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Tell me about your new CD, Woman Dangerous

I was looking for something that was going to take me out the scene that I was in. I was looking to take a step up and out. Things were getting really saturated. Everybody has their own label, everybody is touring and all the mid-size venues are closing. So what you have is 10-20 people in the same genre, with the same fan base touring all the time and not able to get past those 200-300 seat venues because the 500-700 seat venues have disappeared.

So what had happened is I hit my ceiling. I wasn?t making any money. Once Ani and Melissa Ferrick and Pamela Means and Alix Olson come through town, there?s no money left for anybody to go to one more show.
My business sense was acutely aware of this. So, I stepped back and said, I need to put out a CD that?s going to get me some radio play and get me some representation that I need. And get me up and out of this ghetto.

There? s a lot on the CD. The songs are all personal. There?s nothing political. Part of the whole taking the hiatus, was I was so much outside of myself. I had come out of a five year relationship. And just having that quiet time at night and not having to have my schedule be around someone else?s life. The dialogue I was having with myself was really intense.

When we do our activism, we?re constantly being told no. Watching Hurricane Katrina and watching other black folks be devalued, and watching women get their choice taken away. There?s a constant barrage on your psyche.

And I?m an artist, so I?m really sensitive. I was taking it in. And as tough as I try to be, it was really affecting the possibilities of my life and the potential of my life. Well, if I can?t get married and I can?t do this and I can?t do that, then what can I do?

I sat really still for a really long time, trying to hear my own voice and letting it build up and get stronger. That?s what Woman Dangerous was, that voice that I let get stronger without outside influence.

You have a quote in your bio about folk music and how you were drawn to the sensitivity and subtlety of it all. That just spoke to me because I think to a lot of people, folk music has a reputation of being depressing or boring. I want to hear you talk more about what folk music is to you.

People need to look at folk music the way they look at folk art, which is self-taught, mostly very organic form of art. When I first heard folk music, it was the Indigo Girls and Closer to Fine was on MTV. I was so struck by the simplicity of these two women on guitars and what they were talking about.

It got me interested in acoustic guitar. In the 80s it was a lot of synthesizers. So to hear something like that, was a flip in my consciousness. I wasn?t a musician at this time, I was just listening to music. When I started to play guitar, I just wanted to talk about who I was. To me that is the same as rap music. It?s the same quality of communication.

I maintained that genre and that identification, even as it got more complicated to do so. I kept saying to people, you?re thinking of folk as sounding a certain way and not doing a certain thing. I think music does more than it says. It?s a very powerful thing. I?ve seen music change people?s lives. I?ve seen music move people to tears. I?ve seen songs move people into action. My life completely made a left turn once I decided to become a musician.

What is the Black Eyed Susans?

I started that because Nina Simone passed in April 2003. I only saw her once and she?s one of my major heroes. Then Bernice Johnson Reagon was retiring from Sweet Honey in the Rock and I was like, oh my God, all these radical black women are leaving. And where is the next group? If a torch needs to be passed, it needs to be passed quickly.
I came up with the Black Eyed Susan idea. What I wanted to do was have women of color tributing other women of color. So I started making phone calls, like I do. I was touring with Staceyann Chin for a while. I called Pamela Means and Evelyn Harris from Sweet Honey and my friend Cheryl Coward. And said, ?Let?s do a tribute to Nina.? We?ll do the song Four Women. Women of color have very different voices as well.

I thought, this would be a good chance for people to see the different voices that black women have. It sold out. It was awesome. It was in Northampton. June (Jordan) has passed Audre (Lorde) has passed. All of my heroes are passing. Again it was the existence and survival thing that just kicks in. I had to step up and recognize these women. Then we did a tribute to Odetta. It was just me and Evelyn. I?m working on another one in Atlanta this winter.

I wake up every day and I can do exactly what I want. I really pounce on my inspiration when it happens because one day I may not have the inspiration or the where with all. The way the world is moving, I don?t think anybody has the luxury to sit back and not follow their passion.