VOLUME 28, NO. 3 • 2022 IN THIS ISSUE: The Clingers Collaborations Joanna Hersey IAWM Conference President’s Message Teaching Composition Women at the Piano Reviews Reports Members’ News JOURNAL of the NINA EIDSHEIM | Keynote Speaker, IAWM Conference Photo by Andreas BranchINTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR WOMEN IN MUSIC IAWM is a global network of people working to increase and enhance musical activities and opportunities and to promote all aspects of the music of women. The IAWM builds awareness of women’s contributions to musical life through publications, website, free listserv, international competitions for researchers and composers, conferences, and congresses, concerts, the entrepreneurial efforts of its members, and advocacy work. IAWM activities ensure that the progress women have made in every aspect of musical life will continue to flourish and multiply. Inquiries IAWM 2712 NE 13th Ave. Portland, OR 97212 Payments IAWM 2400 Alycia Ave Henrico, VA 23228 PAYPAL to treasurer@iawm.org www.iawm.org/civicrm/iawm-payments-page/ Copyright © 2022 by the International Alliance for Women in Music. All rights reserved. ISSN 1082-1872 No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission. Any author has the right to republish his or her article in whole or in part with permission from the IAWM. Please contact the editor. The Journal of the IAWM is designed and printed by Cheetah Graphics, Inc. of Sevierville, TN. Journal: Back Issues Back issues are available for members to download on the website under Journal– archives. If you wish to purchase a back issue, contact membership@iawm.org. Journal of the IAWM Staff EDITOR IN CHIEF Eve R. Meyer evemeyer45@gmail.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Christina Reitz MEMBERS’ NEWS EDITOR Anita Hanawalt anita@hanawalthaus.net REVIEW EDITOR Laura Pita laurapita830@gmail.com EDITORIAL BOARD Samantha Ege Deborah Hayes Eve R. Meyer Laura Pita Christina Reitz IAWM Board of Directors PRESIDENT Christina Rusnak VICE PRESIDENT Dana Reason TREASURER Deborah J. Saidel SECRETARY Wanda Brister SUPPORTING MEMBERS Gaby Alvarado Teil Buck Monica Buckland Christina Butera Eline Cote Morgan Davis Sarah Horick Natalia Kazaryan Migiwa Miyajima Elizabeth Blanton Momand Julia Mortyakova Sabrina Peña Young Riikka Pietilainen-Caffrey Leah Reid Christina Reitz Support The IAWM Your donations enable IAWM to fulfill its mission and vision. Our awards, grants, and advocacy efforts bring greater equity and awareness of the contribu- tions of women in music. Any amount helps to fund our concerts, conferences, the Journal of the IAWM, grants, and all of our member services. To donate: www.iawm.org/support/ PAYPAL to treasurer@iawm.org Visit IAWM Online www.iawm.org www.twitter.com/iawmcommunity www.instagram.com/iawmcommunity www.facebook.com/IAWMusic YouTube: Coming in 2022!1Message from IAWM’s President CHRISTINA RUSNAK THE 2022 IAWM CONFERENCE REPORT 2Call and (Her) Response: Music in the Time of Change RENÉE T. COULOMBE ARTICLES 4The Clingers: From Girl Group to Rock and Roll Band MYRNA LAYTON 8Joanna Hersey: Recipient of the Susan Slaughter Award for Leadership EVE R. MEYER 11Teaching Composition: Feminist Pedagogy, Equity, and Inclusion LINDA DUSMAN 14Busca la Alegría (Look for Joy) MARÍA EUGENIA LEÓN 15New Arts Collaboration: Communicating through Sound and Sight CHRISTINA L. REITZ 17Women at the Piano CAROLINE OLTMANNS 19Intersecting Lines: A Collaborative Journey in Movement and Music COURTNEY MILLER with KRISTIN MARRS VOLUME 28, NO. 3 • 2022 JOURNAL of the IAWM Membership Information IAWM membership includes a subscription to the Journal of the IAWM (issued four times a year) plus access to past issues on the IAWM website. Membership offers opportunities for awards in ten categories of composition, as well as music scholarship and programming, an education grant, opportunities to participate in annual concerts and IAWM conferences, and opportunities to present webinars. Membership offers increased visibility through IAWM’s social media platforms, website, and optional IAWM Listserv; eligibility to run for and hold board and officer positions within IAWM; and connections with a vibrant community made up of members from 30 countries on five continents, sharing, celebrating, and supporting women in music globally. For information on joining or renewing your membership, visit the IAWM website: www.iawm.org/contact-us/. Help other members get to know you. Log in, and click on the Members’ Page to Member Profile. Click EDIT