Cris Williamson (born 1947) is an American
feminist singer-songwriter and recording artist. She was a visible lesbian political activist, during an era when few who were unconnected to the
lesbian community were aware of
Gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
and Lesbian issues. Williamson's music and insight have served as a catalyst for change in the creation of women-owned
record companies
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produc ...
in the 1970s. Using her musical talents, networking with other artists working in
Women's music
Women's music is music by women, for women, and about women. The genre emerged as a musical expression of the second-wave feminist movement as well as the labor, civil rights, and peace movements. The movement (in the USA) was started by lesbia ...
, and her willingness to represent those who did not yet feel safe in speaking for themselves, Williamson is credited by many in the
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
community for her contributions, both artistically, and politically, and continues to be a
role model for a younger generation hoping to address concerns and obtain recognition for achievements specific to people who have historically been ignored.
Biography
Early years
Williamson was born in 1947 in
Deadwood, South Dakota
Deadwood (Lakota: ''Owáyasuta''; "To approve or confirm things") is a city that serves as county seat of Lawrence County, South Dakota, United States. It was named by early settlers after the dead trees found in its gulch. The city had it ...
,
although her family moved to
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
and
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...
when she was still young. Williamson has recalled that she lived in a small isolated town and at some expense, was taken to piano lessons by her mother from when she was around 5 or 6 years of age. Her mother insisted that "no matter how far out in the mountains or the wilderness we are, my kids are going to have culture."
Her musical idol at the time was
Judy Collins, and Williamson developed a musical style and sound that was similar to that of Collins. She released her first album, ''The Artistry of Cris Williamson'' in 1964, when she was sixteen.
She became a local musical sensation in
Sheridan, Wyoming
Sheridan is a town in the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Sheridan County. The town is located halfway between Yellowstone Park and Mount Rushmore by U.S. Route 14 and 16. It is the principal town of the Sheridan, Wyoming, Micropo ...
, releasing two following
LPs afterward.
Williamson graduated from the
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...
. She supported herself initially as a
school teacher,
while at the same time collaborating with other women who were also singer-songwriters and performing artists. She began to network with
Holly Near
Holly Near (born June 6, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist.
Early years
Holly Near was born in Ukiah, California, United States, and was
raised on a ranch in Potter Valley, California. She was eight years ...
,
Meg Christian, and
Margie Adam
Margie Adam (born 1947) is an American musician and composer.
Early life and education
Margie Adam was born in 1947 in Lompoc, California. Her father was a newspaper publisher who composed music on the side, and her mother was a classical pian ...
, all musicians who became women artists of stature, forming an entirely new genre of music, primarily about and for women.
Career
Olivia Records
Williamson became close friends with
Meg Christian and during a radio interview in Washington, D.C. in 1973, when Christian was discussing the challenges with her record label, Williamson is recorded as asking "well, why don’t you just start a women’s record company?" A group, which became the Olivia collective, met two days later and decided to establish a women’s record label aimed at gay women.
The
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
label
Olivia Records
Olivia Records is a women's music record label founded in 1973 by lesbian members of the Washington D.C. area. It was founded by Ginny Berson, Cris Williamson, Meg Christian, Judy Dlugacz, and six other women. Olivia Records sold more than one m ...
was founded the next day.
The founders of the label saw it as an opportunity to build on the increased awareness of lesbian feminist causes and give gay women a voice in the cultural mainstream that reflected their experiences. The founders also aimed to "keep profits in the pockets of lesbian artists and sound technicians, and power in the hands of female label heads who would create alternative channels for production and distribution in an industry controlled by men."
The label was criticised at the time as being discriminatory, but Williamson said they were "for women, not against men...
dding..why is it like that, the dichotomy? It's a false equivalency. It's a way to dumb it down and take the power out of it."
Olivia Records released Williamson's ''The Changer and the Changed'' (1975) which became one of the best-selling independent releases of all time.
Described as "the cornerstone of the feminist 'women's music' movement",
the album was rated in 2017 as number 123 on the
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
(National Public Radio) list of the greatest albums made by women.
''The Changer and the Changed'' was also the first LP to be entirely produced by women, and is the all-time best-selling album to come out of the
women's music
Women's music is music by women, for women, and about women. The genre emerged as a musical expression of the second-wave feminist movement as well as the labor, civil rights, and peace movements. The movement (in the USA) was started by lesbia ...
genre. As William Ruhlmann of ''
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
'' writes:
:"''The Changer and the Changed'' was to
women's music
Women's music is music by women, for women, and about women. The genre emerged as a musical expression of the second-wave feminist movement as well as the labor, civil rights, and peace movements. The movement (in the USA) was started by lesbia ...
what
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
's ''
Thriller'' was to the music industry in general in the mid-'80s, an album that sold far beyond the perceived size of the market, more than 100,000 copies in its first year of release. Eventually, it reportedly sold more than 500,000 copies, which would make it a gold album, although it has not been certified as such by the RIAA. (That does not disprove the sales estimate, however. Albums are not certified automatically; a record company must request certification and pay for an audit.)"
Williamson went on to record more than a dozen further albums with Olivia Records, then after its demise formed her own label, Wolf Moon Records. This helped to set the pace for other recording artists who found it difficult to work with the
major record labels
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produc ...
.
In 1982, she collaborated with Estonian artist/author Viido Polikarpus on a science fiction/fantasy fable LP and book (with Polikarpos' artwork) entitled ''Lumiere'', which was released on Pacific Cascade Records.
Personal life
Williamson recorded two albums with her long-time producer and
lover,
Tret Fure
Tret Fure is an American singer-songwriter, prominent in the women's music and folk music scene.
