 1991 [4] and went on a national tour in 1992 to support her new album, Another Place. [7] In 1996 she embarked on the Three of Hearts tour with fellow pianists Liz Story and Barbara Higbie. In 1998, she conducted a tour to raise awareness of the service feminist bookstores made to the women's community. [2]

Margie Adam continues to compose and perform at various venues across the U.S. and Canada. More recent work includes The Best of Margie Adam (1990), Avalon (2001), and Portal 2005. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holly Near</span> American singer-songwriter, activist and actress (born 1949)

Holly Near is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist.

Ferron Foisy is a Canadian singer-songwriter and poet. In addition to gaining fame as one of Canada's most respected songwriters, Ferron, who is openly lesbian, became one of the earliest and most influential lyrical songwriters of the women's music circuit, and an important influence on later musicians such as Ani DiFranco, Mary Gauthier and the Indigo Girls. From the mid-eighties on, Ferron's songwriting talents have been recognized and appreciated by music critics and broader audiences, with comparisons being made to the writing talents of Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sippie Wallace</span> American blues singer-songwriter (1898–1986)

Sippie Wallace was an American blues singer, pianist and songwriter. Her early career in tent shows gained her the billing "The Texas Nightingale". Between 1923 and 1927, she recorded over 40 songs for Okeh Records, many written by her or her brothers, George and Hersal Thomas. Her accompanists included Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, and Clarence Williams. Among the top female blues vocalists of her era, Wallace ranked with Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, and Bessie Smith.

Alix Cecil Dobkin was an American folk singer-songwriter, memoirist, and lesbian feminist activist. In 1979, she was the first American lesbian feminist musician to do a European concert tour.

Feminist separatism is the theory that feminist opposition to patriarchy can be achieved through women's separation from men. Much of the theorizing is based in lesbian feminism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Hammer</span> American filmmaker

Barbara Jean Hammer was an American feminist film director, producer, writer, and cinematographer. She is known for being one of the pioneers of the lesbian film genre, and her career spanned over 50 years. Hammer is known for having created experimental films dealing with women's issues such as gender roles, lesbian relationships, coping with aging, and family life. She resided in New York City and Kerhonkson, New York, and taught each summer at the European Graduate School.

Linda Shear is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and piano player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cris Williamson</span> American musician and activist (born 1947)

Cris Williamson is an American feminist singer-songwriter and recording artist. She was a visible lesbian political activist during an era when few who were unconnected to the lesbian community were aware of gay and lesbian issues. Williamson's music and insight have served as a catalyst for change in the creation of women-owned record companies in the 1970s. Using her musical talents, networking with other artists working in women's music, and her willingness to represent those who did not yet feel safe in speaking for themselves, Williamson is credited by many in the LGBT community for her contributions, both artistically, and politically, and continues to be a role model for a younger generation hoping to address concerns and obtain recognition for achievements specific to people who have historically been ignored.

Women's music is a type of music base on the ideas of feminist separatism and lesbian-separatism, designed to inspire feminist consciousness, chiefly in Western popular music, to promote music "by women, for women, and about women".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AMASONG</span> Amateur choir in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois

AMASONG is a lesbian/feminist amateur choir based in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. The group was created by Kristina Boerger in 1990. The group consists of about sixty women who perform female-oriented, folkloric, and classical music.

Olivia Records is a record label founded in 1973 in Washington D.C. which centers female musicians. Its founders included prominent lesbian figures Ginny Berson, Meg Christian, Judy Dlugacz, Jennifer Woodul, Kate Winter and five others. Olivia Records sold two million records and produced about 40 albums during its twenty years of operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meg Christian</span> American folk musician (born 1946)

Meg Christian is an American folk singer associated with the women's music movement.

Joan E. Biren or JEB is an American feminist photographer and film-maker, who dramatizes the lives of LGBT people in contexts that range from healthcare and hurricane relief to womyn’s music and anti-racism. For portraits, she encourages sitters to act as her “muse”, rather than her “subject”. Biren was a member of The Furies Collective, a short-lived but influential lesbian commune.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teresa Trull</span> American singer-songwriter and musician

Teresa Trull is an American female singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer from Durham, North Carolina. She is recognized as a pioneer in Women's music, with her debut album The Ways a Woman Can Be released on Olivia Records in 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Tillery</span> American singer and percussionist

Linda "Tui" Tillery is an American singer, percussionist, producer, songwriter, and music arranger. She began her professional singing career at age 19 with the Bay Area rock band The Loading Zone. She is recognized as a pioneer in women's music, with her second solo album titled Linda Tillery released on Olivia Records in 1977. In addition to performing, she was the producer on three of Olivia's first eight albums. Within the women's music genre, she has collaborated with June Millington, Deidre McCalla, Barbara Higbie, Holly Near, Margie Adam, and others. Tillery was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1997 for Best Musical Album for Children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maxine Feldman</span> American folk musician and singer-songwriter

Maxine "Max" Adele Feldman was an American folk singer-songwriter, comedian and pioneer of women's music. Feldman's song "Angry Atthis," first performed in May 1969 and first recorded in 1972, is considered the first openly distributed out lesbian song of what would become the women's music movement. Feldman identified as a "big loud Jewish butch lesbian."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in music</span>

Women in music perform a variety of roles and make a wide range of contributions. Women shape music movements, events, and genres as composers, songwriters, instrumental performers, singers, conductors, and music educators. Women's music has been created by and for women in part to explore ideas of women's rights and feminism. The impact of women in music influences concepts of creativity, activism, and culture.

Beth Elliott is an American trans lesbian folk singer, activist, and writer. In the early 1970s, Elliot was involved with the Daughters of Bilitis and the West Coast Lesbian Conference in California. She became the centre of a controversy when a minority of attendees in the 1973 Conference, including a keynote speaker, called for her removal because of her trans status.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press</span> American nonprofit publishing organization

Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP) is an American nonprofit publishing organization that was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1972. The organization works to increase media democracy and strengthen independent media.

<i>Radical Harmonies</i> 2002 American documentary film

Radical Harmonies is a 2002 American independent documentary film directed and executive produced by Dee Mosbacher that presents a history of women's music, which has been defined as music by women, for women, and about women. The film was screened primarily at LGBTQ film festivals in 2003 and 2004.

References

  1. 1 2 "Margie Adam, conference performer". The Power of Women's Voices Conference. Northampton, MA: Smith College. 2007. Archived from the original on 9 February 2010. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Margie Adam". WomenArts Artist Profiles. San Francisco, CA: WomenArts. 2009. Archived from the original on 20 June 2010. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
  3. "California singer combines music and opinion". Anchorage Daily News. Anchorage: The McClatchy Company. September 8, 1983. Archived from the original on 9 March 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Barbara J. Love (2006). Feminists who changed America, 1963-1975 . University of Illinois Press. p.  5. ISBN   978-0-252-03189-2 . Retrieved 7 January 2012.
  5. Lillian Faderman, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America, Penguin Books Ltd, 1991, page 222. ISBN   0-231-07488-3
  6. "Associates | The Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press". www.wifp.org. Retrieved 2017-06-21.
  7. 1 2 3 Baker, Greg (June 8, 1994). "Come Together". Miami New Times. Miami Florida: Village Voice Media. Archived from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
  8. Adam, Margie (12 October 2021). "Two Strangers & A Unicorn". MargieAdam.com. Retrieved 2022-11-22.