07.06.99 - Sarah McLachlan Pumps Up Energy With Live Album
07.03.99 - McLachlan Proud of Concert Success
07.02.99 - Sarah Mclachlan: Lilith Fair is more than a 'White chick folkfest'
06.16.99 - Jerry Falwell's Magazine Blames Lilith Fair For Pushing Paganism, Lesbianism
06.15.99 - Falwell Magazine Denounces Lilith Fair
05.04.99 - More Artists Added to Lilith
04.27.99 - Lilith's Last Stand
04.20.99 - Sarah McLachlan To Release Live Album And New Lilith Compilations
04.27.98 - Sarah McLachlan On Lollapalooza And Business Of Summer Tours
04.16.98 -Sarah McLachlan Announces 1998 Lilith Artists, Dates
04.09.97 - Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair Line-Up Confirmed
7.6.99 - Sarah McLachlan Pumps Up Energy With Live Album
Singer/songwriter says recordings on Mirrorball capture what was missing from studio albums.
Staff Writer Chris Nelson reports:
Sarah McLachlan sighed ever so slightly before speaking.
She'd just been asked whether her new live album, Mirrorball, contained any overdubs — splashes of sonic touch-up paint that some people say correct errors for posterity, while purists argue they mar the integrity of a truly live work.
McLachlan admitted some cosmetic surgery had taken place on the tapes.
"There were a few places that there was a note that was flat," she said Thursday from the garden at her home in Vancouver, British Columbia. "So I just sang that one note [again] and stuck it in there. Technology's amazing. But there's very few fix-ups, which I'm proud to say."
McLachlan's loyal fanbase apparently cares nary a whit about such details. Since the album — which documents a 1998 tour — was released June 15, it has sold more than 367,000 copies in the United
States. In its second week on the Billboard 200 albums chart, it sits at #6, down just a few notches from its #3 debut.
At 10:30 a.m. McLachlan said she was still in her pajamas. She laughed easily, and lamented that recent steady rains had caused the roses in her garden to wilt.
It was a bit of relaxed downtime before the Lilith Fair — the popular, female-centered tour she founded two years ago — kicks off its third and final run in Vancouver on July 8.
The Vancouver show will include sets by McLachlan, singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow, R&B singer Mya, funk-pop band Luscious Jackson, folk singer Beth Orton and others. At various stops on the 40-date tour, McLachlan will be joined by hard rockers Hole, rapper Queen Latifah, singer/songwriter Liz Phair and many more performers.
McLachlan said now is the right time to revisit older songs such as "Ice Cream" (from 1994's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy) and hits such as "Building a Mystery" , from the
Grammy-winning Surfacing (1997), particularly since she doesn't plan to make a new studio album for another couple years.
The 31-year-old native Canadian said she was especially happy with the way the concert version of "I Will Remember You" captures an emotional energy she described as absent from the original take (on the 1995 soundtrack to "The Brothers McMullen").
"My studio albums tend to be quite mellow, even in the rocking songs," she said. "The quality of the sound is quite gentle. Live, there's a lot more energy. There's an audience. You have to play and entertain them. So you tend to be a little more animated in your performance."
There are more than just artistic motives behind Mirrorball, McLachlan manager Terry McBride said.
Since she released her first album, Touch, in 1988, McLachlan has cultivated a dedicated legion of fans with her lilting songs of relationships and their tidal shifts.
Some of McLachlan's fans, who made Surfacing platinum six times over in the U.S. and elevated the Lilith Fair to the position of highest-grossing summer rock festival for two years running, also are willing to seek expensive bootleg recordings of her performances — for which she receives no royalties and has no say in the product. Hence, Mirrorball,along with the May release of Volume 2 and 3 of the live Lilith Fair: A Celebration of Women in Music, which feature recordings of McLachlan and other artists from past tours.
"If you don't have anything live out there, it becomes a marketplace for inferior products," McBride said from his Vancouver office.
McBride credited the issue of two tracks — "Building a Mystery" and "I Will Remember You" — as free, downloadable songs through online retailer Amazon.com with driving the site's pre-release sales of Mirrorball to more than 10,000 copies. Amazon.com spokesperson Paul Capelli would not confirm sales figures, citing company policy.
But at least one traditional retailer found a few customers confused by the album. "A lot of people didn't realize that it was a live album," said Lorraine Blatt, a staffer at Vancouver's HMV Records, which has sold more than 200 copies of the disc. "But it's doing quite well. It's Sarah McLachlan, after all."
