Not a day went by without music playing in the background in our home. My parents loved music and naturally so did I. My father loved jazz. My mother had an affinity for women in music. Her womanist views profoundly shaped mine while I was still a youngster growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Songs by and about women remain a vital part of my musical endeavors. Their stories speak life into the core values of communities near and far. Featuring a number of artists including Ani DiFranco, Janis Ian, Vonda Shepard, Toni Childs, and others, Christian Roden shares her thoughts on Putumayo World Music’s “Women’s Work”, 1996.

“…1996 the interest in singer-songwriters was cresting and women were a big part of the emerging trend. The songs they wrote were not about fanciful dream images; they came from real life and were insightful, bitter, funny, and often painfully intimate. While a vanguard of younger artists was just finding their way, established performers were also being rediscovered, and the two groups gave each other considerable inspiration and support. These 13 songs are an amazingly accurate time capsule of a period when the vogue finally shifted to include singers who used small forces to sort out big problems and overwhelming emotions. Romances go sour, philosophy brings cold comfort, and reality is sometimes too much to stomach, but the women keep going as best they can despite the craziness, opposition on various fronts, and their own frailty.”