Womxn in Music Collective<\/a> was formed in 2018 by two Seattle-based womxn involved in the local music industry\u2014Sarah Gerritsen and Nikki Barron\u2014who were looking for more opportunity to network with other womxn musicians and for the same pay and access to opportunity as their male counterparts. The compilation’s producer, Seattle’s Ailisa Newhall, who also contributed her song “Until The Robins Sing” to the project, was one of the collective’s early members and volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n“Right when [it] was evolving into an actual thing… I was like, this is something I’m passionate about,” says Newhall. “I was really excited about having this safe space.” Newhall spent many hours volunteering and began managing Womxn in Music’s Facebook group (of which I am a member, though I was not involved in putting the comp together), the hub where most of the members have come together regularly during the pandemic. Often posting performances from group members, she found herself more inspired than ever to highlight womxn artists in Seattle and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, in January 2020, Newhall caught wind of a local theater, The Seattle Repertory, that was planning to put on a play about the story of a fictional womxn musician who had gotten her start at one of the area’s most beloved venues, The Tractor Tavern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I reached out to the Tractor through Womxn in Music and I was like, can we do a show, and have the Womxn in Music artists come perform and highlight like, real life women who are doing the scene?” Newhall says, adding that the plan was to partner with the Seattle Repertory Theater on the show. “The Rep would send some of their actors to come out and be a part of the show, and the bands would learn some of the music from this show and play their own.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While everyone was whole-heartedly onboard with the idea, the pandemic had other plans, and the show, which was to occur in June of 2020, never happened. Instead, Newhall decided to coordinate, curate and produce this compilation, which she says is a representation of what she had hoped that show would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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