'Women Who Rock' Bands // p 3 of 7

Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions

Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions is an independent alternative/dream pop band composed of Hope Sandoval from the band Mazzy Star and Colm Ó Cíosóig of My Bloody Valentine. Their first studio album, Bavarian Fruit Bread, was released on October 23, 2001. Alan Browne, from Irish band Dirt Blue Gene, played bass and co-wrote several songs on the album. Through the Devil Softly was released on September 29, 2009, and was recorded with Dirt Blue Gene. Their third album, Until the Hunter, was released on November 4, 2016. Its first single, "Isn't It True", was released on 7" vinyl as part of Record Store Day 2016. A second single, "Let Me Get There" featuring Kurt Vile, was released on September 23.

In a 2016 interview with Consequence of Sound, Ó Cíosóig explained how the musical composition differed from his and Hope's other bands, "It’s not that our other bands have restrictions, but there's a certain sound in those bands. Hope and I have a sound, but it's always changing and morphing into different things while still carrying a similar thread."

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Janet Kay

Janet Kay (born 17 January 1958) is an English actor and vocalist, best known for her 1979 lovers rock hit "Silly Games".

Biography

Janet Kay Bogle was born in Willesden, North West London. She was discovered singing impromptu at a rehearsal studio by Tony "Gad" Robinson, the keyboardist from Aswad, who recommended Kay to Alton Ellis. The Jamaican-born Ellis, a successful rocksteady vocalist, had relocated permanently to London, where he continued to be involved with reggae music and was looking for a female vocalist to record a reggae cover of Minnie Riperton's song "Lovin' You". In 1978 Kay recorded "I Do Love You" and "That's What Friends Are For". The single "Silly Games", written and produced by Dennis Bovell, was released in 1979 and became a hit across Europe, reaching No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart. The chart success of "Silly Games" led to Kay appearing on Top of the Pops, then the BBC's flagship music programme. She played the character Angel in the UK sitcom No Problem!, created by the Black Theatre Co-operative (now NitroBeat) and broadcast on Channel 4 (1983–85). While on the programme, she enjoyed a further club hit with "Eternally Grateful" in 1984, which also reached the UK top 100.

Kay has recorded, and co-produced her seventh album for Sony Music Japan. It was released on 18 June 2003, and is entitled Lovin' You … More. The popularity of the song "Lovin' You" in Japan is so strong that she was asked to record it again for this album (for the third time). That version was produced by Omar.

"Silly Games" first hit the UK charts in 1979, and appeared again in 1990 as a re-recording, billed as by Lindy Layton featuring Janet Kay, which reached No. 22. A remix version of Kay's original recording spent three weeks in the UK Singles Chart, peaking at No. 62.

Kay is credited as producer on "Missing You", recorded by Aswad.

She was a founding member of BiBi Crew, Britain's first theatre troupe made up entirely of Black women.

Kay was included on the 2003 list of "100 Great Black Britons".

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Joan As Police Woman

Joan Wasser (born July 26, 1970), known by her stage name Joan As Police Woman, is an American musician, singer-songwriter and producer. She began her career playing violin with the Dambuilders and played with Black Beetle, Antony and the Johnsons, and Those Bastard Souls. Since 2004 she has released her solo material as Joan As Police Woman. She has released five regular studio albums, one EP, a number of singles and a collection of covers. Throughout her career, she has regularly collaborated with other artists as a writer, performer and arranger.

Born at the Saint Andre Home in Biddeford, Maine, to an unmarried teenage mother, Wasser was given up for adoption at infancy. She was raised in Norwalk, Connecticut, with her adoptive younger brother Dan, who is a visual artist. She credits her background as an adopted child with her "very extroverted" personality and dressing up a lot. She explained that "when you are in a situation where you're not blood-related to your family, it does become extremely obvious that you're born with your personality".

