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CD to help fight domestic violence Photo by Jim Craven Jan Sterling contributed her song, "Coming on Home." Holly Near joins local performers in show plugging the benefit album By BILL VARBLE It sounds like something out of an old Mickey Rooney movie. Hey, let's put on a show! Actually, Linda Hugle's original idea was for an album of women's music. The CD would raise money to fight domestic violence. The show is to promote the CD. Concert WHO: Holly Near, Irene Farrera, Alice DiMicele, others. WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday. WHERE: Grants Pass Performing Arts Center. TICKETS: $13, $16, $19 and $22 reserved. Call 858-7166 or 472-4016. "That's what recording artists do," Marianne Wunch says. Hugle, of Rogue River, enlisted Wunch, of Medford, and Sue Cohen and Jeri Holt, both of Grants Pass, in the CD/concert project. Why not plan a concert for Mother's Day, the women thought, maybe get a famous singer to headline, somebody like Holly Near? And that's why Near is joining more than a dozen women singers and songwriters Saturday in a benefit for the Grants Pass-based Women's Crisis Support Team. It's why you can get the new CD "A Voice of One's Own" (WCST, $15) at The Book Stop in Grants Pass, Musichead in Medford and Rare Earth in Ashland. And it's why you have women like Diana Woarty sharing a stage with Near. The 44-year-old Phoenix woman had sung at weddings and coffeehouses, but never on a bill with the likes of Near and professional singers like Alice DiMicele or Irene Farrera. "It's exciting," she says. Organizers (Hugle, Holt and Cohen have long-time connections with WCST; Wunch has music and theater experience) began by putting out a call for songs through the Southern Oregon Songwriters Association last fall. More than 75 songs rolled in. Some women sent homemade tapes, some sent just lyrics. There were stories of friendship, home, dreams. "They weren't just about domestic violence," Wunch says. Woarty says the theme "women's stories" caught her eye. "Being a woman, I write about that," she says. She went into Mountain View studios in Wilderville to cut the upbeat "You Can Make Your Dreams Come True" with local musicians and technicians. Others came aboard. Of 15 tracks on the CD, six were produced locally for the project. Others are from previously released albums, donated by the performers. Recording sessions took place at Mountain View Productions near Grants Pass, Oregon Sound Recording in Medford and Lightsound Productions in Ashland. Hugle, Cohen, Holt and Wunch produced with help from Selma musician Carol Valentine and old pro producer Shaun Harris of Medford. They had help from Southern Oregon musicians Andy Pimental, Chris Berbick, Tom Butterbaugh and Dennis Egil and technical help from Bob Pagano, Sean McCoy and Richard Williams. For more, check out www.womensmusic.org Jane Sterling, 46, of Ashland, contributed "Coming On Home," a beautiful ballad from the CD "Graced." It's her first album, which she produced with Ashland instrumentalist Richard Williams. "I thought it was a great idea when I heard about it," Sterling says. "But I didn't get the scope of the project. "They said they were going to do a show, but I didn't know it was going to be an 800-seat theater." "Wise Old Woman" is a live version of a song Alice DeMicele says took her 13 years to get. Bobbi Kidder's "Boat on the Water" sounds like a tune Bonnie Raitt would do. "Jealousy" features a beautiful vocal turn by Leslie Kendall. There's "Full Bodied Woman," a blues by Laurie McNulty in the vein of "I'm a Woman." Nancy Holly contributed "The Women I'm Around," a tribute to her distaff relatives. "Started Out Fine" is a classic Holly Near song about a woman who's more attached to her child than a boyfriend. When she isn't recording (17 albums), singing with Judy Collins, Dar Williams and Pete Seeger, or being honored by Ms. Magazine, Near often wears the hat of an activist for women, children and peace. "We did not know her," Wunch says. "We just took a chance." Near hails originally from Ukiah, Calif. If the CD title suggests Virginia Wolfe's seminal feminist essay, " A Room of One's Own," it's purely intentional. "We did come from that," Wunch says. "We didn't feel like 'women's stories' was a strong title." The women are dedicating the CD and the show to long-time WCST director Esther Jackson, who died recently. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA