Sound Check
Singer Sarah Blacker gives rising female artists room to soar
emale singers, musicians and bookers are a major part of the local music scene, but we are still a long way from parity. Turns out the sound guy is, well, almost always a guy.
“If a woman is talking to a sound guy and has specific requests, she can be considered a diva,” singer-songwriter-guitarist Sarah Blacker said. “But a man, well, he just knows what he wants.”
Blacker points to some great rooms with sound women — the Tin Angel in Philly, Club Passim here in Cambridge — but from sound engineers to club owners and managers, the industry is dominated by males. The impact of the inequality means women have to deal with everything from discrimination to harassment, Blacker said.
“It can be harder for women to negotiate a good guarantee at a club or even book a show,” she said. “Then when you get the show, the hardest part can be being at the club. Talking with the sound person or setting up merch, you keep worrying, ‘Is this person going to hit on me?’”
To spotlight female-fronted acts and make further inroads for women in the industry, Blacker created the Soul Sister Revue. Almost a mini festival, the revue connects women with varying degrees of experience and builds unique bills around New England — the first two took place in Beverly and Portsmouth, N.H.; the third, featuring Blacker, the Dirty Dottys and Abbie Barrett, is tomorrow at Somerville’s Thunder Road.
“Ruby Rose Fox put me on a female-fronted bill (in October 2016), and it was such a great experience,” Blacker said. “I wanted to take that experience and bring it to other women.”
Blacker plans to roll out more Soul Sister Revues around New England every couple of months and is talking about programming with venues in Maine and Vermont.
Artistically, Blacker is one of our most ingenious talents. (Go to bostonherald.com to see exclusive video of her performing.) She’s folk and rock, Americana and prog all at once. Two of her sharpest, smartest, most staggering songs made my list of the best songs of 2015. Tomorrow’s bill is filled out by Abbie Barrett, who shares Blacker’s sharp sense of songwriting craft, and soulpop sensation the Dirty Dottys (think Lake Street Dive).
“This bill is full of people whose talent I really admire,” Blacker said. “That is a big part of doing this, just getting the chance to play with people I think are great.”
For audiences, the music remains the most important thing. But for the musicians, Blacker does love providing a forum where women can connect and talk about their experiences in the industry.
“Most of us have men in our bands, but it is still a different feel in the green room,” she said. “To not be the only woman, like we often are show after show, is refreshing.” Soul Sister Revue, featuring Sarah Blacker & New England Groove Association, the Dirty Dottys and Abbie Barrett & the Last Date, at Thunder Road, 379 Somerville Ave., Somerville, tomorrow. $12; thunder roadclub.com.