LaShonda Katrice Barnett (shown left), a professor of Africana Studies at Sarah Lawrence College and a musician in her own right, never intended on becoming a historian of black female songwriters. Instead, the calling found her.
While the scholar was teaching a seminar on Billie Holiday at Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2006, she was dismayed to find her students were more focused on Holiday as a “tragic figure,” asking more questions about her love life and drug abuse than her contributions as a songwriter.
Barnett wrote the proposal for the book I Got Thunder: Black Women Songwriters and the Craft, a few weeks later. Her proposal was sold less than 48 hours after it was sent to a publisher.
Barnett, speaking to a crowd at Chicago’s Women and Children First bookstore on November 25, told her story to illustrate a “hunger for information” about the intellectual and creative process of black woman musicians. I Got Thunder satisfies this hunger; it’s an unprecedented look into the creative processes of twenty long-venerated musicians in soul, folk, R&B and blues.
Chaka Khan, Joan Armatrading, Nona Hendryx, Shemekia Copeland, and surprisingly, Nina Simone — four years after her death — are among the artists featured. (Simone was interviewed by Barnett for her doctoral studies in 1999.)
Until now, one would be hard pressed to find any popular scholarship on any of these musicians. The popular image of the black female “diva” — think Aretha Franklin — rather than a creator of music persists in many critical circles despite numerous examples of the contrary.
Understanding this, Barnett noted that she approached the project as a historiographer rather than a critic, seeking a dialogue with the artists about musicianship and the craft of songwriting. Barnett interviewed 42 women total; twenty of the interviews are included in I Got Thunder, the rest will be featured in a companion volume, Let Them Resound: Black Women Songwriters On Songwriting, to be released next year.
Barrett noted that all of the musicians she contacted agreed to be interviewed; some of them revealed that it was the first time they’d been interviewed about their songwriting.
Even with her scholarly training and historiographer’s approach, it’s clear that Barnett is a fan as well; her knowledge of each artist’s discography is evident with each interview, presented in a question-and-answer format, and preceded by a short biography.
Her closeness to the topic — and her subjects — is not a detriment. In fact, her intimate knowledge of the music seems to allow many of her subjects to open up and reveal little-known details about their creative process and personal lives.
When asked about the inspiration for the R&B classic “Sweet Thing,” Chaka Khan reveals the song was written in five minutes: “Girl, I don’t think anything inspired that song,” says Khan. “I think I told all of my boyfriends around that time that it was them that inspired the song.”
Her exchange with Nina Simone reveals Simone’s frustrations with being labeled a jazz artist — and her comparisons with Billie Holiday: “… I deeply resented it because the comparison had nothing to do with our musicianship and everything to do with the fact that we were both black.”
I Got Thunder ought to result in more popular scholarship on the contributions of musicians who have contributed to the backbone of modern music. It’s a must-have volume for serious music fans and an impressive addition to Thunder’s Mouth Press’ selection of music and pop culture writing.
– Keidra Chaney
I Got Thunder: Black Women Songwriters and Their Craft
Edited by LaShonda Katrice Barnett
464 pages, paperback
$16.95, Thunder’s Mouth Press
LaShonda Katrice Barnett: www.lashondabarnett.com
Thunder’s Mouth Press: www.thundersmouth.com