The Suffragette Sessions


Irving Plaza, New York, Sept. 3, 1998


On paper, the Suffragette Sessions Tour was an ambitious idea from the start. As a sort of art-house, how-much-more-alternative-can-you-get alternative to the commercial monster that is Lilith, Suffragette was the brainchild of Lilith veterans Emily Saliers and Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls. The idea was for a communal affair in which everyone involved -- no matter how obscure their name or inaccessible their music -- got equal stage time. And the Indigo Girls, to their credit, walk a delicate line between running the show and pretending to be only a small part of it. But no matter how Utopian the idea, the result is sort of like being forced to take your medicine. You know it's meant to be good for you, but it's not always easy to swallow.

The entire cast, if you will, consisted of about twelve musicians from diverse musical backgrounds. The Indigo Girls, known for their breakthrough style of folk & roll, were the most famous. Kate Shellenbach represented Luscious Jackson's brand of punk meets funk. Lisa Germano added a heavy dose of the singer-songwriter vibe, marked by a vulnerable sincerity that seemed to say, "If you hurt me, it's your loss." Lourdes Perez, a Latin-American singer, performed songs in Spanish and Gene Smith performed (gasp) spoken-word poetry.

Smith, in a nutshell, sort of represented everything that could and did go wrong with the equal-opportunity format of the evening. Why is it that no one can parody spoken-word artists as well as the artists themselves? Smith's rants, accompanied by Thalia Zadek's screeching guitar feedback, were flimsy chronicles of (what else?) dysfunctional families treated with a disingenuous touch that probably had Virginia Woolf rolling in her grave. One audience member asked out loud, "Now what? Interpretive dance?"

If Smith represented the evening's nadir, Perez provided the most refreshing diversity. Her deep voice and dramatic phrasing reminds one that even opera was once a folk art. One of the show's highlights was a swift, upbeat version of the Indigo Girls' normally staid "Power of Two" during which Perez traded Spanish lines with Saliers' English. Gail Ann Dorsey, a sometime back-up singer for the Indigo Girls on tour, also wowed the crowd with a voice that was equal parts soul, folk and gospel, similar to Tuck and Patti but without the schmaltz. And when she broke into the unmistakable opening bars of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust," she revealed herself as a bona fide hipster to boot.

In the also-ran category, Tracy Bonham failed to leave much of an impression with her solo violin improvisation, while Jane Siberry was more notable for her stage presence and enthusiasm than for her music, content to contribute her talents on piano, accordian and vocal harmonies to the works of others. Come's Zadek added an alt-rock flavor to the night with her straight-forward strumming and rough-hewn voice. Other musicians, including Indigo Girls and B-52s bassist Sara Lee and Josephine Wiggs of the Breeders, seemed content to play supporting roles.

Given the range of eclectic styles covered in such a relatively short time, Suffragette Sessions packs a lot of artistic bang for your buck. It's a heady mixture to take in all at once, but it's ultimately a risky musical experiment essentially gone right -- albeit a little sloppy and self-indulgent in execution.

JAMIE COWPERTHWAIT