Tasty Culture Snacks for Midlife Women

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Two things I told

Alicia Dara

, Womancake’s Editor-In-Chief, when I signed on to be the Music Editor: I don’t want to do ‌music or concert reviews, or artist interviews. That said, there was a perfect trifecta of ‌recent happenings that prompted this snack-portioned version of my column. In the spirit of this quarter’s theme, which is “The Little Things,” I have a little something to say about a new book, a brilliant concert, and a new record that all moved me in recent weeks. 

How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History spotlights a powerful collection of groundbreaking artists

National Public Radio (NPR) launched their first book in October 2024. How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History is a potent anthology of new and archival stories, interviews, photography and illustrations — all serving as a storybook history of American popular music created beyond rock-and-roll’s traditional male gaze. The book grew out of NPR’s Turning the Tables podcast and its mission to illuminate the work of artists from Odetta to Taylor Swift, all whose impact influenced the sound of popular music through the decades. At NPR West in Culver City on October 19th,  a panel of contributors and artists (see photo and caption) made lively conversation in their interview replies. Highlights included photographer Sherry Rayn Barnett recounted memorable photo shoots with Nina Simone; editor Alison Fensterstock spoke about the challenges of trying to compile a “best of” list of women’s records; and artist Raye Zaragoza recalled how a protest song about the Dakota Pipeline launched her into wider recognition and a sustainable music career.  

The book is available through the NPR online shop and also Bookshop.org.

Joni Mitchell at the Hollywood Bowl: Even half a show was worth it

When tickets were announced for the Joni Jam at the Hollywood Bowl here in Los Angeles, I was at once thrilled and despondent. Since her surprise appearance at 2022’s Newport Folk Festival, I had hoped I would someday get a chance to see Joni Mitchell perform in person, but the ticket prices, in the hundred$ of dollar$, made me weep. I had written off the weekend shows until a friend at the aforementioned book launch said, “Are you going to Joni tonight??” I took her advice to look for certified resale tickets online. Within a couple of hours, I had scored a pair in the nosebleed seats for under a hundred bucks. It was a StubHub miracle. Even so, my eleventh-hour purchase meant that we couldn’t get there until an hour after the 7PM start time. At 5PM, I texted my boyfriend, who was an hour away from his car on a hike: “GET BACK HERE ASAP WE ARE GOING TO JONI AT THE BOWL”. He would need to get home, shower quickly and eat dinner in the car. Regardless, we both knew that we had to race to see her. When your lifelong songwriting idol is still performing at almost 81 years old, you find a way.

As we ascended to the furthest tier of seats on the third set of escalators, we heard a choir of nearly 17,000 voices rise up, singing “Both Sides Now.” It echoed off the hillsides that frame the Bowl. As we raced to our seats, I could hear her voice in the open air: full, strong, velvety and passionate, much better than I had expected. The song ended and we heard Joni’s voice say, “Thank you so much for coming!” Oh no! Had we missed the entire thing? I asked a woman to my right. She laughed, “Don’t worry, there’s a whole second set.” 

When the second set started, the stage rotated around to reveal a makeshift musical parlor, which made sense once the bandleader, Brandi Carlile, told the story of the birth of the Joni Jam. After Ms. Mitchell’s 2015 aneurysm, musicians would gather at her house and sing songs to her in her living room. Eventually, said Carlile, Mitchell would start to pop in and sing a little here and there. After several years of this community home jam, the list of musicians grew into the community that surrounded her on stage. It felt like a painted tableau, with musicians like Alison Russell, Annie Lennox, Jon Batiste, Jacob Collier and the duo Lucius, all turned toward her like sunflowers. Rather than what can often happen when you get that many celebs onstage – a competition of bombast  – you could feel all her fellow artists encircling her with love, lifting her up, and feeding her joy. That deep joy in her music, and in the deftly improvised cover songs the group performed, radiated out from the stage and fed the audience in turn. I know I felt astonishment at how well her singing had recovered; her vocal lines were deliberate and precise, demonstrating that the complexity and masterfulness of her musical ear and rhythmic instincts remain intact and vibrant. While she is not able to play the guitar, she used her walking stick like a Fred-Astaire cane, brandishing it with percussive flourish while she danced in her gilded chair. She sat, an elder, surrounded by a new generation who are open to be fueled and inspired by her music. For that entire set, she would conclude each song with a delighted chuckle, and a beaming smile. That alone was worth the ticket; to see her delight at singing her own songs again.

After the show, I was aware of some of my peers making comments on the socials like, “She isn’t what she used to be.” PEOPLE. Do we really want to hold artists to looking, sounding, or performing the same as they did sixty years ago?? It’s a ridiculous standard. First of all, if ANY artist is still performing at as high a level as Joni Mitchell, perhaps we are better served by  looking to her for clues; how to show up for your art with all your wrinkles and Achilles heels, grey hair, silliness, and joie de vivre. This is the power of feminine gaze focused both inward and outward: to see like mothers, grandmas, aunties, daughters, sisters and besties who make us feel seen and honored at all stages of life; to mirror our childlike-ness and creativity back to each other in a self-perpetual loop of objectivity and care. 

Joni Mitchell singing "Hejira" at this October 19 performance

Julia Fordham’s new album is a portrait of an artist in full bloom

Julia Fordham’s new song collection, Earth Mate, had me either weeping or screaming “oh my GAWD” with relatedness. Ms. Fordham has been writing songs of bittersweet beauty since the late 1980’s and releasing albums to international acclaim on the regular. She has cured her voice into an astounding molasses-sweet, diamond-strong instrument, spanning multiple octaves with fullness and evenness perhaps even more than when she made her haunting debut hit “Happy Ever After” in her twenties. Fordham’s songwriting is strong in inviting metaphor, concise yet emotional potency, and storytelling deftness. The title track explores a relationship seldom described so explicitly in song: it is an expression of appreciation for an ex, with whom the singer is co-parenting. And a couple of songs not only do that songwriter thing where you “write the furniture” to place the listener amid physical imagery.  Fordham uses literal furniture as the emotional focus of human memory in “Chair on the Porch”, a meditation on grief and loss, and “My Old Table", a document of the vicissitudes of family. The rest of the songs are equally well-crafted and moving. Earth Mate is a masterclass in both songwriting and performance by an artist who continues to bloom with inspiration from everyday life, season after season. 

Links to Julia Fordham’s new album Earth Mate, for purchase or streaming, are on her website.

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