The duo Jade & Sarsaparilla released their only album in 1976, and many people probably thought those were their name, or at least their stage names, but alas, that was just the name of the act, and neither one was Jade or Sarsaparilla. Their real names were Janet Hood and Linda Langford, Janet wrote the music. But the lyrics were written by her writing partner, Bill Russell. They later teamed in the late 80's to write a successful AIDS musical called "Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens." It was good enough that there have been three cast recordings of it released. Below are all three, the original 1993 release, a live concert recording from 2001, and another 2001 rendition by the London cast.

    

Click for more info on Jade & Sarsapirilla

 

     

One of the earliest albums with a lesbian presence by a group came out in 1978, and the name of the album was "Quiet Thunder." The name of the group was Izquierda, which in Spanish means left. Lead vocals were by Naomi Littlebear Martinez, later known as Naomi Littlebear Morena. She's been a respected writer, speaker, songwriter and social activist for decades.

Click for large scans of the Izquierda LP & Liner Notes

Below, two ads for the group I found in Sept '79 and March '80 issues of "Lesbian Tide"

   

As a special treat you can hear another version of Izquierda doing their song "Special Friend."
Click to hear them singing it live at the National Women's Music Festival, in 1979.

Click to Hear It

In addition to Naomi Littlebear, other group members were Kristan Aspen,
Robin Chilstrom, Izetta Smith, Maia McNamara and June Adams. Besides
being a musician, Kristan Aspen has gone on to become a classical composer.
With her partner Janna Macauslan she formed the group Musica Femina.
Their focus was on performing and honoring the works of women composers,
and had four releases:

"Musica Femina Plays Music by Women Composers" (1984)
"Musica Femina: More Flute-Guitar Music by Women Composers" (1985)
"Returning the Muse to Music" (1989)
"Heartstreams" (1993)

    

 

 

 

    

Carole Etzler was a lesbian feminist songwriter who released two acoustic albums in the late 70's, "Sometimes I Wish" (1976) and "Womanriver Flowing On (1978). Many Houston listeners may be more interested to know that singing backups on that last song was Carolyn Mobley, who later became Associate Pastor of the MCC Church in Houston. I've scanned some photos of her from the album liner notes, so you'll be able to see what she looked like some 28 years ago. She is shown below at right, and on the left with Carole Etzler and Susan Bishop. You gotta love a lesbian album on a label called Sisters Unlimited.