In California, a month before the Stonewall Riots in 1969, Maxine Feldman penned a song, “Angry Atthis,” about the shame surrounding lesbians. She didn’t know where she was going to sing her new song until comedy duo Harrison and Tyler asked her to open their shows. On the other side of the country and three years later, Alix Dobkin released Lavender Jane Loves Women, the first record produced, engineered and played by women.

Maxine and Alix had no business plan. They didn’t fit the mold set by mainstream music but they saw great potential to create a powerful soundtrack for women claiming their place as lesbians and feminists. A myriad of musicians joined them, from a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, to singer-songwriter Cris Williamson, to activist/singer Holly Near, to jazz/classical/gospel performer Mary Watkins and many more; collectively they have sold millions of albums.

Venues, radio shows, record distributors, and sound technicians sprung up to host and work with these musicians. Grateful fans traveled hundreds of miles to attend performances. These women (and a few men) created artist-run independent record labels—perhaps the first in history—and organized music festivals that drew thousands and still exist today. Before Lilith Fair and riot grrrls, there was women’s music!

“I stood in those crowds, sang along with Meg Christian and Casse Culver and women who played rock & roll and bluegrass and all the music that echoed in my bloodstream. Jamie Anderson has caught the lightning and put it on the page.”  - Dorothy Allison

Jamie Anderson is a prolific writer published in many journals, on her popular blog site, and in several books including her memoir, Drive All Night. A long time fan of women’s music, her work has appeared in Curve, SingOut!, AfterEllen.com, Acoustic Guitar, and Sinister Wisdom. Jamie’s also a touring singer-songwriter who’s played in hundreds of venues, releasing eleven albums along the way.

Jamie Anderson's profile page

Fascinating and detailed, the book covers everything from the improvisational creation of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival to the problems that musicians and fans faced when crossing the US-Canada border to attend shows. Interviews, anecdotes, and photographs combine to pay tribute to the brilliant, determined women who banded together to create a unique, inspirational movement.

An Army of Lovers is a thorough insider’s look at the women’s music industry.—Forward Reviews

The women’s music networks were for many of us where we gathered to sing and stomp and share the pulsing rhythms of our lives. This book captures that sense of exhilaration, enthusiasm and possibility so many of us celebrated. What it also does is detail the history of how women rewrote the rules of production and distribution, putting together all kind of women who could rent a theater or church or basement hall so that we could come together and sing the lyrics that detailed what we hoped to accomplish—a revolutionary poetry, an alternative network of women making their own way in the world. When there were no spaces where we could hear our musicians, we made those spaces and along the way remade the rules for what women could accomplish on the neighborhood level. I stood in those crowds, sang along with Meg Christian and Casse Culver and women who played rock & roll and bluegrass and all the music that echoed in my bloodstream. Jamie Anderson has caught the lightning and put it on the page.—Dorothy Allison