Lindsay Lou in the studio during the recording of Bluegrass Women
History class is in session. The subject: women in bluegrass music. Your teacher: Lindsay Lou.
This week, Lindsay Lou — who got her start in Michigan and has become a key player in the city’s forward-thinking pickin’ scene — releases her new album Bluegrass Women, a collection of time-tested songs written by women of past generations and played by some of the most sought-after musicians in Nashville today. Co-produced with Grammy-winning engineer Shani Gandhi, the 10-song project features a can’t-miss ensemble. Contributors on the lengthy roster include Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull, Sarah Jarosz, Alison Brown, Aoife O’Donovan, Bronwyn, Laurie Lewis and Phoebe Hunt. The full rundown is right on the front cover of the record where it can’t be glossed over.
Bluegrass Women highlights overlooked songwriters. They made major contributions to the bluegrass canon, but are seldom mentioned alongside Bill Monroe, Doc Watson and other foundational players in a genre historically dominated by men.
“There’s a father of bluegrass, but there’s no mother of bluegrass,” Lindsay Lou says with a laugh, speaking from backstage at the Grand Ole Opry. Moments before our interview, she made her Opry debut, performing “I’ve Endured,” a cut from Bluegrass Women originally written by Appalachian banjo player Ola Belle Reed. Album contributors Emma Rose and Wila Frank joined her onstage, as did Opry regular Rhonda Vincent. “[The idea] is just to highlight where women’s voices have been all along with these songs that are really important and popular — and sung all the time by people who don’t even know they were written by women.”
Lindsay Lou began laying seeds for the project about a decade ago. Shortly after she moved to Nashville, she learned that “All I Ever Loved Was You” — a staple made famous by Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggs — was written by Skaggs’ mother, Dorothy Skaggs. She also discovered that “I Only Exist” (made famous by Ralph Stanley and later covered by Dierks Bentley, Kelsey Waldon and Billy Strings, among others) was co-written by Joyce Morris and Jimmie Stanley (wife of Ralph).
Over time, two songs grew into an album. Bluegrass Women includes a richly harmonized rendition of “Like a River,” written by folk singer Kate Wolf. Toward the end of the record, there’s also a spirit-shaking take on “CC Rider,” the bedrock classic first recorded (and thus effectively given a defined form) by Ma Rainey, followed by a wistful spin on “Freight Train,” a song passed between generations after being written in the early 20th century by Elizabeth Cotten.
“Representation is important,” Lindsay Lou says. “We’re seeing this huge moment where there are so many women in the scene, pickin’ and playing and being a part of bluegrass music. And that’s because of people like Molly Tuttle and Sierra Hull and Sarah Jarosz. They’re there because of people like Alison Krauss and Alison Brown and Missy Raines. It really matters to see someone who’s like you doing the thing that you want to do. It just feels really meaningful and impactful. It gives me a feeling of surprise and delight and encouragement all at once to find out that women’s voices have been in this music all along — and have written some of my favorite songs.”
That fun and invigorating energy continued when she brought her collaborators together in the studio.
“The reason we do [this] is because of the way it feels to play music together, standing in a circle,” says Lindsay Lou. “So I said: ‘You’re gonna show up. We’re gonna stand in a circle and we’re gonna play the song. And we’re gonna jam it, and we’re gonna see what happens and what feels right, and then we’ll track it.’ And that’s what we did. … I really wanted it to feel like we were jamming.”
A four-part mini-documentary filmed during the sessions will be released on Lindsay Lou’s YouTube channel over the coming weeks. (See Episode 1 in the above embed.) She’ll be on the road this fall in support of Bluegrass Women, with her nearest performances scheduled for CaveFest at Grundy County underground venue The Caverns. There she’s set to perform during the kick-off party on Oct. 9 as well as do a full-album tribute to Sublime’s self-titled LP and be an artist in residence.