Wasser began piano lessons at age six and had her first violin lessons at age eight. She played violin in school and community orchestras before leaving Norwalk for her college studies. At the age of 18, Wasser began her music career during her studies at the College of Fine Arts, Boston University, where she was an early admittance student. She studied music under, among others, Yuri Mazurkevich and played with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra. Wasser soon grew disillusioned and found that she "didn't want to make classical music my life, the Beethoven symphonies have already been played a million times and I am not going to do it any better." Instead she joined a number of local punk bands trying "to bridge the gap between the guitar and the bass and play the violin really loud."

While working with others, Wasser began to develop her own material, which she described as sounding "like old Al Green records." She focused on guitar and singing as "for a long time, I was really content with playing violin, and then all of a sudden it wasn't enough." The end of Black Beetle in June 2002 brought the beginning of Wasser's work as a solo artist and the creation of a new band, Joan as Police Woman. The name was a reference to the TV series Police Woman featuring Angie Dickinson. Wasser found the actress inspirational as "she was really powerful but sexy at the same time" in the role. She also preferred "the name to be funny because, although my music is serious, I like to laugh at tragedy." She formed a new trio in New York City together with Ben Perowsky on drums and Rainy Orteca on bass. Perowsky also co-produced the EP that also featured contributions by Oren Bloedow, Dave Derby and Erik Sanko. She co-wrote the song "My Gurl" with Michael Tighe. The group self-released a five-track eponymous EP in 2004, as Wasser had "decided to do it without a record deal because I wanted to make music on my own terms." In February 2004, Rufus Wainwright asked her to join his band on tour providing backing vocals and strings. In the second half of the year, she joined Joseph Arthur on tour as a violinist.

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Joan Shelley

Joan Shelley is a songwriter and singer from Louisville, KY. She draws inspiration from traditional and traditionally-minded performers from her native Kentucky, as well as those from Ireland, Scotland, and England, but she’s not a folksinger. Her disposition aligns more closely with that of, say, Roger Miller, Dolly Parton, or her fellow Kentuckian Tom T. Hall, who once explained—simply, succinctly, in a song—“I Witness Life.”

Her perspective and performances both have been described, apparently positively, as “pure,” but there’s no trace of the Pollyanna and there’s little of the pastoral, either: her work instead wrestles with the possibility of reconciling, if only for a moment, the perceived “natural” world with its reflection—sometimes, relatively speaking, clear; other times hopelessly distorted—in the human heart, mind, and footprint.

Since the 2015 release of her fourth album Over and Even, Shelley has crossed the country and toured Europe several times as a headlining artist, joined by guitarist Nathan Salsburg and sharing shows with the likes of Jake Xerxes Fussell, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Doug Paisley, Daniel Martin Moore, the Other Years, and Michael Hurley. She has opened for Wilco, Chris Smither, Andrew Bird, and Richard Thompson. Jeff Tweedy produced her 2017 record “Joan Shelley” at The Loft in Chicago. She’ll be familiar to readers of guitar-centric magazines for having appeared, in the same season, on the covers of Fretboard Journal and Acoustic Guitar. Her sixth and most recent album, “Like the River Loves the Sea,” was released to wide acclaim in Uncut magazine, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Mojo, and Q magazine.

^{Source joanshelley.net}

Jorja Smith

Jorja Alice Smith (born 11 June 1997) is an English singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Walsall, West Midlands, she has been writing songs since the age of 11. In 2012, Smith's friend uploaded her cover to YouTube, which led to her discovery by record producer Guy Moot. After her first two singles received broader recognition, she signed with Sony/ATV in 2016, releasing two extended plays throughout 2016 and 2017.

Her debut studio album, Lost & Found, was released in 2018 to critical acclaim, and peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart. The same year, Smith won the Brit Critics' Choice Award. In 2019, she was named Best British Female Artist at the Brit Awards and was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Her third EP Be Right Back, which was released in May 2021 received favorable reviews.

