Reviews Holly Near: "Fire in the Rain"

By Jody Holman

Holly Near's latest album is an exciting blend of powerful, expressive vocals and full, rich instrumentation. The arrangements are often jazzy and sophisticated, and cover a wide variety of styles.

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The strength of the production is partially due to June Millington, formerly of the rock group Fanny and a frequent collaborator with Cris Williamson. Her guitar work and various arrangements are strong "and decisive.

Holly's songs are exciting because they raise different, issues while using diverse musical forms. In "Sit By Me," she reveals vulnerability. The lyrics relate the need for someone to sit up with her at night so she can fall apart for a while. She's afraid, anxious, and needs a friend to help her by listening. The torch song style is a good vehicle for this sort of content.

"Working Woman" sounds like it's right out of a Broadway musical. It relates the anger and boredom of having a boss who treats you as a "girl" while you do all his work, and then go home and do all your own. It is reminiscent of the film 9 to 5.

"Ain't Nowhere You Can Run," an anti-nuke song, and "Fire in the Rain" are very upbeat, commercial sounding songs. Both are very catchy and exciting.

A full band backs Holly on all songs except one. "Voices" consists only of vocals and harp accompaniment. I find this to be the most powerful song on the album. It's about listening to other people's voices (experiences) to learn more about truth, survival, loving, and living. A hauntingly beautiful song of strength and vision, "Voices" is an example of

Holly's use of music to tell a story and create an almost visual image.

"In the song "Foolish Notion," Holly presents a powerful political image without being musically heavy. The song is about the death penalty, but the music maintains a lightness that counteracts the dirge-like lyrics. The balance of music and lyrics helps reflect the absurdity of continuing to "kill people who are killing people".

Holly's love songs present insights into love relationships without being trite or boring. "Once or Twice," which is getting dirplay around the country, relates how one lover can tell whether or not she's being paid attention to by the look in her lover's eyes.

"Golden Thread" is a sensual, evocative song about the problem of being in a relationship and being attracted to another woman. Holly draws no conclusions on this issue.

The only problem I have with any of the material. on this album is with "I Got Trouble". It's a song about being laid off, broke, and angry. But the anger is presented in such a lively, cheerful way that it loses some of its impact. It's the kind of tune I'd sing about quitting a job I hated.

Please send in comments, criticisms, or the names of any records that you'd like to see reviewed in care of What She Wants.

More Music from Redwood

By Lisa Rainsong

Holly Near is a member of Redwood Records, a feminist woman-owned, woman-run company. The following albums are distributed by Redwood and are available locally from Coventry Books (see their ad in WSW). You can also write to Redwood at P.O. Box 996, Ukiah, California 95482.

Imagine My Surprise was Holly's first lesbianidentified album. Recorded with several well-known feminist musicians, the album includes "Something About the Women," "Fight Back," "Hay Una Mujer," and "Riverboat".

Two other albums by Holly Near, You Can Know All I Am and A Live Album, contain many fine, moving songs about women's lives. Hang In There,

Holly's first album, speaks of the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement,

Redwood Records also distributes albums by other artists:

B'lieve I'll Run On...See What The End's Gonna Be, by Sweet Honey In the Rock, is a collection of beautiful, powerful vocal music by four black women, accompanied only by percussion instruments. Their songs, primarily written by Bernice Reagon, speak about black women's experiences and visions.

Woody Simmons, by Woody Simmons, is the artist's second album of original songs. Most of these songs are arranged in a contemporary-pop style with two exceptions, an instrumental piece in the bluegrass/country style of her first album, and a very moving ballad called "Who'll Save the Animals?"

Local Women Add to Honor Quilt

By Becky Levin

The International Quilting Bee, initiated at the Houston exhibition of The Dinner Party, has continued in Cleveland. People from all over the world were invited to make Honor Quilts to pay tribute to a woman or women's group of their choice. These individual triangular quilts were then joined together to form one large quilt, a symbol of the way women's contributions transcend race, class, and national boundaries. The quilt is on display along with Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party at 3130 Mayfield Road, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, through August 16.

On July 8 an audience of 75 people, mostly women, gathered to see the new quilts made by local women and to hear their creators talk about the meaning of each quilt. Approximately 20 new quilts were added. One quilt, made by Women for Direct Action, featured Nancy Drew as a symbol of female inquisitiveness and self-assertion. The blue and orange quilt pictures Nancy Drew tracking down clues to an unsolved mystery.

A quilt which moved me tremendously, "Displaced Homemakers Rebuild," honors four Greater Cleveland support groups. The center green cable stitch is a representation of the time when a woman's life is completely intertwined with that of her children and her husband. The bargello stitch surrounding the center, done in red hot colors, represents the angry period when the husband has left the family, either through death, divorce or desertion, and the woman is forced to see her life disintegrate because she no longer fulfills the roles for which she had worked so hard. The outside border is done in a solid rust color showing that the woman has emerged from her angry period whole

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and solid, with her anger directed toward her continuing survival.

Documentation describing the woman/women being honored and the creator(s) accompanied each quilt. Gayle Crawford, a lesbian-feminist from

66 Judy Chicago's

Dinner Party

is a monument to womankind, a feast for the eyes and the intellect

John Perresul NY. Soho News

This monumental work of art celebrates the achievements and contributions of women to Western Civilization. FIRST MIDWEST SHOWING

May 10-Aug. 16, Cleveland

Hours: Noon to 10 pm/closed Tuesdays General admission $3.00...reduced rates

3130 Mayfield Road (216)371-2222

for seniors and for groups (over 20) Sponsored by Ohio-Chicago Art Project, Inc.

Shaker Heights, made a quilt to honor Mathilda Jocelyn Gage, a late 19th century feminist whose ideas had been forgotten for many years. Gayle writes, "The embroidered Labyris breaking through shows how impossible it is to wipe any woman out forever; Gage's name will be known".

The quilt is still unfinished. New pieces will be added in Chicago for the September 15 opening of the show. It will continue on to Montreal, London, and

possibly to Paris and Florence. If you would like to contribute to this celebration of our her-itage, call the Ohio-Chicago Art Project, 371-0985, for more information. The new pieces have recently been added to the quilt and I invite you all to enjoy the display. It is possible to view the Honor Quilt without paying an admission to see The Dinner Party. If you haven't seen the latter, do not delay! You may never see anything quite like it again.

Sexual Abuse Fought

Over 200 people rallied in Lynn, Massachusetts on June 24 to demand action against two General Electric plant managers who sexually abused a secretary there. After the demonstration, a cavalcade of cars, buses and motorcycles proceeded to the home of GE Lynn's Head of Relations Operation to present him with petitions bearing almost 1,000 signatures demanding the managers' firing. Instead, GE moved only to downgrade the managers one or two management levels and to place them in different buildings.

The incident in question occurred on National Secretaries Day, when the two bosses asked their secretary to lunch. In the course of the lunch and the return trip to work, the two abused the 21-year-old woman verbally, half-undressed her and assaulted her. The two also threatened her with firing if she reported the assault.

Despite this intimidation, the secretary and her union steward reported the incident to GE the following workday, but received no response. Angered by the attack and by company indifference, 150 machinists in the woman's building walked off

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