Marketing tactics and counteracting bootlegs are typically the stuff of a manager's business calculations, but McLachlan herself knows how to be organized and analytical. The songs on Mirrorball were culled from more than three dozen 1998 concerts, all of which contained the same 24-song set.
But back in her garden, McLachlan emphasized intuition, trying to find songs with the appropriate "feel." The album offers no detail about the place and date of its recordings, which McLachlan said was intended to foster a sense of a whole piece rather than a compilation. McLachlan said she insisted on taping each night of her tour so that she could do her best to forget she was recording at all.
"I didn't even think that we were recording," she said. "I can't, it puts such a weird spin on it. ... We just forgot about it and did our thing."
7.3.99 - McLachlan Proud of Concert Success
NEW YORK (AP) - Saying farewell to Lilith Fair, the all-woman summer concert tour she created, Sarah McLachlan is proud of the tour's surprising success after its early battles for acceptance.
``I had to defend Lilith every step of the way,'' McLachlan says in the August issue of Spin magazine. ``I came under fire from the media, who asked, `Why do you hate men?' I was like, `What does putting this on have to do with hating men? It has nothing to do with you guys. Sorry.'''
Lilith Fair, which is in its final year, has showcased some of the top female names in popular music, including Paula Cole, Jewel, Natalie Merchant and hip-hop star Missy ``Misdemeanor'' Elliott. Early on, doubters said fans wouldn't turn out for an all-female bill. They were wrong.
So why bring such a good thing to an end?
``We had a three-year plan from the beginning, and I'm a firm believer in ending on a high note,'' McLachlan said. ``It's incredibly rewarding, but it's also a huge amount of work. I think we're all ready to have kids now, so it's one or the other.''
7.2.99 - Sarah Mclachlan: Lilith Fair is more than a 'White chick folkfest'
Sarah Mclachlan wants to make one thing clear about the Lilith Fair - its not a concert for "White chicks."
Asked what stereotype about the all-female music festival bothered her, the singer said: "That it's a White chick folkfest.
We invited artists who play all different kjnds of music, but because of who said yes, it bacame this 'White Chick with an Acoustic Guitar' thing," she says in the august edition of Spin magazine.
One of the artists at last year's fair was rapper Missy "MIsdemeanor" Elliott. Mclachlan, the founder of the Lilith Fair, said Elliott was the biggest diva of the festival.
"She was actually very sweet, but her whole production was kinda closed off. Backstage, I approach everyone and try and talk to them a little bit, but it just didn't happen," said Mclachlan. "It was a real us-and-them attitude, which was a drag because I was really excited about her."
McLachlan says this year's Lilith Fair tour, beginning July 8, will be the last. Besides Mclachlan, acts include Sheryl Crow, Monica and the Dixie Chicks.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell's National Liberty Journal, which put itself on the cultural map earlier this year by accusing popular children's television character Tinky Winky of promoting a gay lifestyle, is now blaming the Lilith Fair tour for that and more.
Writing in the Christian magazine's June issue, senior editor J. M. Smith claims the popular tour -- which folk-pop singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan launched in 1997 as a platform for female musicians and which opens next month in Canada -- celebrates a pagan figure and promotes contraception and abortion.
Smith's essay also notes that "lesbian imagery has become quite synonymous" with the Biblical-era figure Lilith.
"Many young people no doubt attend the Lilith Fair concerts not knowing the demonic legend of the mystical woman whose name the series manifests," Smith writes. "Christian parents are advised to consider the Lilith legend, should their children become interested in the concerts."
Lilith was Biblical character Adam's first wife, before Eve. She was banished from Paradise after refusing to obey her husband and later became a demonic figure.
While he acknowledges that is the Lilith for whom the tour was named, Terry McBride, McLachlan's manager and one of the fair's four directors, said the name was chosen to represent equality.
"All I can say is that 'Lilith' and 'Fair' are two separate words," he said Wednesday (June 16). "It's about equality. That's it."
McBride said the name is not meant to promote any anti-Biblical philosophies or force an evil figure on children. "You have to look at [Lilith Fair] for what it actually is," he said. "Lilith Fair gets criticized every year. [Falwell]'s going to criticize. So be it. All I can do is point out the truth."
