Tag: Singer-songwriter

In 2021, weblog posts were published about women songwriter-singers. Today, I would like to remember Dale Evans (1912-10-31 – 2001-02-07). She was a regular feature in my childhood as a television star of the Roy Rogers Show, which consisted of 100 episodes, originally shown from 1951 to 1957. Since, we only acquired a television in 1957, I must have watched these as re-runs. Set in and near a fictional Mineral City, Roy Rogers (1911 – 1998) appeared as a ranch owner, Dale Evans as the proprietress of the Eureka Café and Hotel. My personal favourite was Pat Brady (1914 – 1972), Roy’s sidekick and Dale’s cook. While there were animal stars such as Roy’s horse, Trigger, and dog, Bullet, as well as Dale’s horse, Buttermilk, it was Brady’s Jeep Nellybelle, that fascinated me most. The series included a mixture of 19th and 20th century technology.

Evans was born Frances Octavia Smith, but recorded as Lucille Wood Smith, in Uvalde, Texas. At the age of fourteen she eloped with her first husband, Thomas Frederick Fox in 1927, giving birth to a son, Tommy, at the age of fifteen in 1928 (?). It was a short lived marriage, ending in divorce in 1929. After this, she changed her name to Dale Evans. She then consecutively married and divorced two other husbands, in childless marriages: August Wayne Johns (married in 1929; divorced in 1935) and Robert Dale Butts (married in 1937; divorced in 1946).

Roy Rogers, who was born Leonard Franklin Slye in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was first known as one of the founders of the Western/ country singing group, Sons of the Pioneers, founded in 1933, and continuing to the present, but with an evolving membership. Rogers also performed in over 100 films. The initial Roy Rogers Show, was for radio from 1944 to 1955.

His first marriage to Lucile Ascolese in 1933 was childless, ending with divorce in 1936. In his second marriage to Grace Arline Wilkins in 1936, he and his wife adopted a daughter, Cheryl, followed by two children of their own, Linda Lou and Roy Rogers, Jr. later known as Dusty. Arline, died from complications after Dusty’s birth, in 1946.

Evans and Rogers married in 1947. They had one child together, Robin Elizabeth, born in 1949, who died in 1951 (?), of complications of Down syndrome shortly before her second birthday. Evans wrote a bestselling Angel Unaware (1953), that influences public perceptions of children with developmental disabilities. Angel Unaware is written from Robin’s perspective of life as she looks down from heaven. She speaks to God about the mission of love she just completed on earth. The reader sees how she brought her parents closer to God and encouraged them to help other children in need. This book initiated a change in the way Americans treated children with special needs. Evans served as a role model for many parents.

Later, Evans and Rogers adopted Mary Little Doe (Dodie), of Native American heritage: John David (Sandy), a battered child from an orphanage in Kentucky; Marion (Mimi), a foster child from Scotland; and Debbie, a Korean War orphan whose father was a G.I. of Puerto Rican ancestry. In addition to Robin, two other children died tragically: Debbie, in a church bus accident when she was twelve, and Sandy of an accidental death while serving with the military in Germany.

Both Evans and Rogers were very public Christians and members of the Republican party, as were many of their contemporaries.

As a songwriter, Evans authored about 200 songs. Her most popular was the Roy Rogers television show theme song, Happy Trails, released in 1952. It is based on another song with the same name, and the first three notes, written in 1951 by Foy Willing (1914 – 1978). Quicksilver Messenger Service released an album called Happy Trails (1969), on which the song appears.

I have fond memories of Dale Evans as she appeared on television, but I have no intention of watching any reruns. It was hard enough making it through a slow paced Happy Trails theme song!

Note: At one time there was a Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in Victorville, California. In 2003, it moved to Branson, Missouri. It closed in 2015.

