Women Guitarists

"Music came back to your ears And you danced and you danced For all of the years You’d forgotten how To live for the now"

"I saw you throw your hands in the air and say a prayer Your eyes closed, your nose breathing in the salty air There was nothing you could do to make me love you anymore"

"She looked out out to the horizon She didn't have much left to see Greed had taken the trees away Greed had taken the bees away ...She looked up to where there should've been stars"

"But don't leave that fiery heart behind Take it along for the ride And don't leave that fiery mind behind Take it along for the ride And...I'll have to say fair well so long"

"Oh society... You took it away from me When you brainwashed me with formulas of how I should be Shaped me and raped me of my individuality Schooled me and fooled me Told me what I could and could not see Took me and shook me Of my urges to be free"

"One night, I stumbled upon a sports almanac there. There was a two-paragraph article in it about Renée Richards, the professional tennis player who underwent a male-to-female sex change. This was the first time I'd ever heard of such a concept. I could hardly believe it was really possible. In the sanctuary of the attic, I read those two paragraphs over and over. I wanted this so badly, but didn't know how to make it happen. All those sleepless nights praying to God for this one miracle never got me a word back. After everyone was asleep, in a moment of pure desperation, I turned to Satan. [...] "I pledge my allegiance to the Dark Lord in exchange for..." I vowed to do whatever he wanted. I offered my soul, anything in trade. I begged for Satan to please, please let me wake up a woman. Not a girl, but a fully grown woman; instant emancipation so that I could run away and escape it all. I had a full, intricate plan worked out in my head. I would wake up that next morning before the rest of my family and disappear into the woods, never to be seen again. I wrote out the contract and sided it in my own blood, but of course I never woke up the woman I wished to be."

"When I grew bored, I would lock myself in the bathroom and by on my mother's dresses that were in the hamper. I'd stand there as long as I could, looking at myself in the mirror, wishing I was someone else, wishing I was her. Who was "her"? She was the person I imagined myself to be, in another dimension, in a past life, in some dream. I had never heard of gender dysphoria; the idea that your psychological and emotional gender identities do not match your assigned sex at birth. I didn't have a name for the way I felt. No information was available, and there was no adult that I could trust with my secret. I thought I was schizophrenic, or that my body was possessed by warring twin souls: one male, one female, both wanting control. I would look down at my body in a dress and blur my vision until it almost felt real. My eyes scanned upward, hoping to see her face, but I would only find an insecure teenage boy dressed in women's clothes. I'd do this until it was time to take the dress off and go through the motions of flushing the toilet and pretending to wash my hands before stepping back into reality."

"After church on Sundays, I would build forts with blankets and sheets, covering my bedroom from corner to corner. Underneath those bedding canopies I created a world of my own, my first experiences with privacy from my parents. To save space on storage, my mother kept her nylons in my bottom dresser drawer. I found them, and natural curiosity led me to try them on. I wondered what was so special about these shriveled brown socks that only my mom got to wear. In the dark secrecy of my forts, I lay on my back, stretched my legs up toward the sky, and slowly rolled the nylons down over my legs. I was almost hypnotized by the sensation of nylon on skin. This must be what it feels like to be a woman, I thought to myself. My father would walk by and see the sheets and blanket tent tops I had constructed over the furniture. "Tommy, what the hell are you doing in there?" he'd bark. "Nothing!" I'd call back, and I would roll the nylons off my legs and hide them as quick as I could. No one ever had to tell me that what I was doing in my fort was indecent behavior. I could just feel that it was wrong, as if I was born with the shame. I had already been caught playing Barbies with a neighbor girl. My father's reaction was a cold stare of disapproval and a new G.I. Joe. It was put to me bluntly that "little boys don't play with Barbie dolls like little girls do," and that was that."

"Like most kids who had their musical awakening in the 90s, I cut my teeth on Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." The utter simplicity of that song taught countless rock hopefuls like me how to form power chords and annoy their parents with them. Frontman Kurt Cobain singlehandedly calloused a whole generation of tiny fingers with those opening notes."