PROFILE, and add your image and website information. —CHRISTINA RUSNAK REVIEWS PERFORMANCE REVIEW 22World Premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Double Percussion Concerto Duo Duel CHRISTINA L. REITZ CD REVIEWS 23Philippa Duke Schuyler: Seven Pillars of Wisdom JASMIN ARAKAWA 24A Terrible Beauty DEON NIELSEN PRICE 26Rhona Clarke: Sempiternam LYDIA KAKABADSE 27The Tiger and the Clover DEON NIELSEN PRICE 29Red Dragonfly BRITTANY LASCH BOOK REVIEWS 30Eugene Gates and Karla Hartl, eds.: The Women in Music Anthology JUDITH MABARY 32Vilma Campitelli: Compendium Musicae Flauta PABLO E. RAMÍREZ CÉSPED 33Elaine Radoff Barkin: e 2 : an anthology : music texts & graphics [1980–1995] DEBORAH HAYES REPORTS 36Expanding the Beats That We Value: Inclusion, Growth, and Change in SEAMUS During the COVID Era and Beyond ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER 39LunART Festival: The Identity of Women in the Arts AVA WOJNOWSKI 40New York Women Composers: 2022 Seed Money Grants MYKEL MARAI NAIRNE MEMBERS’ NEWS AND AWARDS 41 ANITA HANAWALT1JOURNAL OF THE IAWM BEYOND THE NOTES, IAWM’s webinar series, opened 2022 with Elizabeth de Brito, founder of the inclusive pod- cast Daffodil Perspective; followed by jazz composer, pianist, and pro- ducer Migiwa Miyajima who presented a workshop on Time Management for Musicians; and Gabriella Di Laccio, founder of Donne—UK, discussing the difficult road women in music face in order to be seen, heard, and valued in their careers. The series continues in late summer with four more exciting webinars for 2022! Look for details on the homepage at IAWM.org. The timing of the Programming Award and the Education Grant has changed. The call for both of these opportunities has been pushed back to September 1, 2022, with a deadline to apply of October 25, 2022. Watch for the call in the LATEST NEWS section of the website. NEW FOR ’22: IAWM is pleased to announce the Women Who Innovate grant as part of our “Curating Change” initiative. This grant will be awarded to a female-identifying artist who is creating new work, taking risks, and pushing the boundaries in their musical realm. The recipient must demonstrate an active commitment towards advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion in their work. This will launch in Fall 2022—watch for dates on the Home Page. Last, but not least, one of my greatest joys in serving on the board is learning about and getting to know SO many of you! Help other members get to know you, too. Log in, and click on the Members’ Page to Member Profile. Click EDIT PROFILE, and add your image and website information. Together, we can all advocate for you—together, we can advocate for each other. Wishing you a Wonderful Summer/Fall Christina Rusnak CHRISTINA RUSNAK President, IAWM Message from IAWM’s President Hello All, Welcome to our first summer issue of the Journal. Hopefully, you are enjoying your summer whether it’s a frenzy of creative activity, attending summer concerts festivals and concerts, or taking a well-deserved rest. The 2022 IAWM Conference was a big success thanks to all of you who presented, sent in your music, and participated via remote access or in person! The high quality of the pre- sentations was inspirational. I want to especially thank IAWM’s Conference Chair, Dana Reason, for all the negoti- ations, planning, and coordinating with Oregon State University. She and her team, Gaby Alvarado, Morgan Davis, Deborah Nemko, Christina Reitz, Jane Rigler, and Deborah Saidel, as well as Monica Buckland for the Australia Programming and Eline Cote in Antwerp with the Virago Symphonic Orchestra, worked for months to provide diverse and interactive programming. Recent and Upcoming We have been busy this summer! We continue to work towards increasing visibility, opportunity, connection, and relevance for all women in music. By the time you receive this copy of the journal, we plan to have a new YouTube channel and a Media page on the website. We are looking for images and videos to share—please send yours to media@iawm.org. Christina Rusnak Contribute to Your IAWM Journal EVE R. MEYER evemeyer45@gmail.com Due Dates for articles: December 15 for the winter issue; March 15 for the spring issue; June 15 for the summer issue; September 15 for the fall issue. All other material is due by the 30th of the month. IAWM Journal 2023: If you wish to contribute an article, please send me an abstract (two or three para- graphs), the approximate number of words in the article, and a brief biography. If the members