Date: Fri 01-Aug-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Lilith-McLaughlan-Meadows

Full Text:

(rev Lilith Fair, 8/1/97)

Concert Review: Girls Just Want To Have Fun, Too

BY SHANNON HICKS

HARTFORD - Festivals have been around for decades, either as one-day events or

events of multiple days. Within the last ten years or so, touring music

festivals (Lollapalooza, Monsters of Rock, The HORDE Tour, etc) have hit the

road each summer, with a common musical genre usually pulling the festivals

into shape.

The latest festival to come down the pike, The Lilith Fair, is the brainchild

of singer Sarah McLaughlan. The festival is a celebration of women in music.

Female musicians is not a new concept, but what is new is the recent surge of

women appearing on the charts - alt-rock, soul, jazz, country, whatever - at

the same time. This is the first time so many female names have been seen on

the charts since the heyday of Motown in the late 1960s.

McLaughlan, 29, has put together a rotating playlist of 61 female

singer-songwriters. She tried out the concept, with fewer performers but much

success, on a four-date tour last year. In putting together this summer's

tour, performers were given the freedom to pick and choose which dates they

would perform on; McLaughlan is the only one performing each of the tour's

dates. The tour includes Meredith Brooks, Tracy Bonham, Sheryl Crow, Joan

Osborne, Jewel and Lisa Loeb among its mainstage performers.

The fair stopped at The Meadows Music Theatre in Hartford on July 24, about

midway through its itinerary. In Hartford, the performers included McLaughlan,

Tracy Chapman, Paula Cole, The Cardigans and Fiona Apple on its main stage.

(Unfortunately, due to a death in the immediate family of a band member, The

Cardigans did not perform in Hartford.) On two smaller stages, Julianna

Hatfield, Alisha's Attic, Vanessa Williams and Autour de Lucie also performed.

While the emphasis of the fair is on the female as a performer, many of the

solo artists are accompanied by backing bands with male musicians. Chapman,

Cole, Hatfield, and even McLaughlan herself are all solo performers with men

in their band. At a press conference prior to the Hartford show's start,

McLaughlan said she not only wants to continue the Lilith as an annual event,

but envisions future tours including men.

"I want to be as diverse, if not more so, next year," the singer said.

Appearing very happy, McLaughlan showed no signs of stress or fatigue, and was

very enthusiastic about the tour's success. McLaughlan had good reason to be

happy, beyond Lilith's turnout: Last week her latest release, the album

Surfacing , debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart.

"I'm getting a lot of positive feedback," she said of Lilith. What angers her,

she continued, were stories like a recent Time magazine cover story that

tended to sensationalize both Lilith and the idea of women moving into the

mainstream.

"These stories make it so competitive, it's no wonder men shy away from it,"

she said. "[Lilith] is just about tipping the scales, making the balance more

even."

With the main idea of Lilith to celebrate women, McLaughlan also decided to

turn some of the fair's financial gains into good use. One dollar of every

ticket sold will be donated to female-oriented charities. The largest

beneficiaries from Lilith will be LifeBeat, a non-profit AIDS resource and

awareness organization organized by the music industry, and RAINN, the Rape

Abuse & Incest National Network, a national hotline for survivors of sexual

assault.

In Connecticut, McLaughlan and the Lilith Fair chose to donate funds to the

Prudence Crandall Center For Women, a New Britain-based emergency shelter for

women and children. A self-help organization, the Crandall Center also offers

a 24-hour crisis hotline, information and referrals, counseling and training.

During her press conference, McLaughlan presented executive director Linda

Blozie with a check for $10,900.

"This is a tremendous help," Ms Blozie said. "It is an honor that we never

expected."

In two months (July 5-August 24), the tour will travel across the US and

Canada, concluding near McLaughlan's home, in Vancouver. The 30,000-seat

Thunderbird Stadium has not yet sold all its tickets for the final Lilith Fair

show, but considering it is McLaughlan's backyard, and combined with the fact

the first straight week of the tour was a straight sold-out success (and shows

have continued to play to capacity and near-capacity crowds since then), a

full stadium when the ladies pull into Vancouver next month is all but a given

by now. The New York Times declared this week the tour has become the most

successful package tour of the summer.

Taking its name from the Hebrew legend of Lilith, Adam's first wife, the

traveling fair has been presenting its female singer-songwriters to audiences

of all ages and backgrounds. The fair was never meant as a man-bashing event,

nor is Lilith meant to entice lesbians as its core audience. Lilith simply

celebrates the gender with fewer lead vocalists, guitarists, mainstream

performers to its credit.

Lilith's replay to Adam, after the two began to quarrel in Eden and he

announced it was her duty to obey him, was, "We are both equal... and I will

not be submissive to you."

Today's female musicians, like females in any profession, are only looking for

equal air time.

"I would like to think Lilith is a huge step in the right direction,"

McLaughlan said during Thursday's press conference. "I can't wait for the day

we're simply called musicians."