"My confusion over my interest in women's bodies and clothing followed me throughout elementary school. I'd see older women on the street and want to be as pretty as they were. At 8 years old, I caught an edited version of Rosemary's Baby playing on late night network TV. While most kids would shy away from the terror of the Roman Polanski film, I was drawn in by the beauty of Mia Farrow. Her hair was short and blond, chopped into a pixie cut, not dissimilar to my own. I knew what it felt like to have hair so short, so she made femininity real and attainable to me. I had no idea what kind of adult I'd grow up to be, but she gave me something to aspire to. Maybe, just maybe, I would look like her one day."

"Forgiving you, Well, she's stronger than I am. You don't look much like a man from where I'm at. It's plain to see desperation showed it's truth You love her, and she loves you with all she has I guess I should've been more like that."

"If you borrow dresses like you borrow time, If you dream all day and drink all night, If you're looking for love but willing to fight Over men and mama's and Miller Lites, Well then, we should be friends.I don't know you well but I know that look. And I can judge the cover 'cause I read the book On losing sleep and gaining weight, On pain and shame and crazy trains."

"Hey, whatever happened to waitin' your turn? Doing it all by hand?<br?Cause when everything is handed to you, It's only worth as much as the time put in. It all just seemed so good the way we had it, Back before everything became automatic."

"Hey, white liar The truth comes out a little at a time And it spreads just like a fire Slips off of your tongue like turpentine And I don't know why, white liar."

"Another vice, another town Where my past can't run me down. Another life, another call, Another bed I shouldn't crawl out of At 7 AM with shoes in my hand. Said I wouldn't do it, but I did it again. And I know I'll be gone tomorrow night. Mm, another vice."

"Hey there, Mr. Tin Man, You don't know how lucky you are. You shouldn't spend your whole life wishin' For something bound to fall apart. Every time you're feeling empty, Better thank your lucky stars. If you ever felt one breaking, You'd never want a heart."

"And if the house just keeps on winning, I got a wildcard up my sleeve. And if love keeps giving me lemons, I'll just mix 'em in my drink. And if the whole wide world stops singing And all the stars go dark, I'll keep a light on in my soul, Keep a bluebird in my heart."

"My reputation follows me around, Just makes me wanna give them more to talk about. Let’s go to town for a little while, I’ll be wearing nothin' but a tattoo and a smile.Ain’t no use in tryin' to slow me down, ‘Cause you’re runnin' with the fastest girl in town. Ain’t ya, baby? You're kinda crazy."

"'Cause I heard Jesus, he drank wine And I bet we'd get along just fine. He could calm a storm and heal the blind, And I bet he'd understand a heart like mine."

"'Cause it'll all come out, all come out in the wash. It'll all come out, all come out in the wash. Every little stain, every little heartbreak, No matter how messy it got. You take the sin and the men and you throw 'em all in And you put that sucker on spin."

"If I was a cowboy, I'd be wild and free, Rolling around these towns like tumbleweeds. I'd be a legend at loving and leaving, Nipping on a whiskey and numbing up my feelings. You thought the west was wild, but you ain't saddled up with me, If I was a cowboy, I'd be the queen."

"At the baggage claim, you got a lot of luggage in your name When you hit the ground, check the lost and found Cause it ain't my problem now I can't carry it on, I've got a lot of troubles on my own It's all over the yard, in the trunk of the car I'm packing' it in, so come and get it."

"I feel like this long string of lights, They lit up our whole house on Christmas day. But now it's January, and the bulbs have all burned out. But still, they hang, Like dead flowers."

"I'm a wild child and a homing pigeon, Caravan and an empty kitchen. Bare feet on the tile with my head up in the clouds One heart goin' both directions, One love and a couple of questions: Am I settlin' up or settlin' down? Am I settlin' up or settlin' down?"

"But you went away How dare you? I miss you. They say I’ll be OK. But I’m not going to ever get over you."

"So lets shake hands and reach across those party lines You got your friends just like I got mine. We might think a little differently, But we got a lot in common, you will see. We're just like you, only prettier."

"So you treat your love like a firefly, like it only gets to shine, for a little while Catch it in a mason jar with holes in the top and run like hell to show it off Oh, promises were made when we'd go walking That's just me and Charlie talking."

"Sweet like a kiss, sharp like a razor blade, I find you when I'm close to the bottom. You can't appreciate the time it takes To kick a love I always knew was kind of wrong. And as I'm putting out the flame, Somebody brings up your name."