of the Journal Board approve, we will pro- vide detailed information. Members News should be sub- mitted to Anita Hanawalt at anita@ hanawalthaus.net. The column is an excellent way to keep in touch, so please do not hesitate to inform us about your recent per- formances, publications, and other musical activities. Awards: send the information to me for the Award Winners column. Reviews: CD and book reviews should be submitted to our Review Editor, Laura Pita. If you would like to have your book or recording reviewed in the Journal, contact Laura at laurapita830@gmail.com. Please send announcements to me of recently released recordings and publications. Reports about conferences, festi- vals, women in music initiatives, and committee activities and announce- ments of upcoming special events should be sent to me. Please note: If you have moved recently or changed your email address, be sure to change the address informa- tion on the IAWM website. Please keep your membership up-to-date and invite your friends, colleagues, and students to join. 2VOLUME 28, NO. 3 • 2022 THE 2022 IAWM CONFERENCE REPORT Call and (Her) Response: Music in the Time of Change Oregon State University, June 2-4, 2022 RENÉE T. COULOMBE The 2022 IAWM Conference was held at Oregon State University, which is in Corvallis, a 90-minute drive from Portland. With Covid 19 lingering, OSU hosted about 40 people in person and more than 80 online. The hybrid format allowed for more voices to be heard. The conference activities echoed across time and space with satellite events in Australia and the Netherlands and with calls and responses sounding across the planet via digital connec- tions. For me, the seamless execution of in-person and virtual presentations made the online experience of the con- ference quite intimate and inviting. From the very first moment, as a camera wound around through the registration area showing conversations between participants and the conference crew, the deeply personal and connective nature of the event was clear. Notably, the weaving together of online (virtual listening rooms) and in-person con- certs helped to expand the conference experience, showcasing a diversity that I found to be very moving. On opening day, Thursday, June 2, the sessions addressed topics such as global practices and reinserting or reframing the work of women in the twenty-first century. In her presen- tation titled “Voices of Intervention,” Jerika O’Connor Hayes gave a careful accounting of Canadian throat singer Tanya Tagaq’s transcendent activism, which united art, spirit, and protest in performance, and she highlighted the fact that the innovative nature of Tagaq’s work is often downplayed. In recreating Anne La Berge’s Brokenheart, Pamela Madsen’s lecture/recital captured the work’s improvisatory spirit. Two presentations stimulated conversations about embodiment: Kennedy Taylor Dixon’s body-centered account of engaging with the graphic notation of Wadada Leo Smith, and Miranda Bartira and T. Sousa’s discus- sion of the gender transcendence of Esperanza Spalding’s musicality. The first day’s events closed with a vibrant concert program and a panel discussion from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, which was hosted and moderated by IAWM board member Monica Buckland. The program featured performances of outstanding works for varied ensembles by contemporary women composers in Australia. The final piece, a world premiere of Elizabeth Younan’s Concord Concertino, dramatically drew the stylistically diverse program to a close. The post-concert discussion between Buckland and conductor/ concert organizer Sonia Maddock was a bonus to the evening’s programming. They had a weighty discussion about the experiences and ongoing struggles for equal representation of women in all aspects of professional musical prac- tice. Maddock’s consistent approach to programming contemporary works, and including works by women in almost every concert, represents the kind of long-term commitment needed to normalize inclusion, equity, and diversity. Emily Granger and Catherine Haridy contributed to a wide-ranging discussion of practical concerns for educators, young career professionals, and established leaders. On Friday morning, new choices awaited the attendees as different panel members continued to address issues for women in music in sessions such as “Gendered Misconduct” and “Musical Landscapes and Sounding Places.” One could also attend lectures or enjoy the Virtual Listening Room ses- sions. The first performance