For years, women were excluded from the boys-only rock 'n' roll club Today, a growing number of female artists are bridging the gender gap in the local music scene.
by Joime Netzer
She Rocks
(above) Kate Furst of Dot,
Surprise DJs at the Eighth
Street Tap Room, 801 New
Hampshire Street. Saturday
night. First is in the al-
female group with Megan
Brown (left) and Katlyn Conry
conforms with other Holiday
March 1 at the Bottleneck,
737 New Hampshire Street.
10→ JAYPLAY 03.15.2007
Kaltyn Conny, an 18-year-old high school student from Kansas City, Mo. steps up onto the slightly elevated wooden stage. It's bitterly cold outside, but Conny is dressed in a thin lacey white top and a short denim skirt. An asymmetrical slip fades underneath the frayed denim. And Conny bears legs meet white leather boots that fold at her ankles.
Conny plays with Another Holiday, an indie-pop band based in Lawrence. As they took the stage and she settled herself behind her keyboard and pushed her unkempt hair out of her face, I wondered what had happened to her. Did she do any of the writing? Did she always dress up for shows?
When I first saw Conry walk into P5 Restaurant and Pub, 1129 Laramie St. in Manhattan, I assumed she was dating someone in the band. I watched the doorman placemant black PX on her hands and wondered why she was at the club long before the show would start. She looked so confident, five-piece band for the past three years, I still made the assumption that this girl wouldn't be sharing the bill with me that night.
Conny is part of a relatively small population of female musicians in the city. She plays saxophone at lafrance.com lists 317 local bands, only a handful of those bands have
Rock and roll has traditionally been a boy's club, and women who have pursued careers in rock have often had their own clubs. However, the expanding presence of an alternative and independent music force has helped to carve a new niche for rock.
have otherwise gone unheard
Elvis stole my music
Most people place the birth of rock in roll around 1954, with the arrival of Bill Haley and the Comets. Women's presence in popular music actually pre-dated men's; says Susan Shaw, co-author of Girl Rock' 50 years of Women Making Music for both women, both African-American music was not available to her, she says, "Big Mama Teraon recorded Hound Dog long before Eva got a hold of it," Shay says.
Because these women were kept out of the public eye, young girls had very few role models to look to Shaw says. Without examples of men succeeding in rock young girls did not proof that it was possible.
Parents usually aren't much help either, rule Lale, keyboardist and vocalist for the Lawrence-based band. But most young girls' parents don't encourage them to buy electric guitars or amplifiers. Lale, who plays with the band's childhood, says that most young girls took lessons for some other
Aaron Couch, Overland Park junior and guitarist for Another Holiday, remembers when he was in middle school and first played guitar. When he was playing jazz rock musicians like Jimi Hendrix whose songs, he says, were pretty misogynistic. The song 'Foxy Lady' is a pretty politically incorrect song. Couch says, 'These old rock'n' roll guys are all about the conquest of music that allows them as viable artistic people.'