Women Guitarists

"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."

"You belong here."

"I think if you're meant to do something, no matter what, you'll always get there and I think you'll find your path, no matter what."

"[A] paper sailboat: They seem so frail, but when you put them on water they float. It's a reminder that even though I'm small and seem weak, I'm not."

"I didn't think that working hard and wanting something that's out of your control would be that bothersome to people. It was just really disappointing for me."

"Success is when you see something, and you say, 'I want to do that,' and then you do it. It's being happy with what you do and doing what you love every day."

"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."

"I think music is like my only talent, unfortunately. I just utilized it as much as possible."

"I was writing my own songs and when I was younger, all I wanted to do was perform, so when I said ‘this is what I want to do’, mum and dad were very sceptical. But they were really supportive and I think I’m lucky to have grown up around people who are as passionate about music as I am. And they understand and support me, which is… well I’m really lucky."

"Do you eat sleep do you breathe me anymore? Do you sleep do you count sheep anymore? Do you sleep anymore?"

"So I, I turn the radio on, I turn the radio up And this woman was singin' my song Lovers in love and the others run away Lover is crying 'cause the other won't stay"

"And you say "Stay" You say I only hear what I want to"

"It turned into a creature with a life of its own.There was nothing we were doing to make it happen. We couldn’t recreate it because we never really understood how it happened. People decided they were all going to play it, and you feel like it’s disconnected from you. All we could do was stand back and take the congratulations that came."

"“Never fancied him anyway,” I’d write when a boy dumped me. I’d leave out things that had gone wrong, or been difficult. I think it was partly an exercise in defiance, a refusal to be defeated by life’s adversities. So in that sense, my diary was a bit of a self-help manual, written by me, for me."

"I feel very lucky to still feel like I’m full of ideas. I think sometimes being in the beginning or the middle of things is almost the best bit. This sounds terrible, because it sounds so ungrateful, but I’m never as excited by the aftermath of things: whether or not they are successful. It’s lovely if they are, obviously, but actually the really exciting bit is when it’s an idea in your head and you’re getting working on it."

"So often the story of rock’n’roll is told from a male perspective. So often it feels like men own music. And I still get as angry and frustrated about that as I ever did. Reading those women’s accounts of their lives has reminded me how much they paved the way back then. And history too often erases the women, in all art forms. Every single published story of a female artist goes a small way towards redressing the balance, and is another one saved from the fire.I didn’t try to be a soul singer, a jazz singer, a blues singer – no category…My music is my expression of what I feel and believe in a moment."

"Real sexiness is about confidence, intelligence, mystery, art and passion."

"There is no nurturing of talent [in the music industry]. No one wants artists to grow and develop. Everyone is afraid of being fired and they didn't move with the digital age. The music industry had the power to move with the digital age, but they didn't do it and it was the biggest mistake they ever made. It fucked them really bad. And they waste so much money! It's ridiculous, they don't use it wisely. There are a lot of uncreative people in a creative industry. Most of them want to keep their jobs and don't know how to be innovative."

"The production of farming all animals is damaging the planet. The feed and grain that these animals consume, the toxins that come from farming, what it's doing to the land and the air, how we're messing with these animals' natural habitats, behaviors, patterns, their health and ecosystems. My favourite thing about being vegan is honestly that it's the most kind way to live. It gives me a sense of peace and self-worth. I feel like everything is better for me mentally. Physically I feel stronger and cleaner inside, with no hormones and toxins of a living thing being processed by my body. I feel so healthy. More focused and energized."

"I would never say "I'm straight, I'm bisexual, I'm gay". I feel like I will fall in love with a human being for who they are. I'm not afraid to say I've been attracted to a woman before and I've kissed girls before and been in love with them before. I've never really had a girlfriend or anything and I would never say I'm anything, really. I don't have an identity in that way."

"My advice to a young artist is don't sign a deal. Know that there are other options out there. Because the power is taken away from you. I was 18 when I signed my record deal and it was all these older men who didn't give a fuck about my mental health and they worked me like a donkey. They're always happy to take the money, but when I experimented and changed direction musically – which every artist should be able to do – I was dropped immediately. But they're still happy to collect the cash from my first record now."

"'Females of all description' is not a music genre. It's sexist. [There would] never be a 'males of all description' section because the rest of the shop and all other music genres are considered male. Female is not a genre. Don't categorise my sex."

"…It feels like I understand the male mind better than some people. This whole idea that men just want sex, I don’t think that’s true. I think they’re actually looking for intimacy. To them, sex equates to a moment when they can step out of their tough masculine mind and be in a really Technicolor vulnerability. I think that’s more what they’re craving…"

"Intimacy—real honest intimacy—is one of the most radical things you can do right now. It’s like an endangered species to connect to your feelings and actually be present…"

"…When I’m not working, I safeguard my time to go into a dream state and not have to think about the commercialization of my art or the commodification of myself..."

