Meg Christian | |
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 Christian performing in January 2013 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S. |
| Genres | Folk |
| Occupations |
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| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1969–present |
| Labels |
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Meg Christian (born 1946 in Lynchburg, Virginia) [1] is an American folk singer associated with the women's music movement.
Christian was born in Tennessee in 1946 and raised in Lynchburg, Virginia. She has spoken about being an only child, learning stringed instruments while spending a lot of time alone and later being influenced by Joan Baez, The Kingston Trio and Harry Belafonte to organize folk groups in the '60s. [2] [3] Christian graduated from the University of North Carolina with a double degree in English and music. [1]
She moved to Washington, D.C. in 1969, where she performed in bars covering easy listening material by artists such as Joni Mitchell and Burt Bacharach. Christian has said that her "entrance to sexual politics" began after witnessing the way David Frost during an interview, showed little respect for two women authors Ti Grace and Robin Morgan, [4] and she began writing material from an explicitly political and feminist perspective. [5] For a time in the 1970s, Christian, who is openly lesbian, [6] embraced women's separatism and sometimes played at women-only venues. [1] [5] She has acknowledged that the "feminist tag...makes women's music seem limited in appeal" but that the common denominator is that "we all make make music out of a consciousness of being a woman...some of us would rather play only to an audience of women...some want to play to the universe." [7]
Christian was one of the performers at the second Boston Women's Music Festival in 1977 and agreed with Holly Near, that the purpose of their music was to make women more aware of political issues. She explained how discovering the gay and women's movement in 1969 had resulted in her writing new material, noting "I couldn't believe what was coming out of my mouth...[and]...I started trying to find songs that said something to women." [8]
Christian, along with other feminist and lesbian activists founded Olivia Records in 1973. [5] The label began by releasing a single of Christian's version of the Gerry Goffin/Carole King song Lady, and the first LP was Christian's debut album, I Know You Know in 1974. [9] A reviewer said [that] "the album's core is found in its romantic woman-to-woman folk-pop ballads, such as Christian's own Valentine Song...[and]...the arrangements, generally keyed to Christian's classical or steel-string guitar, are very much in the singer/songwriter style of James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. [10] Christian's second album Face the Music (1977) was said in one review to reflect [the conflict] "between the value of the music-as-message and the music's value regardless of what it is about lyrically", [11] while in another, as being "worth the attention of anyone interested in women's music and an absolute must for Meg Christian fans. [12] Christian has said that the songs on her third album Turning it Over released in 1981, "had gone places that she had never imagined they would go musically and they are so beautiful that they made me cry." [13] The Washington Post noted of Turning it Over, that "every major performer in women's music (Cris Williamson, Mary Watkins, Teresa Trull, Margie Adam) appeared as a musician or backup singer...[and]...it was a sign of love and respect for Christian, who has been at the cultural heart of the women's movement for more than a decade." [4]
She ceased giving live performances in 1984, and began studying Siddha Yoga with Gurumayi Chidvilasananda. [14] The result of these explorations were the albums The Fire of My Love and Songs of Ecstasy. She changed her first name to Shambhavi during this time and lived in an ashram in New York. [1]
In 2002, Christian restarted her association with Olivia Records, and began performing again for label events; her first appearance since 1984 was on a cruise ship arranged by Olivia. [1] She also performed on two weeklong Caribbean cruises to celebrate Olivia's 40-year anniversary in 2013. [15]
Christian has said that working with Olivia Records assisted her as a recovering alcoholic. She noted that writing songs as a "woman-identified-woman" was not only consistent with her concept of feminism, but had also developed an awareness of how music enabled emotional changes to be made without compromising her art. Christian described the emotions and moods of women's music, as helping women "know all that we are" and it helped her to deal with her anger and "listen to my inner voice, to what I truly want for myself, beyond all the shoulds and oughts." [16] She later shared her experiences about time spent in the Alcoholism Centre for Women in Los Angeles and said that she had been validated by meeting other women dealing with same issue. [17]
Helen Maxine Reddy was an Australian-American singer, actress, television host, and activist. Born in Melbourne to a show business family, Reddy started her career as an entertainer at age four. She sang on radio and television and won a talent contest on the television program Bandstand in 1966; her prize was a ticket to New York City and a record audition, which was unsuccessful. After a short and unsuccessful singing career in New York, she eventually moved to Chicago, and subsequently, Los Angeles, where she made her debut singles "One Way Ticket" and "I Believe in Music" in 1968 and 1970, respectively. The B-side of the latter single, "I Don't Know How to Love Him", reached number eight on the pop chart of the Canadian magazine RPM. She was signed to Capitol Records a year later.