The musical career of Tret Fure has spanned five decades. Fure began her career at the age of 16, singing in coffeehouses and campuses in the Midw ...
. The first of these of these, recorded in the fall of 1982, was a children's album called ''Lumiere ...A Science-Fantasy Fable'', which won a
Parents' Choice Award
The Parents' Choice Award was an award presented by the non-profit Parents' Choice Foundation to recognize "the very best products for children of different ages and backgrounds, and of varied skill and interest levels." It was considered a "prest ...
.
Fure is said to have helped "add a more produced, harder-rocking sound to Williamson's LPs ''Prairie Fire'' and ''Wolf Moon''...
nd..with ''Postcards from Paradise'', the two abandoned their solo careers to form a permanent duo act."
Williamson and Fure ended their 20-year relationship in 2000, and each now records as a solo artist.
[Kort, Michelle (accessed July 15, 2007]
Dated August 15, 2000 ''The Advocate'' "The Changer and the Changed"
Williamson has worked as a
session musician both to support herself and to lend assistance to other fellow artists. She has collaborated with other
women's music
Women's music is music by women, for women, and about women. The genre emerged as a musical expression of the second-wave feminist movement as well as the labor, civil rights, and peace movements. The movement (in the USA) was started by lesbia ...
artists, including
Meg Christian and
Teresa Trull
Teresa Trull is an American female singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer from Durham, North Carolina. She is recognized as a pioneer in Women's music, with her debut album ''The Ways a Woman Can Be'' released on Olivia Records in 19 ...
. She has friends in many corners; one longtime friend is musician
Bonnie Raitt, who has played on some of her albums.
Political activism and charity work
Williamson has been a lesbian feminist and a promoter of women owned music companies.
Writing in the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' in 1984, Steve Pond noted that Williamson was "initially put off by the political stridency of the early Olivia scene" but became more active and in the same article she is quoted as saying: "There are a lot of broken women in the women's movement, women just edged and barbed and ready to go off, and a lot of women who simply do not want Olivia to change."
She has worked on a teaching project with
Bonnie Raitt that offered songwriting workshops called 'Catch and Release.'
Sampled by J Dilla
Williamson's "Shine on Straight Arrow" was sampled by late hip hop producer
J Dilla
J, or j, is the tenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its usual name in English is ''jay'' (pronounced ), with a now-uncommon vari ...
in the song "The Red" from the 2003 album ''
Champion Sound
''Champion Sound'' is the only studio album by the duo Jaylib ( hip hop musicians J Dilla and Madlib). Half of the songs are produced by Madlib and feature J Dilla on vocals, and the other half are produced by J Dilla and feature Madlib on voca ...
''
(with Madlib
Otis Jackson Jr. (born October 24, 1973), known professionally as Madlib, is an American DJ, music producer, multi-instrumentalist, and rapper. He is widely known for his collaborations with MF DOOM (as Madvillain), J Dilla (as Jaylib), ...
as Jaylib)''.''
Awards
On 12 September 2022 Williamson received the Jack Emerson Lifetime Achievement Award from the
Americana Music Association along with Judy Dlugacz who co-founded Olivia Records. At the ceremony, Williamson noted: "We've sold out
Carnegie Hall three times. This is the first time we've been acknowledged by the industry...
dding..a woman singing to another woman...it’s not such a big deal now, because now love is love is love."
Discography
*1964 ''The Artistry of Cris Williamson''
*1965 ''A Step at a Time''
*1965 ''The World Around Cris Williamson''
*1971 ''Cris Williamson''
*1975 ''The Changer and the Changed''
*1978 ''Live Dream''
*1980 ''Strange Paradise''
*1982 ''Blue Rider''
*1982 ''Lumière''
*1983 ''Meg/Cris at Carnegie Hall''
*1985 ''Prairie Fire''
*1985 ''Snow Angel''
*1987 ''Wolf Moon''
*1989 ''Country Blessed'' (with
Teresa Trull
Teresa Trull is an American female singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer from Durham, North Carolina. She is recognized as a pioneer in Women's music, with her debut album ''The Ways a Woman Can Be'' released on Olivia Records in 19 ...
)
*1990 ''The Best of Cris Williamson''
*1991 ''Live in Concert: Circle of Friends''
*1994 ''Postcards from Paradise''
*1997 ''Between the Covers''
*1999 ''Radio Quiet''
*2001 ''Ashes''
*2003 ''Cris & Holly'' (with
Holly Near
Holly Near (born June 6, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist.
Early years
Holly Near was born in Ukiah, California, United States, and was
raised on a ranch in Potter Valley, California. She was eight years ...
)
*2003 ''Replay''
*2005 ''The Essential Cris Williamson''
*2005 ''Real Deal''
*2005 ''The Changer and the Changed: A Record of the Times''
0th Anniversary Enhanced*2007 ''Fringe''
*2008 ''Winter Hearts''
*2010 ''Gifthorse''
*2013 ''Pray Tell''
*2017 ''Motherland''
*2022 ''Harbor Street''
References
External links
*
*
*
Some of Cris' biographical and professional information
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williamson, Cris
1947 births
Living people
American women singer-songwriters
American feminists
American folk singers
Feminist musicians
LGBT people from South Dakota
Lesbian artists
Lesbian feminists
American lesbian musicians
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
People from Deadwood, South Dakota
People from Sheridan, Wyoming
Women's music
Guitarists from Wyoming
Guitarists from South Dakota
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
20th-century American women guitarists
20th-century American guitarists
American LGBT singers
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
Singer-songwriters from Wyoming
Singer-songwriters from South Dakota