program included Chi Wang’s Action-Reaction for two GameTrack controllers, Max/ MSP, and Kyma. The camera’s ability to focus on her precise hand movements and gestures gave the work a cho- reographed feel. The same was true of Anne Hege’s powerful Inside These Waters. The intimate and uncanny nature of the work was intensified by the images depicting the movement of her whispers into a hacked cassette device. We could clearly see her hands carefully unpacking and exploring visual imagery as the work unfolded. The second program opened with Anne Vanschothorst’s haunting Paternoster, in which she vocalized by spitting out rhythmic lines as delicate waves of harp playing and gentle visual animations rolled past. Vastly different but equally powerful was Emmalia and Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor’s Nonna’s Horror Stories: Grandmother as Storyteller and Collaborator in Bonnie Trash’s “Malocchio.” The composite of the dark visuals combined with the use of vocal timbres in the recorded sound instal- lation created a transmedia feast that was well suited to a virtual experience. At midday on Friday, a delightful con- cert was presented featuring the OSU Jazz Band. The opening choral work by composer Judy Rose, A Jubilant Day, was exuberant, and the rest of the eclectic program didn’t disappoint either. Later in the day, the conference keynote Conference attendees at the end of the conferenceJOURNAL OF THE IAWM3 speaker, Dr. Nina Eidsheim, introduced her work on practice-based episte- mologies and embodied research. She emphasized the problems with a monolithic narrative that objectifies the phenomenon of music. Eidsheim wants to establish room for a multi- plicity of practices, research methods, and knowledge systems—to com- pletely rethink music as constructed and sound as more naturally or exter- nally occurring. The practicalities of this expanded awareness became obvious during her writing workshop on Saturday afternoon. People were instructed to select and then imagine an aspect of their work—any aspect, be it a sound, a compositional chal- lenge, an object, or a thorny concept. Next, they were asked questions such as: “What does it look like from above?” “What part of it feels dirtiest?“ “What are the fragile parts?” “From really far away, what is its shape?” The process was revelatory and yielded thoughtful insights from many participants. The closing program on Friday evening, “Cinema’s First Nasty Women Collection,” delivered one of the most animated performances of the entire conference. It was led by pianist and Conference Chair Dana Reason, who also presented several scored films that exemplified a broad range of compositional approaches. The per- formers and audience enthusiastically engaged with the humorous storylines and the improvised music. The Embodied Sonic Meditation and Deep Listening Workshop with Jiayue Cecilia Wu and Jane Rigler was a gentle way to start Saturday morning. It was followed by the Virago Symphonic Orchestra’s program from Antwerp, which was as beautifully conceived as it was performed. The stylistic dex- terity and musical cohesiveness of the orchestra was flawless. Hearing works by Augusta Holmés, Florence Price, and Fanny Mendelssohn alongside the premiere of a work by Lara Denies created a sense of musical extrava- gance. The final day of the conference continued to be filled with sonic and intellectual richness as well as oppor- tunities to awaken to new possibilities. In particular, the papers on queer, transgender, and non-binary-embodied musical practices promoted progres- sive ideas, challenging us to think beyond binaries. Presentations by Cloe Gentile Reyes on Raggaetón and Queer fashion and Abigail M. Ryan’s work on Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova focused on sub- verting gender binaries. Max Schaffer shared a more deeply personal explo- ration of transgender embodiment that allowed us to meet and interact with a virtual identity. At the conclusion of this conference, I found myself considering numerous avenues for personal and artistic expression that might be pos- sible while using the online format; the mind-stretching effects for participants are substantial, and the stimulation of encountering so many vibrant professionals and learning about their work is invaluable. Negotiating safe and supportive envi- ronments for the sharing, creation, and dissemination of work is vital to the success of both emerging and seasoned professionals. The timing of this hybrid, global event couldn’t have been