Lindsay Lou Honors Songwriters with "Bluegrass Women"
Some of the very best bluegrass songs happen when a man pours out his heart for all to see. It’s deep. It’s meaningful. And often…it’s written by a woman! This dynamic – of listeners thinking a man was behind a song because a male performed it – is what motivated acclaimed bluegrass artist Lindsay Lou to create something that honors women songwriters. This 10-track record released in August was simply titled: Bluegrass Women.
The fact that she was able to get artists and friends such as Molly Tuttle and Sierra Hull onboard shows how important her message is to fellow female performers. That message, in a nutshell, is that women have always played a role in shaping bluegrass. Whether that role was fulfilled behind the scenes or while standing right in front of the mic, it’s always been there.
“I wanted to make a collection of songs that were written by women in bluegrass over time,” Lindsay Lou said. “Maybe people didn’t realize it was written by a woman, because they were sung by a man.” An example she gave is “Freight Train,” which was penned by Elizabeth Cotten. Or, she said we’ll hear Tim O’Brien singing “I’ve Endured” and think, “Oh, that’s a Tim O’Brien song.” Most people will never know what he was singing was written by Ola Belle Reed.
Lou said when these familiar songs are recreated on the album by women, it changes things for the listener.
“The song takes on a whole new life in the way the song ‘Respect’ took on a whole new life when Aretha Franklin sings it,” she said.
Tuttle and Hull are not the only recognizable names who contribute to the record. The list of participants also includes Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, Alison Brown, Laurie Lewis, Courtney Hartman, and more.
This powerful roster of collaborators went into the studio in March. Lou was joined there by her friends and inspirations, and the result is what she described as “sort of like magic.” Lou co-produced the record with Shani Gandhi, who also provided the engineering and the mixing.
“All of the women on the record are people who have had a direct influence on me and my journey,” Lou said. “They all inspired me.”
In the case of Tuttle, Lou said Tuttle and friend Billy Strings were roommates who lived “right across the street from me.” They started doing “porch sessions” of making music. Most of the tunes were covers from Operation Ivy or Joni Mitchell. They’d post them to YouTube.
“We also had this cat that sort of lived between the two houses,” she added. “Molly and I have a sweet bond.”
She said she has a friendship – or a close working professional relationship – with all the women featured on the record.
“I did some touring with Sierra Hull a couple of years ago,” Lou said. “She’s become a really dear, sweet friend.”
Lou said since she’s been touring and making records for over 15 years, this album feels not just like a full-circle moment that it includes so many of her personal inspirations, but also it also feels “earned.”
Her recent debut appearance this summer at the Grand Ole Opry is another one of those full-circle earned moments for a hard-working singer-songwriter. Lou shows – over and over – that she is truly one of the hard-working, standout “Bluegrass Women.”
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