"We tend to look on the good side of things," McBride said. "We cannot dwell on the negative."
In his essay, Smith criticizes tour organizers for supporting Planned Parenthood and for promising to "to dole out more condoms than ever."
McBride said Lilith invites organizations, including Planned Parenthood, to set up informational tables at concerts. That, he said, is the extent of Lilith's relationship with the family-planning organization, which assists women and men with reproductive issues, including pregnancy prevention, prenatal care, parenting skills and abortion, and also distributes condoms.
In late May, the anti-abortion artists' organization Rock for Life called for a boycott of this summer's Lilith Fair because it claimed the tour supported Planned Parenthood.
A Planned Parenthood representative declined to comment. Smith could not be reached.
Falwell, the renowned Christian leader who founded the Moral Majority, opposes abortion, premarital sex, homosexuality and pornography. In February, the National Liberty Journal, published on the campus of Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., ran a "Parent Alert" accusing Tinky Winky, the purple Teletubby from a popular children's television show on PBS, of promoting homosexuality. That campaign attracted widespread publicity and ridicule from protestors who said that Falwell was going too far in attacking a lovable children's character.
Much of Smith's essay is devoted to attacking what he says are lesbian overtones in the Lilith mythology.
"One Lilith legend suggests that she took on the personification of the serpent and made her way back into the Garden of Eden where she, not Satan, offered the fruit from the tree of knowledge to Eve," he writes. "Lilith became a mirror that reflected Eve's own beauty in addition to a forbidden sexuality that drew Eve to the creature. Lilith then seduced Eve and they became one woman."
Later, Smith writes, "Many paintings and depictions of Lilith present her in lewd poses, often times kissing a female demonic figure. The lesbian imagery has become quite synonymous with the legend."
This year's Lilith Fair tour, which McLachlan has said will be the last for a while, is scheduled to feature McLachlan, rockers Sheryl Crow and Hole, pop band Sixpence None the Richer, country trio the Dixie Chicks and dozens of other acts over the course of 40 dates. It begins July 8 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and winds up Aug. 31 in Edmonton, Alberta.
McLachlan recently released a live album, Mirrorball. She is known for such folk-pop songs as "Building A Mystery".
Crow's The Globe Sessions won a Grammy Award in February for Best Rock Album. The self-produced CD includes "My Favorite Mistake".
Last year, Lilith organizers donated $2 million to 39 charities, according to McBride.
© 1999 SonicNet
6.15.99 - Falwell Magazine Denounces Lilith Fair
Sarah McLachlan, Sean Lennon, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Ozzy Osbourne, Coal Chamber, Peter Gabriel, Robyn Hitchcock, Peter Buck...
An article in the June issue of Rev. Jerry Falwell's National Liberty Journal denounces the all-female Lilith Fair for "celebrating a pagan figure" with its name and for supporting Planned Parenthood and dispensing condoms at shows. "Many young people no doubt attend the Lilith Fair concerts not knowing the demonic legend of the mystical woman whose name the series manifests," senior editor J.M. Smith writes. In Jewish folklore, Lilith was Adam's first wife, before Eve, and was banished from Paradise for refusing to obey him; in Smith's words, she then "dwelled with the demons." In February, Moral Majority founder Falwell's magazine attracted widespread publicity -- and ridicule -- when it denounced Tinky Winky, the purple member of the television troupe the Teletubbies, for promoting a gay lifestyle. This year's Lilith Fair features tour founder Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Hole and others.
© 1999 SonicNet
5.4.99 - More Artists Added to Lilith
Adding to an already impressive roster, the Lilith Fair has announced several more artists who will be joining its ranks this summer, including Liz Phair, Lisa Loeb, and Tracy Bonham. Previously announced artists include Lilith founder Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Queen Latifah, the Indigo Girls, and the Pretenders.
Liz Phair, who filled in after Sheryl Crow dropped out of Lilith '98, will play three dates, Aug. 14, 17, and 18. Tracy Bonham has also been lined up for three shows, Aug. 11-13, while Lisa Loeb, who has appeared on both previous Lilith outings, has been lined up for the Aug. 4 show in Hartford, Conn.
On the second stage, Patty Griffin will play Aug. 10 and 11, while Tara MacLean has been tapped for the final four shows. Letters to Cleo frontwoman Kay Hanley will play the Village stage on July 30, Aug. 4 and Aug. 8, and Murmurs will play July 14-16.
