I don't have ideas. I have realizations. And these realizations usually happen all at once, but only after stuff has been shoved in my face like three or four times; it takes me a little while to slow down and pay attention to what's happening around me. I had one of my realizations a couple of days ago following a couple of weeks of Life showing me the way to think.

First Thing: I'm sitting in my garage, going through my song book (the big binder full of lyrics to the cover songs I use when I play live). I notice just how many songs I play that are normally performed by men. You know; Blues Traveler, Coldplay, Counting Crows, Pearl Jam, David Gray, Whitesnake (stop laughing), Train, and the like. But I have only a few that were written and/or performed by women; Jewel, Melissa Etheridge, Patty Griffin . . . that's pretty much it. At the time, I didn't think too much of it. Just a little, "Hmm, that's weird," and I went on with my life.

Second Thing: I'm going through my CDs. For those who don't know, I can be compulsively anal about my CD collection. I go through them usually once a month putting them in correct alphabetical order, then (if I have multiple albums by one artist) they go in chronological order. Then, they all have to be straightened and tucked neatly in their repective plastic folders . . . Anyway, I'm going through my CDs when I notice that the gender balance of my collection is similar to my cover song collection. Lots of guy bands, only a handful of chicks. To drive the point home even further: I've got about 200 discs, and I'd say only 25% of them are albums made by women. That's pretty unbalanced.

Third Thing: I'm hanging out with Chris the other night at his new place when we get to talking about the explosion of all these great singer/songwriters into the market today. Howie Day, John Mayer, Bob Schneider, Joseph Arthur . . . See anything in common with these names? I don't think we mentioned a single woman in that conversation. That's when the big realization hits me: Where are all the good female singer/songwriters?

About ten years ago, just around the time when grunge popularity was flagging, a group of artists began to emerge on the airwaves. People like Jewel, Sara McLaughlin, Tori Amos, Blind Melon, Counting Crows, and Blues Traveler. These new artists gave us something potent to listen to, every bit as passionate and driving as the grunge bands but with a softer sound that was refreshing after the years of ear-splitting rock we'd been hearing. These people showed us that loud and hard didn't necessarily equal passion and depth. And amid all of this, we had solid female artists making music and kicking ass. The music-listening public was given the chance to see these female artists not just as sexy chicks who could sing and play instruments, but as women with something to say about life and the world. Even farther back in musical history we had such awesome chicks as Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Billie Holliday, Mama Cass. All the ladies I listed so far, combined with scores of others, they used their feminine passion and intelligence to spit in the face of convention and pave the way for female musicians today; Patty Griffin, Ruthie Foster, Ani DiFranco, and Chantal Kreviazuk just to name a few.

But what happened in these past years? Gone are the days of Lilith Fair, and with them have gone the female singer/songwriter. Sure, there's still Patty, and the Indigo Girls, and Ruthie, and Melissa Etheridge, and a few others. But these gals have been around for a little while. Where is the next generation of rockin' babes? Where's the next Lita Ford? The next Carly Simon? The next Joni Mitchell, for crying out loud? Nowadays we've got Michelle Branch, Vanessa Carlton, and Lisa Marie Presley. But these are mediocre replacements for the amazin' ladies of the past.

But I don't let this get me down. Oh, no. I say, don't worry, women of the world; there is some hope. Artists like Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill, and Norah Jones give us reason to buy female-written music again. We all have to try to find those incredibly talented women, the ones really worth listening to, and support the hell out of them. Buy their albums, share their music with people we know, go see them in concert. The industry is still hideously unbalanced (and probably will be for a while), but with a little time and a little faith, the pendulum may sing back our way soon.

Until next time, kids. I've gotta go out and buy the new Ani DiFranco album.

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