“Tours
run their course and lose their freshness. We don’t want that to
happen...We want to end leaving people wanting more.”
— Sarah McLachlan
Before the stages were set for Lilith Fair’s two-day stay in Holmdel,
New Jersey, concert promoters held a press conference under a big
tent off the PNC Arts Center’s Main Stage. In attendance were nine
of the twelve artists scheduled to perform during Saturday’s August
7 show: Sarah
McLachlan, Sheryl
Crow, Suzanne
Vega, Melky
Sedeck, Splashdown,
Bertine, Paris
Hampton, Nina
Gordon and Rachael
Sage. As the flash bulbs popped and McLachlan’s pink-haired
husband played with their black labrador, WOMANROCK.com and other
members of the press asked the diverse panel about their impressions
of Lilith Fair and the future of music for women.
 When
asked about her original goals for Lilith Fair and whether or not
they were achieved, McLachlan was poised and confident. “It’s far
surpassed any goals and expectations I had,” she said. “My idea
from the start was to put together a show that would be interesting
to me. In this business, it’s always a hard job in terms of meeting
your peers and hearing their music...Lilith Fair has accomplished
this and much more.”
Could this be a whole new brand of female bonding? Sheryl Crow agreed.
“It was great to hear what other people are doing, to have a dialogue
with people who are doing what you’re doing,” she said. “It’s good
old-fashioned schooling.”
As to the future of Lilith Fair, the show’s founder says the multi-artist
tour is taking a “much-deserved vacation.” But McLachlan’s reason
for putting Lilith Fair on hold is one that many career woman will
understand. “It was either Lilith or babies; you can’t do both,”
she admitted.
![Paris Hampton [ Samsara ]](lilithfair/paris_hampton.jpg) Proud
to be in the company of some of America’s most successful female
artists, WOMANROCK.com asked the star-studded panel for their advice
to aspiring female musicians. While they came from different musical
backgrounds and styles, Suzanne Vega’s advice was echoed by all.
“Develop your own style and keep going in spite of criticism,” Vega
urged. “Keep your own strength, keep your own vision, and keep it
going.”
Melissa Kaplan of Splashdown added a note of caution to Vega’s advice
from her own band’s experience. “It was difficult for us (Splashdown),
because we straddle different musical styles,” she explained. “People
don’t know how to market us. Record labels will try to water your
stuff down and make it fit into a format. You need to stay true
to what you want to do.”
“It’s also important to surround yourself with people you trust,”
McLachlan added. For singer/songwriter Nina Gordon, Lilith Fair
provided that and more. “I’m very excited about being around all
these great performers,” she said. “These are real women, real artists,
with real careers. There is some justice!”
 Gordon’s
last statement, met with a hearty round of applause, is telling.
Like any business, the music industry is often biased against women.
Some, like Sheryl Crow, were lucky enough to have support early
on in their careers. “I have musical heroes like Joni Mitchell,
Patti Smith and of course Bob Dylan, but my biggest hero was my
mom,” Crow said. “She played lots of different music when I lived
at home. She was a pianist in a jazz band; my grandmother played
an instrument too. I never felt that there was anything wrong with
being a musician and a woman.”
Crow, whose official website ( www.sherylcrow.com
) was nominated for an MTV Music Award, pointed out the Internet’s
growing influence on music. For up and coming artists like Rachael
Sage, the Internet is essential. “What amazes me about the Internet
is how incredibly open it is, especially to independent artists,”
she said. “It’s a whole new world...it’s the one place where we
(female musicians) are all treated as equals.”
Sage pointed out that being online has benefits that other forms
of music promotion does not. “Most of my following came from the
internet,” she explained. “The internet is great because if you
are touring and you run out of CDs, you can always give people your
web address.”
For others, the Internet helped them get into new markets of distribution
that would be harder to reach with traditional methods. “If it wasn’t
for the internet,” said Norwegian native Bertine, “no one would
ever have heard of me.”
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