w/ Vicki Randle, Barbara Higbie, Shelley Doty, Julie Wolf & very special guests
a reception and photo exhibit by Irene Young follows the show
$42 adv / $46 door - SOLD OUT
00
We are sold out of advance tickets for this show. Standing room only tickets will be available once the concert starts at 7pm.
Forty years ago, from their offices in a modest home in Los Angeles, a collective of young radical lesbians released a record album that was to become the soundtrack of a movement. Olivia Records, as the collective was known, recorded and released Cris Williamson's The Changer and the Changed, which quickly became one of the most successful recordings of the time and sparked the music genre that would become known as Women's Music. The Changer and the Changed was as much a political and cultural statement as it was entertainment—and is as powerful and relevant today as it was in 1975.
Bonnie Raitt has described Cris' voice as “like honey on a cello” and The Boston Globe has praised her as “a brilliant composer and lyricist.” Her tasteful covers and inspired originals, as well as her politics, have made her a force in the American music scene since she released her classic album, The Changer and the Changed, 40 years ago. Born in Deadwood, South Dakota, raised in the wilds of Wyoming and Colorado, Cris recorded her first album at the age of 16. In the early 1970s, she inspired the founding of Olivia Records and helped create an audience for women’s music, music made for and by women. Since then, she’s gone on to make more than thirty albums and performs throughout the US and Canada. As an advocate for Native Americans, she performed with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, Floyd Westerman, and John Trudell on the Water for Life Tour. As an advocate for preserving the world’s rain forests, she’s played with Danny O’Keefe and Keb Mo. And as a constant and fierce supporter of women's rights, she's taken the stage with Gloria Steinem, Billie Jean King, Holly Near and Kate Clinton, to name a few. For Cris, the music has always been a vehicle for something larger, the art of the possible, the song of the soul.
Join the Celebration as we come together to honor 40 years of Community. Join us as we celebrate Life. Love. Music and all we have Changed.
San Francisco native Vicki Randle started teaching herself to play Beatles songs on a battered Silvertone acoustic guitar when she was nine years old, and she’s been in love with music ever since. Her jazz pianist father gave her an appetite for improvisation, and artists like Joni Mitchell, Ella Fitzgerald, and Led Zeppelin gave her an appreciation of musical diversity. She has toured with George Benson, Laura Nyro, and Kenny Loggins, recorded with Aretha Franklin, and spent 18 years as the first and only woman in the band on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Currently, Vicki tours as a back-up singer and percussionist for the legendary Mavis Staples.
Berkeley’s Barbara Higbie is a master of piano and fiddle who composes beautiful music and sings like a dream. She’s been nominated for a Grammy award, won Bammy awards, performed on more than 65 albums, and released four solo albums, as well as two albums with Teresa Trull and three with Montreux, the band she co-founded with Darol Anger. In the words of the Los Angeles Times, she’s a “jolt of bright sunlight” – and everyone in the audience feels her warmth.
Shelley Doty grew up in Berkeley listening mostly to jazz, and didn’t imagine herself as a musician until her brothers turned her on to rock and roll. She co-founded the popular West Coast band Jambay, touring relentlessly and releasing three independent albums before disbanding in 1996. Since then she’s immersed herself in a wide array of projects, leading the Shelley Doty X-tet and co-writing and performing music for the animated science fiction film Strange Frame: Love and Sax. The East Bay Express has praised her album Over the Line for its “vast reserves of upbeat creative energy,” “deep and soulful groove,” and “jubilantly jazzy vocals.”
Oakland’s Julie Wolf is a composer, teacher, and master of the accordion who has worked with Maceo Parker, Ani DiFranco, the Indigo Girls, Medusa, and Bruce Cockburn, as well as composing music for films and serving as music director for the Berkeley Rep’s 2010 world premiere of Girlfriend. Much in demand, Sonic Wolf Productions houses Julie's music production work, where she specializes in composing for film and movie images, sound design, music editing and record producing. Sonic Wolf Productions is housed in the legendary Saul Zaentz Media Center in Berkeley, as is Fantasy Studios where Julie is an in-house producer.
Acclaimed music photographer, Irene Young, will present a rare exhibit of Women’s Music photographs, spanning the 40 years since the birth of Cris Williamson’s Changer and The Changed. Young has photographed musicians for over 600 album covers across several genres of music, as well as countless images used for promotion in magazines and newspapers worldwide.
Forty years ago, from their offices in a modest home in Los Angeles, a collective of young radical lesbians released a record album that was to become the soundtrack of a movement. Olivia Records, as the collective was known, recorded and released Cris Williamson's The Changer and the Changed, which quickly became one of the most successful recordings of the time and sparked the music genre that would become known as Women's Music. The Changer and the Changed was as much a political and cultural statement as it was entertainment—and is as powerful and relevant today as it was in 1975.
