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Gibson Backstage Pass — Electric Ladyland
from: Gibson.com
by Ellen Mallernee
JOAN JETT will be 49 this year, but her sinewy arms still light into her beat-up Gibson Melody Maker as if it were 1982, when she first broke onto the scene with her braying hit "I Love Rock N’ Roll." Even then Jett had more than just smash records on her mind. "I really wanted to make it OK for girls to play," she says.
Fellow ’80s hitmakers Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s and Nancy Wilson of Heart fought for the same leg room for their all-female bands. Of her early gigs with the Go-Go’s, Wiedlin says, "It was horrible. Everyone hated us because we were chicks, and so we would just get spit at and bottles thrown at us every night."
Though sisters Nancy and Ann Wilson would go on to become pop culture icons, audiences didn't immediately warm to them either. Nancy, who formed Heart in late-'70s Seattle in a riot of spandex pants and thrashing feathered hair, has said, "We were Beatles fans who wanted to be the Beatles, not be their girlfriends."
Today, the music of Jett, Wiedlin, and Wilson, all of whom honed their rock riffs on separate Gibson models, continues to empower some of today’s most brilliant female guitarists to pick up a Gibson electric.
Neko Case
Neko Case has proven that gorgeous, mid-tempo songs don’t always have to be about the acquiring and relinquishing of lovers, as is the case with most of her female contemporaries. Pairing keening gospel harmonies with a perverse picture of country life, Case’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood was easily one of 2006’s finest releases. But Case shirks her association with the alt-country genre, saying, "The most apt description? A writer once called it country-noir, which relates to country but is also cinematic at the same time." Though Case’s voice has distinguished both her solo career and her work with the New Pornographers, she’s also well-known for her atypical choice of guitar—a vintage, P-90-equipped Gibson SG tenor guitar, which she favors because of her "tiny hands."
Annie Clark
To think two summers ago multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark had to hock her beloved Epiphone Sheraton II to afford rent for her New York City apartment. Disappointed with her sputtering music career, she returned to her Dallas, Texas hometown, where she incidentally became 1/25 of the choral rock group Polyphonic Spree, and later a tour mate of the inimitable Sufjan Stevens. Clark’s solo debut, Marry Me, is dropping just this month, but already her alabaster face has become familiar in the pages of major music magazines. With skittering leads on her Gibson SG and a fanciful voice that’s testament to her weakness for the sultry theatrics of blues, jazz, and cabaret, Clark’s shaped her intoxicating solo act, known simply as St. Vincent.
Nina Diaz
Nina Diaz is far more expressive than her band’s name would imply. As guitarist, songwriter, and lead singer of Austin, Texas’ Girl in a Coma, Diaz seems scarcely able to restrain her divine voice and high-speed guitarwork on a Valley Arts Brent Mason Signature. In 2006, Nina, older sister Phanie Diaz, and friend Jenn Alva signed with JOAN JETT’s BLACKHEART RECORDS label to record their excellent debut Both Before I’m Gone. Of her pet project, Jett has said, "Their music is really interesting, intense, catchy rock and roll. They were different, melodic. I’m a melody freak. I like guitar hooks and vocal hooks. I like to champion girls when I can."
P.J. Harvey
Polly Jean Harvey has spent nearly 20 years blinking her bedroom eyes against a spotlight trained on her and her ubiquitous Gibson Firebird VII, on which Harvey’s cranked out a heap of scorching rock songs. The iconoclastic English guitarist, who’s all set to release her latest White Chalk on September 24, perhaps best sums up the patent futility of defining a modern musician by gender. "I certainly don’t think in terms of gender when I’m writing songs, and I never had any problems as the result of being female that I couldn’t get over," Harvey says. "Maybe I’m not thankful for the things that have gone before me, but I don’t see that there’s any need to be aware of being a woman in this business. It just seems a waste of time."
Juliana Hatfield
With a figure as nubile as her voice, Juliana Hatfield debuted her apple-pie indie pop during the flannel shoegaze movement of the ’90s. Hatfield’s songs were interesting enough to stick. In fact, her recurrent collaborations with The Lemonheads’ Evan Dando included her in what was hitherto an all-boys rock and roll club. Now 40 years old, Hatfield has released Made in China, featuring messy, chunky riffs on her SG and freewheelin’ lyrics about sex, drugs, and sin—her most explicit to date. Fifteen years into her music career, Juliana says she’s happy she skirted the glare of full-on superstardom. "I’ve been living my own version of success since the early ’90s when I first got signed," she says. "When I did have a little bit of commercial success, it really didn’t suit my temperament at all. I’m a terrible public person. I’m happier where I am now."
Allison Robertson
With eyebrow-skimming bangs, ankle boots, and a chugging Les Paul Standard, Allison Robertson of the Donnas has singlehandedly restored the glitter and gumption of ’80s rock. And this time it’s a woman’s game. Of her full-throttle playing style, Robertson has said, "It’s the kind of stuff that’s been absent from radio and MTV for so long. I’m hoping we can help bring it back again." After six major-label albums, the four high school friends from Paolo Alto, California formed their own label and are now prepping their first independent release, due this September.
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