A complete list of artists, dates, and venues can be found at the Lilith Web site (www.lilithfair.com).
© 1999 WallOfSound
4.27.99 - Lilith's Last Stand
Richard Skanse RollingStoneSarah McLachlan and friends announce lineup for the third and final Lilith Fair
Like John Elway, Sarah McLachlan is determined to quit while she's ahead. At a press conference held Tuesday (April 27) to announce the lineup and dates for Lilith Fair 1999, the Canadian ambassador of women in music seemed adamant in her plan to bring the phenomenally successful estrogen package tour to a close after its third year in a row.
"We always had a three-year plan right from the start, and this is going to be the last year in North America for a good long while," said McLachlan. "That could be three years, it could be ten years, it could be never. I'm not really sure at this point. It comes from realizing that we're all well into our thirties, and some of us want to have babies. It's sort of one or the other at this point. It's an awful lot of work, and even though its amazing and rewarding in so many ways, we decided to end it here."
The conference, held at New York's Irving Plaza, featured McLachlan as well as fellow Lilith '99 performers Monica, Mya, Me'Shell Ndegocello, Martina McBride, Kelly Willis, Deborah Cox, Bif Naked and two-out-of-three Dixie Chicks, Natalie Maines and Martie Seidel. Sheryl Crow chimed in via telephone halfway through the question and answer period. (The complete press conference can bee seen via webcast at www.lilithfair.com.)
Artists thus far scheduled to appear at Lilith Fair 1999 are: Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Me'Shell Ndegocello, Luscious Jackson, Dixie Chicks, Indigo Girls, the Pretenders, Monica, Mya, Shawn Colvin, Beth Orton, Deborah Cox, Cibo Matto, Kelly Willis, Martina McBride, Queen Latifah, Sara Evans, Bijou Phillips, Bif Naked, Kendall Payne, Splashdown, Jennifer Knapp, Trish Murphy, Sixpence None the Richer, Susan Tedeschi, Dido, Infamous Syndicate, Sinead Lohan, K's Choice, Cherokee, Aimee Mann, Cree Summers, Melky Sedeck and Lamb.
McLachlan addressed the possibility of a mini-tour in Australia in December, but did not offer any concrete details. Plans for a European version, she said, fell through. Ticket prices for the North American dates are expected to range from $21.50 to $70. "We're trying real hard to keep ticket prices down," McLachlan said, noticeably wincing when informed of the high-end figure. She hurried to add that each show features eleven acts spread out over seven hours. In keeping with tradition, a $1 from each ticket sold will be donated to a local or national charity in each town the tour stops in.
Lilith Fair marketing director Donna Westmoreland said that at least two of the Lilith dates will be webcast, with additional downloadable and streaming audio and video highlights from the tour also expected to be added to the official website. There will also be an MP3 talent search in which artists may submit songs for digital conversion. Visitors to the Lilith Fair area of the XOOM.com Media Sharehouse website (http://sharehouse.xoom.com/lilithfair) may then vote for their favorite MP3 files, with the winner given the opening slot on the first show in Vancouver.
4.20.99 - Sarah McLachlan To Release Live Album And New Lilith Compilations Sarah McLachlan will announce plans for this summer's Lilith Fair tour next week in New York City, but today she will take to the Web to premiere tracks from her upcoming live album, "Mirrorball," due out on June 15.
McLachlan has inked a deal with Amazon.com to make two of the live tracks, "Building a Mystery" and "I Will Remember You," available for download via the multimedia online store. The 14 songs collected on "Mirrorball" were recorded during McLachlan's 1998 tour and draw primarily from her last two studio albums, 1994's "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" and 1997's "Surfacing," which is still holding strong at number 33 on the "Billboard" album chart.
Visitors to the site will also be able to pre-order "Lilith Fair, Volume II" and "III," the sequels to last year's "Lilith Fair" double disc set, which sampled live cuts from the music festival's inaugural outing (see "Lilith Fair To Be A Live Album").
The follow-up "Lilith Fair" albums cull material from the 1998 tour, and include selections from Liz Phair, Sixpence None the Richer, Luscious Jackson, Queen Latifah, Morcheeba, Sinead O'Connor and Sarah McLachlan, among others. Both "Lilith Fair, Volume II" and "III" are due out on May 19.