Early Life

Jorja Smith was born on 11 June 1997 in Walsall, West Midlands, to a Jamaican father and an English mother. Her father Peter, a benefits officer, is a former musician who sang in a neo-soul group called 2nd Naicha before Smith was born, and her mother, Jolene, is a jewelery designer. Smith has a younger brother, Luca, and is the cousin of Rangers player Kemar Roofe.

She began taking piano lessons at the age of 8 at the encouragement of her father. Smith earned a music scholarship at Aldridge School, where she learned the oboe and studied classical singing, before taking music for her A-level exams. She was scouted by a manager at the age of 15 after uploading videos of herself singing cover songs on YouTube. Shortly after, she began traveling to London for writing sessions with Maverick Sabre and Ed Thomas, while still in school. After graduation, she moved to London at the age of 18 where she supported herself by working as a barista, and continued to write songs.

Influences

Smith grew up listening to reggae, punk, hip-hop, and R&B, and wrote her first song at the age of 11. She describes being "obsessed" with Amy Winehouse's 2003 debut album Frank as a teenager and was inspired by the singer's raw approach to songwriting. Smith said her songs are about social issues: "When things are going on in the world, I think it's important to touch on them, because as a musician, you can make people listen. As soon as people press play, you've got their attention." She cites Lauryn Hill, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Sade, Nina Simone, Alicia Keys, Mos Def and the Streets as influences. Style wise, Smith cites Rihanna as the sole fashion icon she is inspired by.

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Julia Jacklin

Julia Jacklin (born 30 August 1990) is an Australian singer-songwriter based in Sydney, Australia.

Jacklin grew up in the Blue Mountains, Australia, in a family of school teachers. Inspired by Britney Spears, at the age of 10, she took classical singing lessons before joining a high school band which did Avril Lavigne and Evanescence covers. She studied social policy at Sydney University, and after graduating she lived in a garage in Glebe, a suburb of Sydney, and worked in a factory making essential oils. Growing up, Jacklin did not know anyone who was a full-time musician, and her family did not understand what it meant to be a musician: “They didn’t really see it as being something that was going to work out, at all,” Jacklin says in an interview with Sound of Boston. She continued to perform locally, and formed the band Salta together with Liz Hughes in 2012.

She gained an audience and significant critical acclaim through her first two singles "Pool Party" and "Coming of Age" which both received radio airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music. She has been touring extensively since March 2016 in the US, UK, Europe and Australia, appearing at various festivals (most notably End of the Road Festival, Electric Picnic and South by Southwest). She has played headline gigs and has also supported artists such as First Aid Kit, Whitney, Marlon Williams and Okkervil River. In 2016, Rolling Stone Australia tipped Jacklin as one of their "Future Is Now" artists, while Triple J nominated her for a J Award for Unearthed Artist of the Year. Jacklin did not consider herself a full-time musician until August 2016, when she really started touring and figured she could not manage her regular job anymore

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Julie Byrne

Julie Byrne is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist from Buffalo, New York. To date, she has released two studio albums, Rooms With Walls and Windows (2014) and Not Even Happiness (2017).

Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Julie Byrne was influenced by her father's guitar playing at an early age: "I grew up with the sound of his playing, which was fingerstyle guitar, so I would say that my style is completely rooted in his influence." At the age of seventeen, Byrne began learning the instrument herself, after her father could no longer play due to complications from multiple sclerosis: "The opportunity to play his instrument and honor the legacy of his craft and all of the time it took for him to cultivate a skill that he ultimately had to find a way to give up — it feels like a bit of an offering to him." At the age of 18, Byrne left Buffalo, living in various different cities in America, including, Pittsburgh, Northampton, Chicago, Lawrence, Seattle, and New Orleans.

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Khruangbin

Khruangbin is a three-piece band from Texas, formed of Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald Johnson on drums. Taking influence from 1960's Thai funk - their name literally translates to "Engine Fly" in Thai - Khruangbin is steeped in the bass heavy, psychedelic sound of their inspiration, Tarantino soundtracks and surf-rock cool.

