May 2006
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Exclusive
Interview
For QMH

  

This is one of those rare editions of QMH where I'm devoting the entire show to one artist. And there's no questions that she merits this attention. Ferron is iconic in the genre of women's music. Wikipedia has this to say about her: "In addition to being one of Canada's most famous folk musicians, she is one of the most influential writers and performers of women's music, and an important influence on later musicians such as Ani DiFranco and the Indigo Girls."

And also, "Her songwriting and poetry is mystically revelatory, nuanced, and sublime. Autobiographical in the purest sense, she writes about things that have really happened in her life. The experiences are rendered with such emotional and artistic perfection that her songs become mirrors of the soul. While the outer events unfold as a story, the inner, deeper landscape beckons us to the realm of fate, choice, paradox, and sensuality. The words are chiseled from the everyday hard stone of reality and are inspired from her desire to have a shared reality."

 

Ferron's website
www.ferrononline.com

 

Read the script for the show...and all the song lyrics

 

Click Here for Articles on Ferron

Playlist     (airdate: May 29, 2006)
Ferron - More Than That (2005)
Ferron - Ain't Life a Brook (1980)
Ferron / Sweet Honey in the Rock - Testimony (1980 / 1983)
Ferron - Misty Mountain (1980)
Ferron - Who Loses (1977 and 1980)
Ferron - Shadows on a Dime (1984)
Ferron - My My (1990)
Ferron - Harmless Love (1990)
Ferron - Stand Up (1990)
Ferron - Girl on the Road (1994)
Ferron - Love Loves Me (1994)
Ferron - Still Riot (1996)
Ferron - Alice Says Yes (1996)
Ferron - The Chosen Ones (1996)
Ferron - Venus as Appearances (1996)
Ferron - What Becomes of the Broken Hearted (1999)
Ferron & Greg Brown - Tequila and Me (1998)
Ferron - Where Is Maria? (2002)
Ferron - In the Meantime (2005)
Ferron - Turning Into Beautiful (2005)
Ferron - My Girl (1999)


Ferron Discography


Ferron (Lucy Records, 1977)  Ferron Backed Up (Lucy Records, 1978)  Testimony (Lucy Records, 1980)

Shadows on a Dime (Lucy Records, 1984)  Phantom Center (Cameleon Records, 1990)  Phantom Center (Earthbeat/Warner Brothers, 1995)

  Resting with the Question (Nemesis, 1992)  Driver (Nemesis, 1994) beneath is the original cover

Still Riot (Warner Brothers, 1996)  Inside Out - The IMA Sessions (IMA, 1999)  Impressionistic (Cherrywood/Nemesis, 2000)

Turning Into Beautiful (Fair and Loving, 2005)  

Ferron (Lucy Records, 1977)
Ferron Backed Up (Lucy Records, 1978)
Testimony (Lucy Records, 1980)
Shadows on a Dime (Lucy Records, 1984)
Phantom Center (Cameleon Records, 1990)
Not a Still Life (Nemesis, 1992)
Resting with the Question (Nemesis, 1992)
Driver (Nemesis, 1994)
Phantom Center (Earthbeat/Warner Brothers, 1995)
Still Riot (Warner Brothers, 1996)
Inside Out - The IMA Sessions (IMA, 1999)
Impressionistic (Cherrywood/Nemesis, 2000)
Turning Into Beautiful (Fair and Loving, 2005)
Boulder (Short Story Records, 2008)

Click Here for more and larger album scans
Compilations with Recordings Not on Other Ferron Releases


    

  

"Vancouver Folk Music Festival, 1980" (ATR LP, 1980)
contains live version of "Ain't Life a Brook"

"Michigan Live '85" (August Night Records LP, 1986)
contains live duet with Lucy Blue Tremblay on "Ain't Life a Brook"

"NWMF Silver: 25th Anniversary Celebration of the National Women's Music Festival" (WIA Records CD, 1999)    contains live version of "Testimony"

"Treasures Left Behind: Remembering Kate Wolf" (Red House Records CD, 1998)
contains duet with Greg Brown, singing "Tequila and Me"

"Going Driftless: An Artist's Tribute to Greg Brown" (Red House Records CD, 2002)
contains "Where Is Maria?"

Click Here for larger scans and other compilations including Ferron songs
Ferron at the Houston Women's Festival, Fall 2002

showing off her (then) latest CDs

Ferron & JD

photography courtesy of Diane Litke
Sweet Honey In The Rock

 

And, I included just a bit of Sweet Honey In The Rock's wonderful cover version of "Testimony" in this show. It was originally was released on their 1983 album "We Are...Everyone Of Us" (Flying Fish 317) but can much more easily be found on the 1997 double CD compilation shown above, "Selections 1976 - 1988" (Flying Fish 667/668)

This group was founded by Bernice Johnson Reagon in 1973 and while not a lesbian act, it has long had strong ties to the lesbian community. One of it's members, Evelyn Maria Harris (shown on the cover, upper right), was a self-identified lesbian and sang with the group for 18 years and on nine of their recordings. Bernice felt it important to include a number of women-to-women songs in their repertroire. In 1981 she helped found Sisterfire, a women's cultural and music festival, which has hosted many lesbian performers, including her daughter, Toshi Reagon, an outstanding artist in her own right.

Sweet Honey in the Rock Website