4.27.98 - Sarah McLachlan On Lollapalooza And Business Of Summer Tours
As this year's summer concert season takes a more definite shape, it's becoming easier and easier to separate the winners (Lilith Fair, Ozzfest) from the losers (Lollapalooza, R.O.A.R.), and the measurement for such tours success is becoming less a question of music than that of business.
At the press conference announcing this year's Lilith Fair itinerary, McLachlan spoke about the business reasons behind the demise of this summer's Lollapalooza tour, a move which she characterized as being "very wise."
"As far as Lollapalooza," McLachlan said, " I really don't know much about it, except that they chose not to put on a show this year because they couldn't find a headliner. And I think that that's a very wise move in that case, because, in the situation that we're in, it becomes big business."
"If you have two bad weeks," McLachlan continued, "you could run yourself into bankruptcy in the position that we're in, because it costs a lot of money to put these shows on. So, I think it's very wise of them to take a year off."
The Lilith Fair launches June 19 in Portland, Oregon with McLachlan, Natalie Merchant, the Indigo Girls, Erykah Badu and Sinead O'Connor on the bill. from mtv.com ©MTV
4.16.98 - Sarah McLachlan Announces 1998 Lilith Artists, Dates
Lilith founder heads a star-studded lineup for all-female tour.
Contributing Editor Teri van Horn reports:
Liz Phair, Bonnie Raitt, Lauryn Hill of the Fugees, Sinead O'Connor, Paula Cole, Mono, Lucinda Williams, Erykah Badu and a host of other female artists will join founder Sarah McLachlan for this year's edition of the Lilith Fair touring festival, it was announced at a press conference at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles today (April 16).
"[Lilith Fair] was sort-of like this little creature that grew wings and took off," McLachlan said at the press conference, referring to Lilith Fair's debut tour in 1997.
Also performing this year: Neneh Cherry, Beth Orton, Morcheeba, Queen Latifah, Meredith Brooks, the Indigo Girls, Sheryl Crow, Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance, Victoria Williams, Joan Osborne, Mary Lou Lord, Shawn Colvin, Tracy Bonham, Heather Nova, Cowboy Junkies, Lisa Loeb, Dar Williams, Me'Shell Ndegeocello and Kacy Crowley. The schedule for the upcoming tour -- which will open in Portland, Ore., on June 19 and close in Vancouver, British Columbia, on August 31 -- was also announced. This year's itinerary of Lilith Fair has been expanded to 57 shows (from 37 in 1997). McLachlan said that some of the same artists who appeared on last year's tour will play different cities on this year's schedule. "Every city will get a different show," she said.
The 1997 tour was one of the most popular of the year. McLachlan said more than 600,000 fans attended Lilith Fair shows. In addition, she noted that last year's tour raised more than $700,000 for various causes and charities.
Lilith Fair: A Celebration of Women In Music, a double-CD set of performances from last year's tour, will be released April 28 on the Arista label.
McLachlan was joined at the press conference by Raitt, Liz Phair, Paula Cole and others. "It looks like I'm gonna be the den mother to you guys," Raitt said at one point.
When asked why she decided to do the tour a second year, McLachlan said, "I never had any second thoughts about doing it again ... it was an incredibly amazing experience." <
© SonicNet
4.9.97 - Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair Line-Up Confirmed
Suzanne Vega will be participating.
Addicted To Noise staff writer Gil Kaufman reports::
The line-up for Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair was confirmed yesterday, and, as previously reported in ATN, it will include McLachlan, the Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, the Indigo Girls, Paula Cole, Aimee Mann and Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Other newly-confirmed acts include Jewel, Shawn Colvin, Fiona Apple and Lisa Loeb. Confirmed second stage acts will be Victoria Williams, Kelly Willis, the Wild Colonials and Parisian quartet Autour De Lucie. The 35-date festival, billed as a "celebration of women in music," will kick off on July 5 at The Gorge in Washington state and run through August.
Organizer McLachlan wants the tour to be community-oriented. "Lilith is about a sense of community, caring, and helping others. Throughout the tour everyone involved in the Lilith Fair will be working with local groups to promote causes important to the community and Lilith Fair...this is what the Lilith Fair really is all about," she writes on the Lilith web site.
Charitable contributions from the Fair will be set aside to benefit the music industry AIDS service organization LIFEbeat and Tori Amos' RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) organization. Donations to additional women's charities will be made on a case-by-case basis.
© SonicNet
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