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades, ending with the feminist sex wars in the early 1980s and being replaced by third-wave feminism in the early 1990s. It occurred throughout the Western world and aimed to increase women's equality by building on the feminist gains of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf, first published in September 1929. The work is based on two lectures Woolf delivered in October 1928 at Newnham College and Girton College, women's colleges at the University of Cambridge.
Holly Near is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist.
Margie Adam is an American musician and composer.
Transfeminism, or trans feminism, is a branch of feminism focused on transgender women and informed by transgender studies. Transfeminism focuses on the effects of transmisogyny and patriarchy on trans women. It is related to the broader field of queer theory. The term was popularized by Emi Koyama in The Transfeminist Manifesto.
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.
June Elizabeth Millington is a Filipina-American guitarist, songwriter, producer, educator, and actress.
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 movement, chiefly in Western popular music, said to promote music "by women, for women, and about women". The genre emerged as a musical expression of the second-wave feminist movement as well as the labor, civil rights, and peace movements. The movement was started by lesbian performers such as Cris Williamson, Meg Christian and Margie Adam, African-American musicians including Linda Tillery, Mary Watkins, Gwen Avery and activists such as Bernice Johnson Reagon and her group Sweet Honey in the Rock, and peace activist Holly Near. Women's music also refers to the wider industry of women's music that goes beyond the performing artists to include studio musicians, producers, sound engineers, technicians, cover artists, distributors, promoters, and festival organizers who are also women.
Kay Gardner, also known as Cosmos Wonder-Child, was an American musician, composer, author, and Dianic priestess known for using music for creative and healing purposes. She was very active in promoting the work of contemporary female musicians and was a pioneering figure in women's music.
Olivia Records is a women's music record label founded in 1973 by lesbian members of the Washington D.C. area. It was founded by Ginny Berson, Meg Christian, Judy Dlugacz, Jennifer Woodul, Kate Winter and five other women. Olivia Records sold two million records and produced about 40 albums during its twenty years of operation.
Pat Parker was an American poet and activist. Both her poetry and her activism drew from her experiences as an African-American lesbian feminist. Her poetry spoke about her tough childhood growing up in poverty, dealing with sexual assault, and the murder of a sister. At eighteen, Parker was in an abusive relationship and had a miscarriage after being pushed down a flight of stairs. After two divorces she came out as lesbian "embracing her sexuality" and said she was liberated and "knew no limits when it came to expressing the innermost parts of herself".
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.
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.
Feminist views on transgender topics vary widely.
Ruth Dworin is a feminist, women's activist, sound engineer, music producer and concert organizer based in Toronto, Canada. She is the owner of music production company Womynly Way Productions, an important contributor to the women's music scene in Toronto during the 1980s.
Ginny Z. Berson is a radical lesbian feminist, political activist, and community organizer who lived and worked collectively as a lesbian separatist with The Furies Collective and Olivia Records.
Judy Dlugacz is an American entrepreneur. She was one of the founders of Olivia Records. Founded in 1973, it was the first woman-owned record company. She also founded her own travel company, Olivia Travel, in 1990 after not feeling comfortable on a cruise as an out lesbian. The Washington Blade described Olivia Travel as "the premier travel company for queer women".
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