Celebrating Sonoma County women in music for Women’s History Month
The Occidental Center for the Arts is a West County treasure. For years it has honored Women’s History Month by showcasing female performers on their beautiful stage. This year will be a virtual Variety Show format on Saturday March 27 featuring a wealth of women performers, and songs all written by women.
Executive Director Tina Marchetti has been single-handedly organizing the show—as well as a number of very successful Virtual Fundraisers over the last year. “We’re highlighting the contributions of women in music—especially our local women who write.” I asked Tina how OCA has held up during the pandemic. “If I had to sum things up, resilience comes to mind. And that is because there is such tremendous support for the Arts in our area that donations have sustained us. Our video fundraiser events have been successful and kept us relevant.”
Their support comes from all over West County—and beyond. “We’ve updated our equipment, and we’re starting to do live video streams now. It’s been great to be able to reach people beyond Sonoma County.” They’re even ready to do small socially-distanced shows once they get the green light. OCA has the kind of room to enable people to feel safe—while also live broadcasting performances at the same time.
Women’s History Month actually its roots right here in Sonoma County. In 1977 SoCo native Molly MacGregor founded Women's History Week here as a local education project. Over the years, it began to attract regional, then nation attention. It was eventually recognized by President Jimmy Carter, and finally in 1987, Congress designated March as National Women’s History Month. I spoke with a few of the women who would be bringing their heart and soul to the OCA show.
Allegra Broughton has been performing in SoCo for over 40 years. She studied voice with Bobby McFerrin and saw The Beatles at San Francisco’s Cow Palace when she was eight years old (“though I recall hearing almost nothing but screaming girls”). Together with Sam Page as “Solid Air” they’ve recorded nine albums and shared the stage with the likes of Suzanne Vega, Loudon Wainwright III, Dan Hicks and Al Stewart.
Mariah Parker is a Latin jazz composer and multi-instrumentalist. She studied with the legendary Chick Corea, who sadly passed away just recently. She worked with ethnomusicologists Fred Lieberman and Mickey Hart on the Planet Drum project. And her live album spent six weeks on the national JazzWeek Airplay chart peaking at #31, receiving extensive airplay and critical acclaim worldwide.
Stephanie Salva has been rocking the West Coast music scene in numerous projects for well over a decade. She is well-known as part of the Jug Dealers, The THUGZ, The Rock Collection and more recently together with her fiancée Adam Walsh as Tumbleweed Soul. I asked her what it’s been like making music in Sonoma County, which has traditionally been quite a “Boys Club”. “Sure, the struggle is real and there have been plenty of times when I've felt left out, and certainly many years that I didn't get equal pay, but they don't outweigh all the times that I have felt empowered and appreciated by the community. I used to see a lot of men playing the local venues and I was determined to start booking myself as a solo female artist—and to inspire other women to get out and do the same. Over the years I have collaborated with many talented artists in the area to create shows that are produced by women, performed by women, and raised money to benefit local woman's groups and non-profits here in SoCo.”
Allegra told me “With time, you learn the hard way where you don’t fit. I try not to put myself into situations where they don’t get who I am, and what we do—but that is much easier said than done. But I’m lucky, because I get to be the band leader. If you connect with people on a joyful level, that’s what really matters. If you can get to their hearts.”
However, back in the day, she encountered some unique obstacles. In 1980 she had been invited to open for Maya Angelou. Maya even inscribed one of her books for her. “That woman was so powerful and had so much class. I feel very blessed to have had that experience!” But then, soon after, she was invited to open for Chris Williamson. “And I wanted to do it with my musical partner Sam, but they wouldn’t let me play with a partner unless it was a woman. So I didn’t do it. To me, the right musical partner is the most important thing, not the politics of who’s on stage with you.” Now with her husband Sam Page “I have great creative latitude.” But it’s not always smooth sailing. “In the mid-80s we opened for Ferron at the Cotati Cabaret. She was wonderful! She was friendly and supportive. She said ‘do a longer opening set’. Her audience, on the other hand, had a real hard time with Sam. Ferron even came out and scolded them!”