"That explains why I have this impulse to share, to be honest and unveil stuff – because that area was like: ‘No, you have to be perfect.’"

"Men were the gatekeepers. They ran all the equipment and the labels … I was tired of being the girlfriend of the guy in the band, I was tired of hearing that my musical tastes suck."

"I am waiting here for more. I am waiting by your door. I am waiting on your back steps. I am waiting in my car. I am waiting at this bar. I am waiting for your essence."

"Sun came up it was another day, And the sun went down you were blown away. Why'd you let go of your guitar? Why'd you ever let it go that far? Drunken angel."

"I would risk the serpent's bite. I would dance around with seven. I would kiss the diamond back, If I knew it would get me to heaven.'Cause I want to get right with God. Yes, you know you got to get right with God."

"Just a shakin' in my knees, just a cold chill. Don't know what it is, just call it a thrill. Just a lump in my throat, just hot blood. Don't know what it is, some call it love."

"There are things about you that make me wanna scream and shout. There are things about you that make me wanna lock you out. But there's a little thing that drives me wild, Something that happens every time you smile. I can't get over the lines around your eyes, Lines around your eyes every time you smile."

"Not a day goes by I don't think about you; You left your mark on me, it's permanent, a tattoo. Pierce the skin and the blood runs through, Oh my baby."

"You don't have to prove Your manhood to me constantly. I know you're the man can't you see? I love you, righteously."

"The night's too long; It just drags on and on. And then there's never enough. That's when the sun starts coming up. Don't let go of her hand, You just might be the right man. She loves the night, She loves the night, She doesn't want the night Don't want it to end."

"I think what informs my songwriting is my empathy with that. Maybe that’s what bothers people. It scares them to go to the edge of the well and look in. But it’s what they like also. And wouldn’t you rather feel the pain than not feel anything?"

"Do I want too much? Am I going overboard to want that touch? I shouted out to the night: "Give me what I deserve, cause it's my right!""

"My mother passed away in 2004, and then my dad 10 years later. That period in between, I wrote songs like “Death Came”, and then after my father passed away I wrote, “If There’s A Heaven” and “If My Love Could Kill”, which I wrote about the Alzheimer’s disease that killed my father. There’s a lot of dealing with loss, and heavy stuff, and life. It’s a lot different of an album than some of my earlier ones, like Essence, when I was still struggling with unrequited love as a younger girl."

"I grew up being aware that I was Southern, and that being a very important thing for me. And being drawn to short story writers, like Flannery O’Connor and Eudora Welty—the surroundings in their stories were so familiar to me, the whole Southern Gothic thing. That world only existed in that part of the country. It’s going to inform the personality of the songs. In a lot of my songwriting, I mention towns and places. It’s a culturally traditional thing in the South to tell stories."

"I was always into different kinds of music but just by default, I was singing and playing acoustic guitar; I didn’t know how to dance or anything. So it would take some time, over a year, for me to kind of progress into the stuff that I ended up doing later, the more Southern soul, country-rock, whatever-you-want-to-call-it kind of thing."

"He sleeps all alone on Second Street With a roof over his head and food to eat. But he can hardly make it day to day cause Everything he wants is six blocks away, six blocks away."

"Are you alright? All of a sudden you went away. Are you alright? I hope you come back around someday."

"It seems to me that that image was created for female folk singers because they actually had a lot more control than other women in the music scene…They wrote their own songs, they played them, they performed by themselves — there you have a picture of a very independent person, and trying to make them seem emotional and fragile and all puts a softer edge on it. As if there was something wrong with being independent."

"As a child…I always had a sense of social conditions and political situations. I think it had to do with the fact that my mother was always discussing things with my sister and me — also because I read a lot. A lot of people in similar situations just have a sense that they’re poor or disenfranchised, but they don’t really think about what’s created the situation or what factors don’t allow them to control their lives."

"I think people are foolish to believe that there won’t be major social changes in this country before we possibly, ultimately, destroy ourselves…There’s only so far you can push people before they start to push back, and I’ve seen that in my life. That’s where the things I write about come from. It’s wrong not to encourage people to hope or to dream or even to consider what’s thought to be impossible. That’s the only thing that keeps people alive sometimes. For me and my family, that was one of the only things that kept us going."

"Music brought me closer to the idea of God…Music gave me the energy to revise, revive myself; renew, rebirth myself. It was a palliative, a relief."

"Fear came in so much in my life that it did everything but completely stop me. When I was a little girl, I so wanted to be sociable, but I was scared that I wasn't going to be able to speak a sentence because I had such a bad stammer..."

"The time I enjoy music most is when it’s not a performance. It’s just trading instrumentals and finding that part in the song that you feel best singing."

"I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in…That's what everyone should do with their lives…stand up for what they believe in, or try to do some good in the world. I don't think artists have a greater responsibility than anyone else."