^{Source Bandcamp}

Koko Taylor

Koko Taylor (born Cora Anna Walton, September 28, 1928 – June 3, 2009) was an American singer whose style encompassed Chicago blues, electric blues, rhythm and blues and soul blues. Sometimes called "The Queen of the Blues", she was known for her rough, powerful vocals.

Life and career
Born on a farm near Memphis, Tennessee, Taylor was the daughter of a sharecropper. She left Tennessee for Chicago in 1952 with her husband, Robert "Pops" Taylor, a truck driver. In the late 1950s, she began singing in blues clubs in Chicago. She was spotted by Willie Dixon in 1962, and this led to more opportunities for performing and her first recordings. In 1963 she had a single on USA Records, and in 1964 a cut on a Chicago blues collection on Spivey Records, called Chicago Blues. In 1964 Dixon brought Taylor to Checker Records, a subsidiary label of Chess Records, for which she recorded "Wang Dang Doodle", a song written by Dixon and recorded by Howlin' Wolf five years earlier. The record became a hit, reaching number four on the R&B chart and number 58 on the pop chart in 1966, and selling a million copies. She recorded several versions of the song over the years, including a live rendition at the 1967 American Folk Blues Festival, with the harmonica player Little Walter and the guitarist Hound Dog Taylor. Her subsequent recordings, both original songs and covers, did not achieve as much success on the charts.

"Taylor sounds like you always wanted those women with Big in front of their names to sound—powerful, even rough, without ever altogether abandoning her rather feminine register."
— Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981)

Taylor became better known by touring in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and she became accessible to a wider record-buying public when she signed a recording contract with Alligator Records in 1975. She recorded nine albums for Alligator, eight of which were nominated for Grammy awards, and came to dominate ranks of female blues singers, winning twenty-nine W. C. Handy/Blues Music Awards.

She survived a near-fatal car crash in 1989. In the 1990s, she appeared in the films Blues Brothers 2000 and Wild at Heart. She opened a blues club on Division Street in Chicago in 1994, which relocated to Wabash Avenue, in Chicago's South Loop, in 2000 (the club is now closed).

In 2003, she appeared as a guest with Taj Mahal in an episode of the television series Arthur. In 2009, she performed with Umphrey's McGee at the band's New Year's Eve concert at the Auditorium Theater, in Chicago.

Taylor influenced Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, Janis Joplin, Shannon Curfman, and Susan Tedeschi.

In her later years, she performed over 70 concerts a year and resided just south of Chicago, in Country Club Hills, Illinois.

In 2008, the Internal Revenue Service said that Taylor owed $400,000 in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest, for the years 1998, 2000 and 2001. In those years combined, her adjusted gross income was $949,000.

Taylor's final performance was at the Blues Music Awards, on May 7, 2009. She suffered complications from surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding on May 19 and died on June 3.

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Koko Taylor among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

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L'Rain

Taja Cheek, known professionally as L'Rain, is an American experimentalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and curator known primarily as the lead vocalist and songwriter of her eponymous band. Her self-titled debut, L'Rain, was included in best-of-year lists by publications including Pitchfork and Bandcamp Daily; her second album, Fatigue, was counted among Pitchfork's "Best New Music". She has collaborated with artists including Vagabon, Helado Negro, and Naama Tsabar, and performed with Kevin Beasley at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

L'Rain has been recognized for experimental music that draws on a vast number of traditions and genres in a practice and aesthetic Cheek calls "approaching songness". Reviewers have variously identified her style and influences as including free jazz, ambient, noise music, and disco; experimental pop and dance; "psychedelic orchestral pop" and "distorted shoegaze"; krautrock, outsider music, and hip hop; R&B and avant-garde rock; gospel, funk, and post-punk; and soul, drone, avant-pop, and musique concrète.

