A Conversation with Linda Tillery and Mary Watkins
and June Millington have brought in pop/rock influences; Izquierda and Holly Near have drawn on Latin rhythms. Watkins and Tillery are largely responsible for the strong strain in women's music of various black musical idioms-jazz, rhythm and blues, gospel. I spoke with Tillery and Watkins the day after their featured performance at a women's music festival in Austin, Texas. The festival had been a perfect illustration of the eclecticism of women's music. All the performers except these two were local, and all were women, but they represented many different musical traditions. The circumstances of the interview seemed to steer the conversation toward the topics of originality versus tradition, the dynamics between the musician and the audience, and women in music. And because I believe that we owe it to ourselves and our artists to understand the processes of their art, I asked some theoretical questions about how songs are written, how arrangements are established, how it feels to collaborate with other musicians, and what is involved in the recording process.