Solo: Women Singer-Songwriters in Their Own Words

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

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."

Genres: Music

384 pages, Paperback

First published August 10, 1998

Reviews

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I might not have been in the right frame of mind when I picked up this book. Perhaps because I had just finished the very dark "The Road"; who knows? I found myself scanning through some of these pieces...and I'm not much of a scanner.

The book was beautifully assembled, with black-and-white photos and essays by several women singer-songwriters such as Shawn Colvin, Sheryl Crow, Sarah Maclachlan, Jewel, Lucy Kaplansky, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Roseanne Cash, Suzanne Vega, etc.

The most valuable part of the book for me was to learn about some new singer-songwriters to discover. It was interesting to learn more about their background and how music has touched their lives. But I'm glad I got it out of the library.

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me forever to finish this book. As a writer, I found some of the writer processes intriguing. Needless to say, some entries were better than others. I liked the songwriters who dug deep into themselves to explain why they write, how they write and how life affects their art. Some of the others merely bashed everyone else. I think this would be an excellent book for writers of any genre, however.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great! Loved the singers stories about their lives. They were inspiring!

[Luigi · Rating 4 out of 5]

What writing songs means to some of the greatest women songwriters of all time in their own words.