Ladyfingers

Maybe you haven't noticed, but we are in a golden age of female guitarists.

There was a time not too long ago, when if you asked to name a female guitar player, the response might be two or three players-Nancy Wilson, Lita Ford, Joan Jett. A true muso might have tossed out Emily Remler, Bonnie Raitt or a classical player like Liona Boyd. Looking at today’s landscape, that time seems long, long ago.

These days it’s an absolute smorgasbord of amazing woman guitar players. And not just YouTube/Instagram phenoms in the deep end with the boys, showing off their chops. These are woman who are creating songbooks, styles, and technique that all players should be paying attention to.

Bluegrass is loaded with players-the obvious leader Molly Tuttle. If we were still living in the age of the magazine, Time would have long ago had the Billy Strings/Molly Tuttle cover. And the piece would not be about the boy shredder and girl singer-songwriter. It would be about two fabulous pickers, trotting the globe and slaying audiences with their audacious playing. Sierra Hull, predominately a mandolin player, is also a very good player as well-a double threat who I have followed since she was young girl and always will stop to check out what she is up to.

Jazz is well represented as well, with some wonderful players of different styles. Jocelyn Gould, Molly Miller, and Mary Halvorson are players who I regularly listen to. And they are each establishing their own thing. The delta in styles from Gould and Halvorson is a fantastic example of the spectrum.

The rock and blues fields has a nice mix of established players like Ana Popović, Samantha Fish, Nita Strauss, Joanne Shaw Taylor, and Susan Tedeschi. One newer player that has caught a lot of people’s eyes is 18 year old Grace Bowers. A wonderful player who is just at the start of her career.

And I would be remiss to not give a shout out to Larkin Poe, the sister duo who in addition to being badass rockers, were a salve during the pandemic with their at home performances.

Now some people reading this might shrug a bit; haven’t there always been woman guitar players in popular music? Yes and real nerds can go through the lineage with players like Mother Maybelle Carter, Sister Rosetta Tharp, and Mary Osborne. The difference today though, is that these woman true influencers-I have no doubt that if you could go in the woodshed of some young boy flat pickers, they would be shedding on Molly Tuttle, along with Bryan Sutton, Tony Rice, and Billy Strings. They are and will be authors of books and videos on learning and playing their genres of music. That is different from the 1970’s and 1980’s for sure.

The “chick guitar player” vibe left the building a while ago and it ain’t coming back. Play on sister, play on.