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Gretchen Phillips Gretchen Phillips' musical contributions have been great. As well as providing anthems for gay folks all over the world for decades, she has been a visible lesbian in the music business, providing information to straight folks about what goes on in the mind of a lesbian. Before her groundbreaking band, Two Nice Girls burst on the scene in the mid-‘80s, music by out lesbians was relegated to the women's music section of the record store, if indeed there was such a section. With their humor, musicianship and lovely three-part harmonies, Two Nice Girls disarmed a potentially homophobic record-buying public. Everybody sang along to the chorus of "I Spent My Last $10 (on Birth Control and Beer), regardless of their sexual orientation, because the song was so darn catchy. In 1991 Two Nice Girls won one of the first GLAAD Media Awards for positive portrayals of homosexuality in music. They also won two Austin Chronicle Music Awards, for best folk group and best EP (Like a Version). After seven years, three albums, and hundreds of gigs across the US, Canada and England, Two Nice Girls called it quits in 1992. However, interest in their now out-of-print albums has remained high. Their first album, Two Nice Girls, when available on CD, regularly fetches more than $50 on eBay. Also in the mid 80s, Gretchen Phillips formed the lesbian band Girls in the Nose. While never quite as commercially successful as Two Nice Girls, this band was featured at many women's music festivals and gay pride events across the country. This band’s two releases are also out of print. Two Nice Girls and Girls in the Nose propelled forward the genre known as women’s music, and their music was the voice of lesbians who came of age in the 1980s. For the past, decade Gretchen Phillips has kept busy with a variety of musical projects, including: Joan of Arkansas, the Gretchen Phillips Xperience, Blobbie, Lord Douglas Phillips, Phillips/Driver, the Gretchen Phillips Ministries, Inc., as well as her solo performances. She has also produced music for Barbara Hammer's film, History Lessons. Her goals remain consistent: to produce shows that dissolve the barrier between performer and audience and to put forth and foster the concept that kindness is the real revolution in an atmosphere of high musicianship and wit. In 2001 she won another Austin Chronicle Music Award, this time induction into the Hall of Fame. This marked the first time that an openly lesbian performer was so honored. Through her life and work, Gretchen Phillips strives to point out how little our differences really separate us. ### |
HOUSTON WOMEN'S FESTIVAL