"I'm going home, gonna load my shotgun, Wait by the door and light a cigarette. If he wants a fight, well, now he's got one. And he ain't seen me crazy yet. He slapped my face and he shook me like a rag doll Don't that sound like a real man? I'm gonna show him what little girls are made of: Gunpowder and lead."

"Forget your high society, I'm soakin' it in kerosene. Light 'em up and watch them burn, teach them what they need to learn; ha! Dirty hands ain't made for shakin', ain't a rule that ain't worth breakin'. Well, I'm givin' up on love 'cause love's given up on me."

"I guess if you don’t jump, you’ll never know if you can fly."

"And I'll grab the wheel and point it west, Pack the good and leave the rest. I'll drive until I find the missing piece. You said I wouldn't get too far on a tank of gas And an empty heart, But I have everything I'll ever need. I got this old guitar and a brand new set of strings."

"Every last one, route one, rural heart's got a story to tell Every grandma, in-law, ex-girlfriend Maybe knows you just a little too well Whether you're late for church or you're stuck in jail Hey, word's gonna get around Everybody dies famous in a small town."

"Work hard, be generous, publish your art and move on. You are the only one who can make shit happen."

"If you don’t have a drummer, you can still make a beat. The good news is, it won’t sound like anyone else’s beat, and most people won’t be able to tell if it’s Matt Chamberlain or just you frantically tapping a launchpad."

"We teach best what we most need to learn."

"Let's shake hands & reach across those party lines, you got ur friends just like I got mine, we might think a little differently but we got a lot n common u will see, we're just like you....ONLY PRETTIER!!"

"Sometimes you just need to have a good cry and write something that gets to the core of your most miserable and beautiful humanity."

"I write to get to the bottom of whatever I’m feeling. And I hope that my music will comfort the people who hear it, and maybe help them process whatever they need to."

"Being that vulnerable is so necessary; putting words to those feelings is difficult, and it take a while to write the songs because I want to get them right. It can be excruciating, but it’s worth it, it feels like you actually got to the bottom of something, and the hope is that people can easily relate to it."

"I don’t write to dwell on sorrow, I’m trying to process something to help other people."

"I knew [these songs] would benefit from making the recording process a very communal experience; it definitely opened them up into something bigger and less about me and my little world."

"It feels like a permanent topic, I’ll probably never stop writing about religion—but the way I write about it now is very different than I wrote about it five years ago."

"I was sitting on the couch and I was just like, “I’m tired of this.” And by “this” I mean: Being quiet when there’s something I want to say. So I just said it, I wanted my music off. I honestly thought I would say it and then have to go into a legal situation that was more quiet. But when people started responding, that’s when I wanted them to understand what I was really saying. Social media is certainly not a place for nuance, so I did my best to explain everything, how it all interacts and how it all feels. For me it wasn’t even about exposing Joe Rogan. It was about exposing what it’s like to be an artist of color in the business. Our biggest streaming platform is allowing this. Now it’s become a conversation of me against him — that was never my intention, and that’s not how I feel. We’ll see how many more times I can say Joe Rogan’s name; I’m getting a little tired of it. This is about the way Spotify treats artists. I’ve been saying that on my Instagram for a while. People listened to it this time because [Rogan] is involved, which has its own element of race, too."

"It’s really unfortunate. I feel like artists don’t realize that if we all really truly actually stood together, something could change. But we’re also all living day to day. People are just trying to make sure they’re ok. I get it. But it is a shame how much courage you have to muster to just tell the truth."

"I feel it is really different to be there at a show. It is such a great feeling and I hope that doesn’t die with the Internet as so many other things have. Go out, support those bands, have a beer, listen to some live music and don’t forget about it!"

"My daddy says that life comes at you fast, we are like blades of grass: We come to prime and in time we wither away."

"It was the first time I’d been introduced to so many people in one place. If anything it solidified my belief that this is what I want to do with my life."

"We will leave the empty chairs to those who say we can't sit there; we're fine all by ourselves."

"There's a wild thing that exists in all of us. It lives in our passions, in the people we love, in our subconscious thoughts, our beliefs. It's even made a home in the darkest parts of us, but we can't be scared of it, we have to become it."