Joanne Powell gets ready to record her song, “Things You’ll Never Be.”
The album cover by U.S. Marine Corps veteran Regina Vasquez is reminiscent of Santa Muerte, the Mexican Lady of Holy Death. Appropriate, you might say, for a CD titled Women at War: Warrior Songs Volume 2.
The new album is a followup to 2016’s If You Have to Ask: Warrior Songs Volume 1, which was almost entirely about and by men.
Women make up more than 15 percent of the US military. They endure the same traumas as their male counterparts: physical injury, PTSD, traumatic brain injury. Often, they also experience sexual trauma. In Women at War, soldiers share stories of loss, marginalization and struggle. They speak of leaving their souls on the battlefield, in the field hospitals, or in the room where they were raped by their soldier “brothers.” The album also tells the stories of women who lost loved ones to war.
The album features 15 tracks of various genres. Eighteen women veterans and two Gold Star family members supplied the heartwrenching testimonies on which musicians, several from the Madison area, based the songs.
Madison musician Beth Kille collaborated with an army combat medic who spoke of failing to resuscitate a 19-year-old soldier (the same age she was at the time), whose heart she had held, literally, in her hands. “You don’t know the price I pay/When bullets fly and battle cries/And people die before my eyes/Don’t underestimate or brush aside my pain.”
“Sacrifice Ignored,” a strong soul/rock tune by Kelsey Miles of Madison, recounts the disbelief by some (or many), that women have served in the military. Veteran Emily Yates wrote and sings “You’re the Enemy.” Set to a deceptively upbeat melody, she sings, “We were on the same team and you tried to fucking rape me/Now I see you’re the enemy.”
In “Sisters Turning,” Army and Marine Corps veteran Suzanne Rancourt wrote with Anni Clark about being raped and then feeling betrayed when other women were not listening. “Where Is Your Heart?” is based on testimonies of six women veterans. Fifteen-year-old Peyton Michler, a student at Appleton Rock School, powerfully sings about homelessness: “Beg, borrow, steal and maybe, maybe turn a trick.”
This is just a sampling of the material on this accomplished and important album, which is available for free to veterans. For others, it will be available after Nov. 10 at all major online music distributors.
The release party for Women at War is Nov. 10, 1-5 p.m., at the High Noon Saloon. The CD is included in the $10 admission. Admission for veterans is free.
