Background

I have been obsessing about the Lilith Fair for… well, years. Not that I ever went to a concert during its original run. (I was young.) If you don't know what I'm talking about, Lilith was spearheaded by Sarah McLachlan, who was tired of never seeing female singers booked back to back. She, along with a few others, decided to start a music festival featuring women, both solo singer/songwriters and those fronting bands. It ran for three years, from 1997 to 1999 and featured some big names like Sheryl Crow and Lisa Loeb and Fiona Apple. These were women I heard on the radio all the time, in the late '90s and early '00s. I am nostalgic about them today.

Fast-forward to 2010. I'd been slowly working my way through the list of the '90s Lilith Fair artists, which is quite long, and finding new favorites in the midst of high school memories, when I learned that Lilith was coming back. Which was awesome. Naturally, I had to find a way to go to one of those concerts. Luckily, the one I chose wasn't cancelled due to economic issues like quite a few others, and I got to go to Philadelphia and hear… well, women I've loved listening to for years, such as Missy Higgins (the reason I chose Philly over the much closer Detroit) and Sarah McLachlan. And I found some new favorites, too, like Butterfly Boucher and Serena Ryder. (They rock! No, really, they do!)

That concert is over and done with now, but I'm still not tired of talking about -- nay, celebrating -- women in music. And I know I'm not alone.

Purpose

So, this is the forum in which to chat about our favorites. They need not be Lilith artists. (Joni Mitchell certainly isn't, and she's in the title!) They don't have to be of any particular genre. Just women whose music you particularly like! Feel free to post YouTube videos and even Last.fm profiles (like mine) if you wish. (If that gets to be a popular thing, I may list them on the second post. If people want that.)

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