Celebrating the most influential female singer-songwriters of our time

Sarah Jane Morris and Tony Rémy bring The Sisterhood 2 to Ironworks Studio in Brighton on November 13.

Spokeswoman Eugenie Arrowsmith said they arrive ahead of International Women’s Day with 11 new tracks celebrating the most influential female singer-songwriters of our time.

“Many will be aware of The Sisterhood, the project Sarah Jane Morris and Tony Rémy unveiled in 2024, in which ten of the most notable female singer-songwriters of the 20th century were the subjects of a unique song cycle. Morris and Rémy were already aware that ten was insufficient – others had to be included.

“The momentum of writing and creating did not falter, and by the time of its earliest performance The Sisterhood had become twelve, with ink-undried songs for Patti Smith and the then so recently and so tragically departed Sinéad O’Connor being added to the ten originals. Since then, another nine have been written. Peggy Seeger, Etta James, Joan Baez, Dolly Parton, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Armatrading, Janis Ian, Tracy Chapman and Amy Winehouse have become part of the project, brought together in a second volume of unsurpassed quality.

“Morris says that there are three qualifying factors for a singer to be included in the sisterhood. First, all must be artists of excellence and originality. Next, they must be writers as well as interpreters. Lastly, almost all have understood that talent and success give them voices to communicate on subjects of conscience. They have accepted the responsibility which goes with opportunity, to act as witnesses, spokeswomen and champions for those whose voices are unheard. All possess courage and lead by example.

“Longing To Be Free (for Peggy Seeger) is a powerful feminist anthem and biographical narrative of the events, relationships and causes of a legendary life in musical activism.

“For Sinéad O’Connor, Oh Mother My Mother is both Celtic elegy and Ovidian dream, in which Sinéad and her mother are reunited as birds beside an imaginary lake and attempt non-temporal reconciliation. For Tracy Chapman, I Can Hear Jesus Weeping, melodically enchanting, expresses a bitter reproach for the abandonment of those most in need of protection: ‘Pity us and pity those who cannot hear the children cry’. For Amy Winehouse, The Edge is Where the Magic is Found is a jazz ballad in which Amy herself would have delighted and which focuses on the young singer’s artistry touching lightly on the tragedy of her fall.

“Love Wit & Stardust for Dolly Parton pays tribute to the woman who, perhaps more effectively than any other, communicates universal human values of inclusion, generosity and moral clarity to everyone, ‘from Heaven to the Grand Old Opry’. Joan Baez’s song, Always Both and Never, describes the paradox that militant non-violence risks deadly reprisal; this song recalls the heroism and sacrifice that co-existed with the hedonism of the Sixties. Sweet Mama Raitt (for Bonnie Raitt) is adorned with a perfectly fashioned vocal tribute: ‘Your songs make me feel like I’ve been talking with you’ – and pays special regard to Raitt’s extraordinary song about organ donation.

“The song for Joan Armatrading, Let Only Love Remain is a musical tour-de-force which displays subtle understanding of Armatrading’s art while wrapping the enigma of her fiercely guarded privacy.

“The song for Patti Smith, Crazy Angel, is a beautifully sustained piece of performance poetry which owes quite a lot to Patti herself, but which is sharply expressive of intention. Patti’s art, in Morris’s hand, becomes a mirror of Smith’s own magnificence. Also Known as Etta James (for Etta James) is a dark, pulsing number full of the atmosphere of danger which characterised the life of an uncompromising black artist in the America of her time.

“Janis Ian’s story, The Dignity of Love, artfully proclaiming human love in all its diversity, plays the album out with a gloriously sustained finale lasting over nine minutes, leaving the listener aching for more.”