Ghosts & Shadows – She Makes War Music, ramblings and recommendations

Live Review / Thoughts – Re-Dress @ Ryan’s Bar 22.8.10

"She Makes War...ends the night on a high as she effortlessly switches between guitar and ukulele to deliver a beautiful set of addictive melancholia and soaring vocals." - Elizabeth Martin, The Girls Are.

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Last Sunday night I had the pleasure of curating an evening of female centric music as a collaborative effort between my female musician's group My Big Sister and DIY label Genin Records.

Named Re-Dress and held at Ryan's Bar in Stoke Newington, the bill consisted of magical looping loveliness from Lobelia, gnarly rock from Dana Jade, quirky riot punk from German touring band Two Tears For Barbarella and a set of Telecaster, ukulele and vocals from yours truly. There was a real family atmosphere - I've honestly never felt so much love from an audience before! - I've played at a lot of DIY nights but just shifting the male/female balance in the room and encouraging people to give their attention and respect to the excellent performers made a massive difference in how it all felt. We had clapping and screaming, singalongs, dancing...it was quite a Sunday night!

The lovely folks at The Girls Are sent a reviewer and photographer down to cover the night - you can read the whole piece here (and do check out the rest of their excellent site).

As I told the audience throughout the night, us DIY performers need YOU! If you see us play and like it we need you to look us up when you get home, click "Like" on things, mention us to a friend or two, send us an email or a tweet and just generally share.

My huge thanks to all the performers and audience members who came to the first Re-Dress and made it so special - I now encourage you to click on all the links in this post and check out the songs, videos and blog posts all the artists who joined me on stage last Sunday have to share with you. I'm talking to them all about putting a podcast together from the audio I recorded throughout the evening and who knows what future collaborations may bring...there will certainly be more nights like these coming your way - be there!

I leave you with my uke and loop cover of PJ Harvey's "Hardly Wait" - an example of the magic than can happen when your looper fails (damn you, Digitech!):

Hardly Wait (PJ Harvey cover on uke & loops) by shemakeswar

Photo by Balk for The Girls Are.