Show 008 – Women Gain the Upper Hand (2018-03-24)

In just about all genres of music, songwriters have written about women treated badly, or killed, or left behind to weep in self-pity, or languish as they await a man to come rescue them. As members of a (mostly) all-woman Celtic band, Katie and Joe have always been on the lookout for songs where the opposite is true: female characters in songs outwitting their foes, toughing it out with their knuckles raw, and their rapier blades stained in vengeance with the blood of the hapless or cruel men who got in their way. The only problem is that songs like this are still far too rare, so we had to wander musically down into the Border country and England to gather some of them. We think that these songs are worth it! If you have some favorite “women gain the upper hand” songs, email the titles to us!We also discuss the Fair Pl? movement addressing gender inequality in Traditional Irish music, which was first started by Karan Casey after she looked around a festival lineup and noticed that she was the only female artist out of eighteen. Although there are many excellent female performers in Celtic-oriented music, the music festivals and large media outtlets still feature preponderantly male artists. Is it willful or just laziness?

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