One Comment: Christine Isobella Welch (1988-12-28 – ) is a Mandarin speaking, American singer-songwriter. She studied Chinese as a student at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, (near Chicago) graduating in 2010. She then travelled to Kaohsiung Taiwan as a Fulbright English teaching assistant for one year in 2011. She was then accepted into the National Taiwan Normal University Chinese Literature Masters Program where she wrote a thesis in Chinese on representations of Taiwanese aborigine women, especially shamanesses, in 17th century travel journals, both Chinese and European. At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, she continued her research on travel, gender, and Daoist tropes, especially how these combine at the mythos of the Immortal Isle of Penglai. One Million Possibilities = 一百萬個可能, was recorded in 2013, but became a sensation on the Chinese video platform Douyin in 2018.

One Quotation: “I’ve never written a song in English. I just feel like Chinese is a very poetic language.”

One Track: One Million Possibilities.

One conclusion: This is the last of a series of weblog posts about women musicians who wrote their own songs and/ or composed their own music. Previous musicians were: Joan Baez, Buffy Saint-Marie, Mari Boine, Anouk, Bebe Rexha, Pauline Oliveros, Aurora, Kate Bush, Pussy Riot, Dolores O’Riordan, Clarice Falcão and Zahara.

One confession: At the beginning there was an attempt to find one significant singer/ songwriter born in each of the twelve months, and one (or two) each in the decades of the twentieth century. In addition, there was an attempt to find people from different parts of the world. However, I soon noticed that the average age of the musicians did not match the living population. Thus, I reached out for assistance to find younger musicians. Bebe Rexha was suggested by a close relative who, at the time, was under 40! I did receive more suggestions than were used. The only exception to including people by birthdate was Pussy Riot. It was plotted in where there was a vacant space.

Other music related weblog posts. In 2021: The Charm of Soft Synths; Shaped by Music with First Aid Kit, and many other groups some of which I am trying to forget existed; Andrei Cerbu’s Garage; Music for the People; Delia Derbyshire (1937 – 2001) and Cover.

Here are some people who were considered, but not included:

Abida Parveen (1954-02-20 – ) is a Pakistani singer, composer and musician of Sufi music, as well as a painter. I discovered that she was a little too entrepreneurial for my tastes, and – apparently – actively removes YouTube videos, so there was a constant need to update links.

Jane Siberry neé Stewart, born in Toronto, Canada (1955-10-12) is perhaps the person I regret the most about not including. She is a singer-songwriter, known for Mimi on the Beach, I Muse Aloud, and Calling All Angels. She is perhaps best remembered for performing the theme song of the Canadian comedy television series Maniac Mansion, although it was written by Lou Natale (1950-01-05 – ). Her quotation would have been: “I started out in music, but switched to sciences when I realised how much more interesting it was to study than music. I would leave the classes ecstatic about tiny things.” Here, One More Colour is sung in two versions, one by herself, for people who like cows, and one by Sarah Polley (1979-01-08 – ) in Armenian-Canadian Atom Egoyan’s (Born in Cairo, Egypt 1960-07-19 – ), 1997 film adaptation of Russell Banks’ 1991 novel, The Sweet Hereafter. The book is set in upstate New York, but based on a real 1989-09-21 Alton, Texas bus accident. Much of the film was shot in Merritt and Spences Bridge in British Columbia, but the story is also a metaphor for the Armenian Genocide, where the guilty fail to accept responsibility for their actions.

Kari Bremnes (1956-12-05 – ) is a Norwegian singer and songwriter. She earned an MA in language, literature, history and theatre studies from the University of Oslo, worked as a journalist for several years before working as a musician full-time. In 1987 she received the Spellemannprisen = Norwegian Musician award, for the recording Mitt ville hjerte = My Wild Heart, and in 1991 for the recording Spor = Traces. In 2001, she and her two brothers, Lars Bremnes and Ola Bremnes, received the prize for the recording Soløye = Eye of the Sun.

Siouxsie Sioux, born Susan Janet Ballion in London, England (1957-05-27 – ) is a singer, songwriter, musician and record producer, best known as the lead singer of Siouxsie and the Banshees (1976–1996). In an interview with Paul Morley she stated, “Damaged lives, damaged souls, damaged relationships. Most of the damage I sing about first happened when I was younger and I am still feeding off it and working it out. Early experiences are what create a lifetime of damage. The songs you write can help you fix the damage.”