Early life and career

Cheek was born and raised in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where she lived with her mother, father, and grandparents. Her father, Wyatt Cheek, worked in music marketing and promotion for entities including Select Records and Kiss FM; her grandmother ran a liquor store; and in the 1950s her grandfather owned a neighborhood jazz club. Cheek's mother, Lorraine C. Porter, taught physical education, health, math, and science in Brooklyn schools. The stage name L'Rain is an homage to Porter, who died before the release of the self-titled debut.

Cheek studied ballet and modern dance at The Ailey School and learned piano, cello, and Baroque recorder before picking up bass in high school, then forming and joining groups that included an Iron Maiden cover band. She attended Yale to study music but dropped the major, citing factors including a lack of diversity among the program's course offerings. She transferred to the American Studies program, where her major included a concentration in visual, audio, literary, and performance cultures; in 2011, she completed her Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction. While at Yale she worked as music director of radio station WYBC and booked shows.

After graduating, Cheek returned to New York. She resumed playing in and co-leading Brooklyn bands including Throw Vision; the group released their debut in 2013 and a 7" EP in 2015. She also began presenting and curating public art, working with organizations such as Creative Time and the High Line. In 2014, Cheek was a site manager for the Funk, God, Jazz, and Medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn exhibit, installing a radio station in a pink Cadillac outside the Utica Avenue A/C subway station in homage to Jitu Weusi, black nationalist community arts center The East, and jazz nonprofit and festival the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium. The same year, she co-organized "The Kara Walker Experience: WE ARE HERE", a public gathering of people of color at the Domino Sugar Refinery for Kara Walker's installation A Subtlety. Cheek began working for contemporary art institution MoMA PS1 in 2016, with curatorial work including co-organizing the Sunday Sessions and Warm Up series; as of 2021, she serves as Associate Curator.

In 2017, Cheek released the self-titled L'Rain on New York City-based label Astro Nautico. She composed and performs vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, guitar, bass, samples, and percussion on the album; L'Rain also features Alex Goldberg, Jeremy Powell, Kyp Malone (of TV on the Radio), and Andrew Lappin, who co-produced the album with Cheek. Pitchfork included L'Rain among their 20 Best Experimental Albums of 2017, and Bandcamp Daily listed the release as #10 in their Best Albums of 2017. L'Rain's second album, Fatigue, was released on Mexican Summer in 2021. The album met with wide acclaim, with positive reviews from outlets including Pitchfork and NPR. Cheek provides vocals and plays guitar, bass, synth, keyboards, piano, percussion, tape effects, and airhorn on the album, which also features an expanded roster of twenty collaborators.

In July 2021, Cheek performed at Mass MOCA after a week-long residency. She toured with Black Midi in the Fall of 2021 and will be touring with Animal Collective in Spring 2022.

Musical style

L'Rain often layers and loops her vocals, and her work frequently features samples from her collection of hundreds of field recordings, some pitch-shifted or otherwise manipulated beyond recognition. She has spoken in interviews about her work's tendency to evade or reject categorization, saying that she is "more interested in a Barthes, Death of the Author, approach to genre", values illegibility, and seeks to complicate assumptions about the relationship between identity and aesthetics: "I’m hyper-aware of how marketing and packaging happens for Black people and women and Black women I like feeling a sense of agency in how those stories are told".

While Cheek is the sole fixed figure in L'Rain recordings and performances, she says the project follows a "more nuanced and collective [model]" than that of the "lone genius or creator": "I’m trying to find a way to nurture my own voice and singular vision, especially as a Black woman musician, while also acknowledging that I work collaboratively with a team that is essential to the project." As of June 2021, L'Rain's bandmates are Ben Chapoteau-Katz, Justin Felton, and Alwyn Robinson.

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Lady Wray

Nicole Monique Wray (born May 2, 1979), also known as simply Nicole, is an American R&B and hip hop singer. Her 1998 debut single "Make It Hot" was certified gold.

