The death of real, head bobbing, ear-splitting, balls to the walls rock music has been talked about ad nauseam over the past 20 years or so, but it’s the death of the female rock musician that I see as the larger tragedy. If rock and roll finds its base in rebellion, female lead rock and roll grows from the soils of 1970’s and 80’s feminism. All big hair and screaming lyrics that seems to laugh in the face of the notion that a woman should be seen and not heard.
Lauren Ruth Ward is the revolutionary resurrection of that musical era. In fact, with the release of her debut album Well, Hell, Lauren is experiencing her own type of resurrection. Lauren calls this album, “A second chance at having a career doing what [she] loves most”.
Despite the name of the album, each track, which she played live this past weekend at Elsewhere Space, evokes either Hell or Heaven. Though, even the “heavenly” tracks are fueled by the angst and rapidly spat lyrics which appear to be a Lauren Ruth Ward signature.
The track “Blue Collar Sex Kitten” for instance, is a “Hell” track, especially with its crashing cymbals and the near-blasphemous religious themes that thread through her openly sexual and irreverently confident lyrics.
Lauren previously worked as a hairdresser in Baltimore. In the 1970’s and 80’s, the question was whether a woman could even have a career. Having created two and proving herself talented at both, the answer seems to be that a woman can have anything if she wants it bad enough.
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