Here’s the thing: My plan was for Ladysound to be mostly posts about awesome bands with women in them, written by people who love those bands*, with the occasional bit of analysis on women in music and such thrown in. But then, I thought it would be bad if the posts were too infrequent, so I started trying to keep up with bands that I don’t so much love as like a lot, so that I’d have more stuff to tell you all. Which was hard, because keeping track of bands is a lot of work if you don’t love them, and so then I got burnt out and the posts got really, seriously infrequent.

So! From this point forwards, I’m going to focus mainly on awesome bands that I am a huge fan of, which is what I should have been focusing on all along**. If I neglect some band that deserves more attention on here, then email me and offer to write about them for Ladysound, and I will almost certainly be overjoyed to add you to our contributors list.

In the more immediate future, look for a post this weekend about The Runaways [link has sound], which I saw yesterday and which has stuck in my head.

In the present/immediate past, I do not think I can recommend Ladypalooza over at Tiger Beatdown highly enough. It’s a series of posts on women and music by smart, funny, feminist bloggers, curated by Sady Doyle (the proprietress of Tiger Beatdown). It’s awesome. Seriously. Go read it.

*Or are in them, but if you’re in an awesome band than I’m hoping you love it, so this still covers you.
**There was a post on NxEW a while ago that helped make this clear to me, and I would totally link it, but I can’t find it now. Sorry.

Ladysound: I see that you’ve done a fair bit of touring this year. Does anything stand out from the last six months?

Ruth Minnikin: Last month I was touring throughout England with my brother Gabe. We played a couple festivals and Truck Festival, just outside Oxford was a real treat!!!

For one, it’s organized by the Bennetts, a super-duper family that I’ve known since back in the Guthries days (99–02). They are very generous, lovely, and talented folks!

For two, Supergrass was headlining the main stage and I am a massive Supergrass fan!

For three, we met and hung out with Gary Louris and Mark Olson, the two songwriters from the  Jayhawks. At the end of the night there was a great jam session where everyone joined in. I even took the harmony as Gary Louris sang their hit ‘Blue’!! Very inspiring night!!! Oh how I can’t wait until next year’s festival!!!

Ladysound: Aside from next year’s Truck Festival, what are your plans for the near future? Are you doing any more touring before your new album comes out this fall, or are you sticking pretty close to home for a bit?

Ruth Minnikin: I’ve just been playing shows around the Maritimes, Pugwash NS, Five Islands NS, Petite Reveire NS, Hampton NB, Sackville NB, Charlottetown PE…

I did get a showcase at CMJ in New York in October (20–24), so I’ll be playing some shows through Ontario and Quebec on the way home to my release!!

On November 7th, I have a showcase with Nova Scotia Music Week in Yarmouth NS. I’ve never played down there before, so that should be good fun too!

For December, I always do charity work taking photos of kids and Santa (my degree is in media arts) at the shopping centre in Halifax. We usually raise around $10 000.00 for various causes.

In the new year, I’ll start doing the conference scene again, Folk Alliance in Memphis, ECMAs in Sydney Cape Breton, SXSW in Austin TX, and CMW in T.O.

In May, I’ll head back to the UK to play a couple festivals and then onto summer fun!!!

I’m pleased to see a few of my personal favourites in there, including albums from Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos and PJ Harvey.  There are a few others that didn’t make the cut that I’ve had on high rotation over the years, and are definitely on my essential list:

Sheryl Crow’s Tuesday Night Music Club (1993).  Sure, we all got a little sick of hearing the summer anthem “All I Wanna Do” every time we turned on the radio - but the album is an excellent collection of songs, showcasing Crow’s songwriting ability and range.  Who can listen to “Strong Enough” without feeling a bit of a tug on the old heart strings?

The Cranberries’ second album, No Need to Argue (1994).  ”Zombie” was a massive hit for the Cranberries, and one of their best songs, but there are several other gems on this album, including the sweet “Ode to My Family” and the dramatic and lovely “Daffodil’s Lament”.

No Angel (1999), Dido’s debut album, which achieved widespread popularity two years after its original release, becoming the top-selling album of 2001 both in the U.K. and worldwide.  ”Resting Here With Me” was the theme song for Roswell, which probably helped the album’s success.  It’s a shame Dido’s more recent efforts haven’t lived up to the standard she set with this album.

Norah Jones’s Come Away with Me (2002).  This easy listening jazz album is the perfect mellow accompaniment to curling up by the fire on a chilly day with a good book and a glass of wine.

There are so many great albums from talented women out there!

Mann gets bonus points for her appearance on an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - she and her band played at The Bronze, and rocked Spike’s socks off with their performance of Pavlov’s Bell. 

If you’re on the west coast, don’t miss out on seeing her live.

It’s a pretty awesome list, but it doesn’t have any audio, so I’ve rounded up some sites with audio or video from all twelve (links after the jump).

• Joan Jett
• Lita Ford
• Nancy Wilson (official site is here, but I couldn’t get the audio on it to work)
  
• Jennifer Batten
• Donita Sparks
• Kelley Deal (click “mp3 player” at the top of the page)
• Carrie Brownstein
• Poison Ivy
• Ruyter Suys
• The Great Kat (scroll about halfway down to find the mp3 samples)
• Marnie Stern
• Orianthi

It’s much better than that sentence made it sound.  Go read it.