Musical career

Wray was born in Salinas, California and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia. After being introduced to Missy Elliott, Wray was featured on Missy's platinum certified debut Supa Dupa Fly. When Elliott started her own label, The Goldmind, the then 17-year-old Wray was the first artist signed. She impressed Elliot with her singing skills.

In 1998, her debut album Make It Hot was released. Heavily criticized for Elliott's heavy-handed involvement (she produced, wrote, and performed on much of the album) the first single, "Make It Hot", peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was certified gold. Her second single, "I Can't See", reached number 36 on the Rhythmic Top 40 chart. Her debut album Make It Hot peaked at number nineteen on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart (number 42 on The Billboard 200) and dropped off by the end of the year. The third single, "Eyes Better Not Wander", peaked at number 71 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Later that year, Wray would sing the hook to "All n My Grill" on Missy Elliott's platinum certified second album, Da Real World.

In July 2001, Wray released "I'm Lookin'", the first single from her planned second album Elektric Blue. "I'm Lookin'" peaked at number 66 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but the album would eventually be shelved.

After amicably parting with The Goldmind, Wray was sought after to feature vocals on various albums and soundtracks. She would go on to sign a new album deal and under the guidance of Damon Dash was featured on Cam'ron's gold certified 2004 release, Purple Haze.

Later that year she released the single, "If I Was Your Girlfriend" from her scheduled Roc-A-Fella Records debut and sophomore studio set LoveChild. Though garnering some buzz, there ultimately was not enough push to release the album. After the temporary halt of Roc-A-Fella, LoveChild would suffer the same fate as its predecessor.

Wray moved through the Dame Dash Music Group, and also Channel 7 Records, garnering several guest vocal appearances.

Still maintaining her work relationship with Damon Dash, Wray joined The Black Keys rock/hip-hop collective Blakroc, and was a major vocal contributor to the group's self-titled November 2009 debut. Wray was then enlisted to add her background vocals on The Black Keys' seventh studio LP, Brothers, which was released in May 2010.

In 2010, she appeared on Kid Cudi's second album Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager on the song "The End", alongside Chip tha Ripper and GLC.

In 2012, Wray teamed up with fellow soulstress Terri Walker to form retro-soul duo Lady. They were signed to Truth and Soul Records and their self-titled debut album was released on March 5, 2013.

In 2016, she announced a new single "Do It Again" and a new album "Queen Alone" set for a September 23, 2016 release date, under her new stage name Lady Wray.

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Lapcat

The inter-continental trio known as Lapcat, comprised of Cate, Jonas and Jean-Jaques, combines Swiss cool with American fun. Born out of a shared love of creative expression, and drawing inspirations from everyday life, Lapcat takes diverse past influences and goes somewhere new. With sounds ranging from melodic vocals and electronic beats, to hip-hop rhythms and sparse instrumentals, the music they make is like dark chocolate with chile: bittersweet and spicy. Moving lyrics and spirited beats create the feeling of traveling to far away places only to find yourself finally at home with the ones you love.

^{Source LapCatMusic.com}

Larsen Gardens

By Jeffrey Brown

Sarah Edmonds, the sole member of Larsen Gardens, told the Daily Cardinal she is on the road looking for magic.

Now, in the opening stretch of her self-booked tour, she lives in her minivan, occasionally staying with friends when possible. The long, uninterrupted stretches of solitude are an experience Edmonds considers sacred saying, “The chance to be alone is a chance to connect to yourself.”

Edmonds’ story begins with piano lessons as a child in Salem, Oregon. She was always fascinated by musical composition. She then moved to Nashville for school and purchased her first guitar — what would become her primary instrument — at 19 or 20 years old.

As a singer for a 16 piece jazz band in the Nashville area, Edmonds grew very familiar with the works of June Christy, Sarah Vaughn and the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald. She said performing the work of these female jazz icons taught her to express the sultry, sensual and intimate side of her voice.

