#FolkloreThursday: Playlist for Women’s History Month

#FolkloreThursday is a growing community on Twitter where people post all sorts of folklore tidbits every Thursday. MTAP participates in this digital community by using the hashtag #FolkloreThursday to amalgamate relevant folkloric content. You, too, can participate by tagging posts with #FolkloreThursday or searching with the tag.

Music for Women’s History Month

We here at MTAP have put together a playlist for Women’s History Month of awesome Michigan-based women making music.  Women musicians’ contributions to the development of musical styles, genres, techniques and their vast bodies of work are innumerable and to this day often overlooked. Most of the artists included here are affiliated in some way with the Michigan Traditional Arts Program, but some were too influential to leave out.  This is in no way an exhaustive list, so please post your favorites and recommendations in the comments section! 

Alberta Adams

Blues woman, 2010 Michigan Heritage Award recipient

The Meditation Singers

Gospel music

Also check out their version of "A Change Is Gonna Come"

Sarah Ogan Gunning

Appalachian ballad singer and songwriter, labor activist

Julia Mainer

Bluegrass musician, 1996 Michigan Heritage Award recipient

Ellen J. Stekert

Folklorist and folksinger

Stekert wrote an article, "Autobiography of a Woman Folklorist", in which she discusses her experience as a woman in academia. It appears in The Journal of American Folklore Vol. 100, No. 398, Folklore and Feminism (Oct.-Dec. 1987). 

Ruby John 

Fiddler, 2014 Great Lakes Folk Festival Performer

Lois Bettesworth 

Fiddler, 2002 Michigan Heritage Award recipient

Miiskwaasining Nagamojig (Swamp Singers)

Native American women's hand drum group

Also listen to their "Strong Women's Song". Read about their work protecting language, culture, and community here.

Alice Coltrane

Jazz musician and composer

Aretha Franklin

Queen of Soul