Solo: Women Singer-Songwriters in Their Own Words [Paperback]

Marc Woodworth (Editor), Emma Dodge Hanson (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 10, 1998

This first-of-its-kind collection vibrates with the high-voltage energy of today's most exciting female singer-songwriters as they speak out, look inside, and reveal their lives.

Sarah McLachlan:
"When I sang and played I'd get completely lost in what I was doing.  During that time, I was no longer this stupid, useless little ten-year-old who didn't have any friends.  I was someplace else, where none of that could touch me."

Jewel:
"Fame exists in other people's minds.  I can't experience my own fame at all but I experience it in other people's eyes when I look at them and see that they're scared."

Shawn Colvin:
"Giving up addiction was the springboard into adult thinking.  I realized that everything was a choice.  The world was an open book.  Nothing was the same after that."

Sheryl Crow:
"I always pictured myself as a loner off living like a Jack Kerouac character or, worse, someone out of a Charles Bukowski book, one of those down-and-outers who works at a gas station and has no one and no family."

Lucinda Williams:
"I don't want to offend anyone, but I like to push people's buttons.  While I want to appeal to people in all walks of life, I also want to get a response, make them think."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The 19 musicians interviewed for this collection span a wide range of musical styles and socio-economic backgrounds, but there is a strong thread linking them, not only to each other but to anyone attempting to live a creative life. From Rosanne Cash, who has been performing for over two decades, to relative newcomers like Rosanne Raneri and Mary Lou Lord, these women have all thought long and hard about why they do what they do and how to remain true to themselves while navigating the world of popular music. Many of them have had doubts about their talents, fears of performing and problems with repression and addiction, yet at some point they decided to stake it all on their passion for music. For example, Cash and Sarah McLachlan describe the struggle to go beyond previous achievements and delve deeper into their own experiences for new material. Ani DiFranco and Cassandra Wilson talk about the strength required to break through sexual and racial stereotypes, while Jonatha Brooke and Lucinda Williams discuss their commitment to more literary lyrics, even when that has limited their commercial success. Other topics discussed include religion, society's expectations of women (obsessions with body weight and trying to be the good daughter come up frequently) and the need for solitude in order to write, even when that means feeling lonely and isolated. These women's candid views shed light on issues confronting artists of every sort and will encourage any one who has been discouraged along the way. 170 original b&w photos by Emma Dodge Hanson.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher

Jonatha Brooke * Kate Campbell * Mary-Chapin Carpenter * Rosanne Cash * Shawn Colvin * Sheryl Crow * Catie Curtis * Ani DiFranco * Dionne Farris * Jewel * Lucy Kaplansky * Mary Lou Lord * Sarah McLachlan * Joan Osborne * Holly Palmer * Rosanne Raneri * Suzanne Vega * Lucinda Williams * Cassandra Wilson

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Delta (August 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385324073
• ISBN-13: 978-0385324076
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 7.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #322,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SOLO:a book of wisdom from today's female singer-songwriters, February 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Solo: Women Singer-Songwriters in Their Own Words (Paperback)

SOLO: Women Singer-Songwriters In Their Own Words is just that: a compilation of 'collected wisdom' from some of today's female singer-songwriters. Each piece is accompanied by striking black and white photographs by Emma Dodge Hanson, and the essays themselves are written ina laid-back conversational style that makes it easy to curl up on the couch on a cold winter's day and read the book.

Editor Marc Woodworth has done a fine job of presenting these outstanding women as intelligent and wise -- or perhaps it could be said that they didn't need any help from Woodworth to come across that way? Woodworth has given each songwriter a clean slate to talk about themselves and their work, and ech artist shines. The end product is a compendium of "selected wisdom", if you will, that flows fluidly from the pages. To the reader, it feels as though one were listening to each artist chat about life, over a coffee at the local cafe. Gone are the cliched phrases and anecodtes that all too often mar books about artists in the music industry.

The remarkable thing that Woodworth has managed to accomplish is to present these women as human beings, not just as songwriters. While they talk about their craft a great deal, each comes across as being very experienced (or embattled!) in matters of the heart. Very often a given artist chats about her upbringing, how they got into music, and their various influences, topics that I found very interesting. Each artist is very honest about mistakes they have made, not only on a practical level but on a emotional one as well, information that I suspect would be difficult to glean from male singers!

Because the book reads like a "book of conversations", and not a "book of discussions about each artist's individual style", I found even the writings of artists I don't like to be very interesting. For example, I'm not a huge fan of Mary Chapin Carpenter, but she had some very intelligent things to say. Someone else who I don't recognize writes that "I realized it's okay to feel multiple ways about a certain thing," a concept that struck me as being very true and very human. The book is full of these little observations about life and human behaviour.

Overall, I was very impressed with the content of the book and the way in which it was assembled. The layout is very aesthetically pleasing and the photos are beautifully done. Thanks to Marc and Emma on a job well done.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solo, December 26, 1999

By 

Freddy Ciminelli (Atlanta) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Solo: Women Singer-Songwriters in Their Own Words (Paperback)

com) from Atlanta, Georgia November 14, 1998 Dear Emma and Marc, Solo is awesome, the images and narrative are both soulful and powerful. As a practicing artist I'm attracted to the imagery in your book. The photographs have a cinematic quality to them, in particular the series of photo's of Holly Palmer. When I look at the images in your book I feel spirit and emotion of the people represented through your imagery. Examples of what I'm referring to are images of Lucinda Williams (pg 290 and 300), Sheryl Crow (pg 273), Roseanne Cash (pg 246), Jewel (pg 224), Shawn Colvin (pg 39), and Sarah (pg 18)... I like the way the narrative and art work weave together like a quilt, your images make me feel good. More on Solo later... Peace, Love, and Understanding, Freddy Ciminelli

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you Emma and Mark, April 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Solo: Women Singer-Songwriters in Their Own Words (Paperback)

The night I bought this book I sat down and finished the whole thing. I bought this book because I was a huge fan of Sarah McLachlan and Shawn Colvin, Jewel and Cheryl Crow, but I learned so much more from the other singers too. Sarah's interview struck me as the most down to earth, but every interview was intriguing and I just couldn't put it down. Some of the artists I had never even listened to like Ani Difranco but then next day I borrowed a friends CD and I have to say thanks to this book my CD collection has gotten a lot larger! Thank you Emma and Mark! The only bad thing about this book is......it ended! (and Tori Amos wasn't in the book, but was mentioned by Sarah McLachlan! =)So that was fine by me!!!)