Björk Guðmundsdóttir, born in Reykjavik, Iceland (1965-11-21 – ), is a singer, songwriter, composer, record producer and actress, with an eclectic musical style, incorporating classical, electronic dance music, contemporary popular, jazz, experimental, trip hop (an unrecognizable fusion of hip hop and electronica), plus an assortment of other genres that could be categorized as alternative or perhaps even avant-garde.

Lizzo (1988-04-27 – ) born Melissa Viviane Jefferson, in Detroit, Michigan, before moving to Houston, Texas, before moving to Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is a singer, rapper, songwriter and flutist. Early in her career she released two studio albums: Lizzobangers (2013) and Big Grrrl Small World (2015). Her inclusion was suggested by my daughter, Shelagh, along with the track Skin (2015).

In 2022, expect a post about assorted women electronic musicians, Donna Summer, Dale Evans, and other posts about six different synthesizers (so far), another about autotune and even one about a guitar!

Bulelwa Mkutukana, stage name Zahara = blooming flower. Born in East London, South Africa (1987-11-09 – ).

One Track: Loliwe The name refers to the train that brought workers back home after many years of working in Johannesburg, where they often had other families.

One Quotation: In an interview, Zahara described this first album as a metaphor. “It’s like … just pick yourself up. No matter who’s your father or who’s your mother … I believe that you’re not a mistake.”

One Comment: Zahara is a South African singer-songwriter and poet who sings in Xhosa and English. She started to sing at the age of six. Zahara released her debut album Loliwe in 2011 which sold over 100 000 copies in South Africa. Her debut single, Loliwe, featured here, currently has had over 1.8 million views on YouTube.

One Comment: Clarice Falcão (1989-10-23 – ) is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, and actress from Recife.

One Film: In 2007, Clarice won a contest with this short called Laços (Ties), directed by Célio Porto, the boy in the film, and Adriana Falcão (1960 – ), her mother, and presented at the Sundance Film Festival. Her song, Australia, is an integral part of the story.

One Quotation, from Australia:

I’m stuck here in the darkness
Blinded by all the light
Standing outside my body with my body still in sight

One Explanation for this entry: Wikipedia explains that Recife has a dark history, as the first slave port in the Americas. It was founded in 1537, during the early Portuguese colonization of Brazil. Located at the confluence of the Beberibe and Capibaribe rivers before they flow into the South Atlantic Ocean, the city is a major port on the Atlantic. Its name is an allusion to the stone reefs that are present by the city’s shores. The many rivers, small islands and over 50 bridges found in Recife city centre characterise its geography and led to the city being called the Brazilian Venice. It has a relatively high ranking in terms of Brazilian human development index (HDI), ranking highest in Northeast Brazil.

However, Racife also contained the former capital, Mauritsstad, of the 17th century colony of New Holland established by the Dutch West India Company. That fact makes it interesting for me, as the city is part of my biological heritage, and the birthplace of Maria Post in 1649, one of my ancestors. Her parents were from Haarlem, in the Netherlands. After Recife, the family moved to New Amsterdam, residing on Staten Island and then Bergen, New Jersey. Maria herself moved to Schenectady, in upstate New York, where my Norwegian ancestors (the Bratts) had moved, after emigrating from Fredrikstad to Amsterdam and onwards to New Amsterdam.

(1971-09-06 – 2018-01-15)

One Track: The Cranberries, Zombie (1994). Video directed by Samuel Bayer.

A Second Track: Bad Wolves, Zombie (2018). O’Riodan was in London to record this version of Zombie with the Bad Wolves, when she died.

One Quotation: “When I was about 14, I got a tacky keyboard for 250 pounds and put on a drum machine and found I could write a song.”