better, perhaps because we are all in need of deeper and more meaningful connections. It facili- tated an opportunity to step back into professional musical life after a long and isolating absence, an opportunity to gather the emo- tional strength necessary to move forward with the crucial work at hand. The many calls and responses gen- erated during the three days of the IAWM conference are surely still echoing and hopefully continuing to inspire everyone far beyond the rich, but all-too-brief, moments that we shared together. Renée T. Coulombe is a composer, performer, media artist, scholar, producer, and publisher. She teaches at the Catalyst Institute for Creative Arts and Technology, Berlin, Germany. Deborah Saidel, IAWM Treasurer, and Dana Reason, IAWM Vice President and Conference Chair My Bountiful Appreciation DEB SAIDEL The IAWM’s 2022 Conference, “Call and (Her) Response: Music in the Time of Change,” which was spearheaded by the intrepid Dana Reason (IAWM Vice President) proved to be an indisputable success. I witnessed the dedication of people from around the world who donated their valuable time and par- ticular expertise, marveling at their sustained level of altruism during every aspect of the planning and implementation of this women-centric event. I was lucky enough to be able to travel from Virginia to Oregon and meet several IAWM board members in person for the first time, women with whom thus far I had collaborated with during zoom meetings and through emails. By the end of the third day of the conference I had also met many delightful people and enjoyed our engaging conversations—oh, and the food was delicious! It was exciting for me to present my paper and then perform for the luncheon program and later improvise with the silent films. I remain grateful for the opportunity to do so. The caliber of the presentations was inspiring. I was deeply impressed by the breadth of topics, the musical finesse, imagination, sensitivity, and the enthusiasm, generosity of spirit, hilarity, compassion, and creative panache. The ambience was one of acceptance and inclusivity—of celebration. Who could ask for anything more?4VOLUME 28, NO. 3 • 2022 ARTICLES opportunities that were hundreds of miles away. Even in bad weather, their father drove the girls great distances to keep performance appointments that were often at church-sponsored events and mostly unpaid. 3 As time went on, the girls received vocal coaching from Val Hicks, who also coached the Osmond Brothers. 4 The Clinger Sisters performed so win- ningly at local barbershop singing competitions that they were sent to Kansas City to compete at the national level. 5 This honor led to more local performances, which Mrs. Clinger carefully noted on a calendar. When the girls’ performance schedule reached 188 in one year, and with encouragement from Hicks, the Clinger parents made the decision to relocate to California to give the girls a chance to have a real career in music. 6 The sisters made their television debut in January 1963, featured on the Andy Williams Show with their family friends, the Osmond Brothers, who were under contract with the show. 7 The Clingers and the Osmonds sang a double quartet especially arranged for the occasion by their shared vocal coach, Hicks. 8 A few months later, the Clingers were delighted to begin regular appearances on the Danny Kaye Show on CBS. “Being asked to sing with Danny Kaye is a great thrill,” the girls reported to the news- paper back home. 9 Advertisements about the “Clinging Singing Sisters,” a new “harmony-singing foursome” promoted their addition to the show’s cast of characters. 10 3Interview with Patsy, Debra, and Melody Clinger, May 18, 2022. 4“LDS Fete Dates Ensembles of Sweet Adelines,” Salt Lake Tribune, October 26, 1961, 41. 5“Clinger Sisters to be Honored at Benefit Program,” Orem-Geneva Times, June 7, 1962, 6. 6“American Mothers Committee to Honor Four from Valley,” Los Angeles Valley News, April 6, 1973, 38. 7“Quartet of Orem Sisters to Make National TV Debut,” Provo Daily Herald, January 15, 1963, 5. 8Interview with Patsy, Debra, and Melody Clinger. 9“Orem’s Clinger Sisters Signed for Network Show,” Provo Daily Herald, October 10, 1963, 12. 10“Clinging Singing Sisters,” Willoughby [Ohio] News Herald, October 19, 1963, 52. The Clinger Sisters: A Girl Group Jacqueline Warwick, in her 2002 dissertation, addresses the topic of girl groups. She writes, “Girl Group music emphasizes female adolescent concerns such as boys, parties, and the strictness of parents, and most songs relied on a team of professional songwriters, studio musicians, and controlling producers directing young, untrained vocalists.” 