But, these songs, being of their time, center traditional gender norms and the male gaze. She loved the music but felt it could use some updates on its treatment of relationships — something that empowers “the feminine side we push down when we’re scared.”

That’s a large part of what goes into Larsen Gardens... (continued)

^{Source dailycardinal.com}

Lauren Ruth Ward

Declared by music critics as a cross between Janis Joplin, Florence Welch and Courtney Barnett, Lauren Ruth Ward is a force of nature. Her lyrics are secrets to strangers, writing about her life’s trajectory sharing both vulnerability and strength delivered with grit and vibrato. Her band flirts with 1950-90’s rock and roll nuances, allowing Ward to release a powerhouse of raw, visceral emotion in their live show. Her critically acclaimed debut album Well, Hell introduced her too a worldwide audience, with accolades from NYLON, Noisey, Consequence of Sound, The Los Angeles Times, Indie Shuffle and more. She has played to sold out crowds in US and overseas, sharing stages with artists as diverse as Keith Urban, Shirley Manson, Eddie Vedder, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Shakey Graves, LP and Liz Phair. Her band capped off last year with a cover of “White Rabbit” in celebration of Grace Slick’s birthday and paid the same respects for Jim Morrison’s 75th by releasing “Happy Birthday Jim”, a 7 song Doors tribute album which included music videos for all 7 tracks. Ward hit the ground running this year releasing 6 original singles and 3 music videos. This prolific catalog includes; “Valhalla”, “Hungry Barber”, “Pullstring”, “We Are Grown Ups”, “Wise Gal” and soon to be released “Super Bullshit”. “Same Soul”, a collaboration between Ward and Desi Valentine for Jack Daniels, was also released. Ward is addicted to discovering herself. She joined forces with Chris Hess of SWIMM for their side project called Aging Actress, directed/produced a music video for Alicia Blue’s song “Incognito” and will be releasing a 12 track, 5 music video, body of work in the new year. She is inspired by everything and is most thankful for her guitarist / writing partner Eduardo Rivera for nurturing their creative process.

^{Source LaurenRuthWardMusic.com}

Lauryn Hill

Lauryn Noelle Hill (born May 26, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter and rapper, known for being a member of Fugees, and for her solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which won many awards and broke several sales records. Raised mostly in South Orange, New Jersey, Hill began singing with her music-oriented family during her childhood. In high school, Hill was approached by Pras Michel for a band he started, which his friend, Wyclef Jean, soon joined. They renamed themselves the Fugees and released the albums Blunted on Reality (1994), and the Grammy Award–winning The Score (1996), which sold six million copies in the U.S. Hill rose to prominence with her African-American and Caribbean music influences, her rapping and singing, and her rendition of the hit "Killing Me Softly". Her tumultuous romantic relationship with Jean led to the split of the band in 1997, after which she began to focus on solo projects.

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) remains Hill's only solo studio album. It received critical acclaim showcasing a representation of life and relationships and locating a contemporary voice within the neo soul genre. The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 and has sold approximately eight million copies there. This included the singles "Doo Wop (That Thing)" (also a number one), "Ex-Factor" (became her biggest solo hit in UK), and "Everything Is Everything". At the 41st Grammy Awards, the record earned her five awards, including Album of the Year and Best New Artist. During this time, she won several other awards and became a common sight on the cover of magazines.

Soon afterward, Hill dropped out of the public eye, dissatisfied with the music industry and suffering with the pressures of fame. Her last full-length recording, the new-material live album MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 (2002), sharply divided critics and sold poorly compared to her first album and work with the Fugees. Hill's subsequent activity, which includes the release of a few songs and occasional festival appearances, has been sporadic. Her behavior has sometimes caused audience dissatisfaction; a reunion with her former group did not last long. Her music and public statements have become critical of pop culture and societal institutions. Hill has six children, five of them with Rohan Marley. In 2012 she pleaded guilty to tax evasion and served a three-month prison sentence the following year.

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