One Comment: On 1993-03-20, in Warrington, Cheshire, England, terrorists had planted bombs in cast iron dustbins/ garbage cans/ trash cans. They phoned the police with a coded warning that there was a bomb, but they didn’t say which town.  When one bomb exploded 25 minutes later, panicked crowds ran directly into the path of the second explosion. Three year old Johnathan Ball died at the scene, while 12-year-old Tim Parry was seriously injured, and died five days later. Fifty-four other people suffered injuries. Zombie was a direct response from O’Riordan and the Cranberries to the horror of Warrington and all the other atrocities that had taken place. It pleads: “Another mother’s breaking / Heart is taking over / When the violence causes silence / We must be mistaken.”

(1958-07-30 – )

One Track: Wuthering Heights, Version 2 (1978)

One Quotation: “We let the weirdness in.” (Song: Leave It Open, Album: The Dreaming, 1982)

One Comment: Bush’s musical style is eclectic and experimental, her literary themes and lyrics are unconventional yet have mass appeal. Her weirdness is influential.

Aurora Aksnes (1996-06-15 – )

One Track: Running with the Wolves (2015).

One Quotation: “I don’t think I was born to be an entertainer, I used to really be afraid of playing live on-stage. Obviously it’s terrifying! But now I look forward to it every time. I’ve learned not focus on myself, cause it’s not about me. Now I only think about giving everyone the best experience. A magic moment.”

One Comment: Aurora was chosen as a singer-songwriter in an attempt to focus on women musicians, composers and songwriters under age fifty. On the date of publication, she has finally reached twenty-five years old. Running with Wolves was released in 2015, when she was eighteen. Wikipedia describes Aurora as having an eclectic musical style that is a composite of eight genres: art pop, Nordic-folk, synth-pop, electropop, electro-folk, indie pop, dark pop and avant-garde pop. I appreciate the fact that she in-sources costumes and makeup to her sisters.

One Track: Sacrifice.

One Quotation: “The whole album is based off of actual insecurity. My mental health, self-love, me sabotaging everything in my life, am I good enough for this relationship? […] It was really just taking the real-life stuff that I’m going through, which is really important for me to write about. There’s still guitar, but there’s a lot of hip-hop in it, but it’s still pop. And there are some really pop records. It’s not really dance music, but you can bop to it. But when you listen to it, it’s really a body of work. And we worked really hard sonically to make sure that everything leads into one another, and it sounds like body of work instead of just having a playlist.”

Comments:

This is not the regular, monthly tidbit about a woman composer/ songwriter/ musician, but an extra. The Bebe Rexha (1989- ) track/ video may not appeal to everyone, as musical tastes are highly individual. I have only known about Bebe since 2021-04-16 at 06:00, when I opened a link to the video track, sent to me by a young reader (under 40). He was probably too polite to say it, but I suspect that he was reacting to the fact, that the average age of the people in this series so far is over 70 years, giving an mean birth year of 1951.

The track was released as a single on 2021-03-05, with the video being released a day later. The album in the quotation refers to Better Mistakes, which will be released 2021-05-07, the date of publication for this weblog post. This is undoubtedly the first time in my life that I am ahead of the release curve. More recently, I have been up to twenty or more years behind.

Bebe is from Blete = Bletë (in Albanian) meaning bee. She was born in New York, but is of Albanian heritage.

One Track: Nobody’s Wife (1997)

One Quotation: “These days adoption is a hot thing / You can get a child for nearly nothing / You take them home to a nanny / Buy off you’re guilt with toys and candy”

One Comment: Anouk Teeuwe was born 1975-04-08 in The Hague, Netherlands. Nobody’s Wife was written by Anouk, Satindra Kalpoe and Bart van Veen. The song was especially popular in the Netherlands and the Nordic countries, but was less successful elsewhere. It reached a peak position of #1 in Iceland, #2 in the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, #5 in Flanders, #6 in Denmark, #9 in Finland. With respect to the track as well as the quotation, Anouk has been married (2004) and divorced (2008) once, and given birth to six children, between 2002 and 2016.