11 According to this description, The Clinger Sisters should be classified as a girl group. As Debra Clinger attests, “We were young, and we were girls, and it was men that were producing us.” 12 The sisters had “female adolescent voices,” and for them “singing [was] an important extension of ‘girl talk.’” 13 Singing together, talking together, laughing together—the Clinger girls were best friends, and their loving rap- port with each other was an attractive aspect to their performances. The sound backing their adolescent voices in their performances and recordings was “dominated by orches- tral instruments,” another hallmark of the girl group. 14 This was true of their appearances on the Danny Kaye Show (1964–1967); all of their songs were backed by the house orchestra. 15 Their appearance was also typical of girl groups—they had “a resem- blance of costume, voice, movement, hair… a look that could be appropri- ated or, more idealistically, shared” by audience members. 16 This began before they moved to Hollywood. When they started performing together as children, their mother dressed them alike, and this continued when Hollywood costume designers took over clothing decisions. 17 11Jacqueline Warwick, “I Got All My Sisters With Me: Girl Culture, Girl Identity, and Girl Group Music” (Diss., University of California Los Angeles, 2002), x. 12Interview with Patsy, Debra, and Melody Clinger. 13Jacqueline Warwick, Girl Groups, Girl Culture (New York: Routledge, 2007), 155. 14Ibid., ix. 15Interview with Patsy, Debra, and Melody Clinger. 16Cynthia Cyrus, “Selling an Image: Girl Groups of the 1960s,” Popular Music 22.2 (2003): 189. 17Interview with Patsy, Debra, and Melody Clinger. The Clinger Sisters with Danny Kaye The Clingers: From Girl Group to Rock and Roll Band MYRNA LAYTON A few years ago, in a discussion about Mormons living in Utah who had pursued careers in popular music, Dr. Michael Hicks, a Brigham Young University professor (now emeritus), mentioned a group of singing sisters, The Clinger Sisters, who were con- temporaries of the Osmond Brothers. Intrigued and interested in learning more, I started looking in the indexes to scholarly journals and in books about girl groups, rock music and gender, and Hollywood performers, but I could not find any references to The Clinger Sisters. I was much more successful when I expanded my search to newspapers in Utah and California and music industry magazines. Melody and Peggy Clinger, at ages nine and seven, respectively, began to sing duets in and around their home town of Orem, Utah. 1 They were joined by younger sisters Patsy, age six, and Debra, age four, on stage at the Orem Farm Festival in 1956, which marked the start of quartet singing by the sisters. 2 The Clinger Sisters quickly became popular entertainers in Utah, sometimes accepting performance 1“Lindon Lions, “See Forecast of the Future in Film,” Provo Daily Herald, September 11, 1956, 4. 2“Orem Stake Sets Farm Festival,” Provo Daily Herald, August 14, 1956, 3.JOURNAL OF THE IAWM5 The sisters quickly became popular for their Danny Kaye appearances, even though their contract with him was quite restrictive, since the girls were never allowed to perform on screen without his presence in the middle of their quartet. 18 The songs they per- formed on the show were chosen to express youthful or comic concerns, for example, “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” “The Story of Alice,” “Oh Baby Mine” (they recorded the last two with Kaye on the Dena label). 19 They received their own fan mail, often addressed very carefully to a favorite sister by her admirer. 20 Before they completed a year on the Danny Kaye Show, the Clingers signed with Vee-Jay Records, which was also producing recordings by the Beatles at this time. 21 In what now seems like an odd juxtaposition, the Clingers were featured in a TV Star Parade contest in which readers could vote to “fight” for one of two groups: the Beatles or the Clingers. 22 18Ibid. 19Danny Kaye with the Earl Brown Singers, the Clinger Sisters, and the Paul Weston Orchestra, LP, recorded 1963, Dena Pictures. 20“Are the Clinger Sisters Really Sisters?” TV Star Parade (April 1964): 73. 21“Vee-Jay Inks Clinger Sisters, Set Modern Porgy,” Cash Box (July 25, 1964): 42. 