Dawn Landes has shared that she has something special planned for her set at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. On Sunday, 29th June, she will be joined by Angeline Morrison, Michele Stodart (Magic Numbers), Maguire & Soph Nathan (The Big Moon) on Glastonbury’s Acoustic Stage at 11:30 am to sing songs from The Liberated Woman’s Songbook.
Dawn’s latest album, The Liberated Woman’s Songbook, was released last year. Produced by Josh Kaufman, it was released during Women’s History Month and reimagines music from the women’s liberation movement, with songs featured in The Liberated Woman’s Songbook, originally published in 1971.
We caught up with Dawn last year to chat about her album, an extract from which is below:
In 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned the legal right to abortion, a right that had been enshrined in US law since 1973’s historic Roe versus Wade case.
Observed American songwriter Dawn Landes: “We’re suddenly back in 1971 all over again.”
In the wake of the decision, which turned the clock back on women’s autonomy half a century, Landes found herself returning to a long out-of-print book entitled The Liberated Woman’s Songbook.
“I came across a copy of the songbook in a used bookstore somewhere along the way. I can’t remember which store or when exactly, but I know I’ve had it for more than ten years,” she recalls. “It’s a songbook from 1971, published at the height of the Women’s Liberation Movement and compiled by folklorist and guitarist Jerry Silverman: the artwork is very provocative; there’s a woman on the front in a black leather jacket pointing and shouting and looking very defiant; there are historical photos and information to put the songs into context.”
A former editor for ’50s folk publication Sing Out! Magazine, musician and writer Silverman was behind numerous song collections covering subjects such as train songs, baseball songs, and ballads of the Holocaust. The Liberated Woman’s Songbook bought together (to quote the book cover) ’77 singable folk songs about women and their battles with husbands, lovers, the devil, the system … and themselves’, grouped under sub-headings Songs Of The Struggle, Songs Of Courting, Marriage and Domestic Life, and They Did Their Thing!, all penned over a period of 140 years.
“There are laments and calls for justice, labour songs, suffrage songs, a hilarious complaint by a new bride to her mother about hating sex,” says Landes, who, revisiting the ageing material, felt compelled to record a selection – released earlier this year as The Liberated Woman’s Songbook.
Focusing “mostly on Songs Of The Struggle”, she says: “A lot of the songs I gravitated to were penned by women who probably weren’t musicians. Many of these songs had been rewritten to hymns or popular songs of the day.”
While many of the authors may have lacked a formal musical education, each song is nonetheless a genuine musical and lyrical gem.
“One of my favourite songs, The Housewife’s Lament, was mistakenly credited in the book as being ‘found in the diary of Mrs. Sara A Price of Ottawa, Illinois’. But upon investigation, the lyrics were written by the poet [and American suffragette] Eliza Sproat Turner!”
While in the UK, Landes has several gigs lined up before returning to the US for a string of dates and support slots with Bonnie “Prince” Billy and José González. For most of the shows, she’ll perform solo or in a duo with Creighton Irons on keys.
It seems a good time to share this – Landes performing Bob Dylan‘s Dark Eyes (the song is from his 1985 album Empire Burlesque) with Bonnie “Prince” Billy. The track featured on a 2014 Dylan tribute album, A Tribute to Bob Dylan in the 80s: Volume One.
Dawn Landes UK & US Tour Dates
UK Shows
26th June – Portland Arms Cambridge, UK
27th June – Mid Sussex Music Hall Hassocks, UK
28th June – Marine Theatre Lyme Regis, UK
29th June – Glastonbury Acoustic Stage Pilton, UK
1st July – Kitchen Garden Birmingham, UK
2nd July – Bluebird Bakery York, UK
3rd July – Trades Club Hebden Bridge, UK
4th July – St Marys Chester, UK
5th July – Voodoo Rooms Edinburgh, UK
6th July – Central Bar / Matinee Gateshead, UK
US Shows
20th July – Mountain Stage Charleston, WV
25th July – The Corner at NC State Raleigh, NC
27th August – Eddie’s Attic Decatur, GA
28th August – Petra’s Charlotte, NC
4th September – 185 King St. Brevard, NC
13th September – NC Folk Festival Greensboro, NC
13th Nov – The Ryman Nashville, TN*
2nd Dec – Haw River Ballroom Saxapahaw, NC**
*supporting José González
**supporting Bonnie Prince Billy