22“The Beatles vs. the Clingers: It’s War!” TV Star Parade (May 1964): 36-38. At the time, this clever competition helped to promote both groups, and Patsy remembers that she and her sisters won the contest, with lots of support from young people in California mailing in their votes for the Clingers. 23 The sisters recorded six songs for Vee-Jay, released as three singles on the Tollie label (a Vee-Jay subsidiary). Most of these songs have themes about boys. In the “Lipstick Song,” the theme is about attracting boys: we learn that “Johnny never liked to kiss, ’til he smelled cherry on my lips,” and that choosing the right flavor of lipstick can help to charm particular boys. This song is unusual because its composer was a woman, Maureen Maurer. 24 “Golly Mom” deals with the complica- tions of being attracted to boys. When faced with “the boy of [her] dreams,” the singer is “so afraid and shy” that she needs advice, and she turns to her mother, singing “Golly Mom, I only met him yesterday / I never knew I could feel this way / Tell me what to say, Golly Mom.” 25 23Patsy Clinger, email to the author, May 9, 1922. 24Sound file: https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=MZsW4-cPM30 25https://sonichits.com/video/The_Clinger_ Sisters/Golly_Mom?track=1 “Puppet” addresses being subservient to boys: “I’m your puppet, wo-oh-oh, you’ve got me on a string.” 26 This song’s lyrics accord with the statement that the songs of girl groups often “defer to boys,” but the authors also note that girl group songs may do some talking back. 27 We see this in “Shoop de Doop Rama Lama Ding Dong Yeah Yeah Yeah.” In this song, the girl tells the boy that she will allow kissing in a chaste way and only on her terms if he says the magic words (Shoop, etc.). The authors note that despite deference to boys in girl group songs, female “performances represented images of working women projecting their own voices.” 28 Their performances were completely dominated by the men who chose and orchestrated the songs and oversaw recordings and live shows. Patsy Clinger says: “If we would have only been allowed to follow our heart with our music.…We had some goofy things that we were forced to do because we were young girls.” And Melody agrees: “It was a man’s world.” 29 Melody, as the oldest sister, was probably more aware of this truth than the still very young Patsy and Debra, who loved it all, oblivious to the power imbalance that was the reality of their work experience. Perhaps The Clinger Sisters have been ignored in the literature about girl groups because they were late arrivals (many girl groups were on the national music scene during the 1950s) or perhaps because they never had an album. Their girl group output was all on 45 rpm records, and any hope for recognition depended on radio play, which the sisters lacked when com- pared to other girl groups. By the time the sisters had matured enough to realize this, they were on to something new: they had taken up instruments and were reinventing themselves as a rock and roll band. 26https://www.discogs.com/release/3161007- The-Clinger-Sisters-Golly-Mom-Puppet 27Maureen Daly Goggin and Krista Ratcliffe, “Songs ‘Girls’ Love and Hate: Finding Feminist Agency in 1960s Girl Groups and Girl Singers During #MeToo Moments,” Rhetoric Review 41.2 (2022): 116-129. DOI: 10.1080/07350198.2022.2038511 28Goggin and Ratcliffe, “Songs ‘Girls’ Love,” 116. 29Interview with Patsy, Debra, and Melody Clinger. The Clingers, L-R: Melody, Debra, Patsy, Peggy6VOLUME 28, NO. 3 • 2022 The Clingers: Rock and Roll Band The four Clinger girls were musically trained, and all played piano, guitar, and ukulele. In 1966, their father bought new rock band instruments for the girls; the band consisted of Melody on guitar, Peggy on keyboard, Patsy on the drum set, and Debra on bass. It was an uphill battle for them because they were breaking ground as girls playing rock music. Debra explains, “We worried that as girls we would not be taken seriously as rock musicians if we weren’t accomplished players.” She says that they were so motivated they often spent as much as six hours a day rehearsing in their garage and locking in their particular sound; “it was just thrilling and we couldn’t get enough.” 30 The change brought the sisters another recording contract, this time with Greengrass Productions, with Curt Boettcher of “sunshine pop” fame signed to “produce all Clinger Sisters disks for the label.” 31 It was while working with Boettcher that the sisters officially changed their act’s name to The Clingers, thinking that would help their new image as a rock group. 32 They did several recordings with Boettcher, including their own com- positions, but this was one of many disappointments in their career, since an expected album was not released. “We have never been able to find those tracks either that we recorded,” Patsy was saddened to relate. 33 Their next recording contract ended badly, too. In 1967, The Clingers “signed an exclusive contract with Terry Melcher (son of Doris Day) and Equinox Records” plus ABC Records, which would distribute the discs. 34 It was supposed to include a movie contract with Melcher’s father, Marty. Patsy describes this as “one of the high points of our career in one way, and a low point in another way, 30Debra Clinger, email to the author, June 6, 2022. 31“From the Music Capitals of the World: Los Angeles,” Billboard 22 (October 1966): 49. 32“Chatter: Hollywood,” Variety (November 23, 1966): 69. 33Interview with Patsy, Debra, and Melody Clinger. 34“Something to Cling to,” Cash Box (November 11, 1967): 34. because Marty died, and that threw that whole thing out.” 35 His death put his business assets into a spin, engendering lawsuits that took years to resolve, and not favorably for his heirs. 36 The Clingers’ album was never released, and worse, as Patsy relates, it disappeared and she has not been able to find the tracks. 37 The Clingers had a good experience touring with the Righteous Brothers. They were taken seriously as musi- cians, and they had the opportunity to perform one of Melody’s compositions, “Only You,” as a part of their rock and roll act; unfortunately, the sheet music is not available. 38 Throughout 1968, the sisters were frequent performers on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and record producer Michael Lloyd became their champion. Mike Stax reports, “Lloyd was floored when he saw the girls play. He’d never seen an all-female rock ‘n’ roll group before, let alone one of this caliber, and he immediately saw their commercial potential.” 39 Lloyd had the sisters perform the instru- mentals on tracks they recorded with him and Kim Fowley as producers, such as “Good Day, Sunshine” and “Gonna Have a Good Time.” 40 Lloyd was so impressed with The Clingers on the latter that he convinced the Smothers Brothers’ producers to allow the girls to play on live television. Lloyd says, it “was revolutionary at that moment, and very difficult to convince [the producers] to do, because they didn’t think that was appropriate. It just didn’t fit anyone’s view to have girls playing instruments in a rock ‘n’ roll band.” So, when the Smothers Brothers people took a chance and let the Clingers perform as a rock band, it marked a first. 41 35Interview with Patsy, Debra, and Melody Clinger. 36“Day in Court,” Forbes (October 15, 1974): 192. 37Interview with Patsy, Debra, and Melody Clinger. 38Ibid. It was recorded on the CD Clingers: Soft Bodies, Hard Rock (2021), produced by Mark Blackburn, area251 Records. 39Mike Stax, Ugly Things 39 (2015): 81. 40Interview with Patsy, Debra, and Melody Clinger. 41Stax, Ugly Things, 83. This amazing moment on television pointed The Clingers toward yet another record deal. Columbia Record signed a long-term recording contract, with Bones Howe named to be their executive producer. 42 Columbia took out a full-page ad in both Billboard and Cashbox to promote the single “Gonna Have a Good Time” (with “And Now You Know Me” on the flip side).” 43 However, Bill Drake, the program director who had a monopoly on radio airplay, did not believe that The Clingers actually played their own instruments; there- fore, he refused to play their records. The Clingers’ managers “sent countless correspondence and phoned, ‘Come and see the girls…then make your judgment call.’” But Drake never would. He felt that girl rock bands “weren’t happening at the time and he wasn’t about to change that scenario.” 44 The Clingers tried again, this time managed and produced by Mike Curb. They made a single, “Something here in my heart” with a cover of Lennon and McCartney’s “Blackbird” on the flip side. 45 When the sisters appeared on American Bandstand with Curb in 1969, and discussed the difficulties faced by an all-girl band, Curb said that male bands sold more records than 42“Clingers to Col,” Record World (November 30, 1968): 22. 43“Soft bodies. Hard rock.” Cash Box 8 (February 1969): 2. 44Ibid. 45https://www.discogs.com/release/3963926- Clingers-Something-Here-In-My-Heart “Lloyd was floored when he saw the girls play. He’d never seen an all-female rock ‘n’ roll group before, let alone one of this caliber, and he immediately saw their commercial potential.” —MIKE STAXNext >