My Red Blood
"I would listen to Meg Christian and Alix Dobkin, and I would see these women standing up, saying, 'Yeah, I'm queer, and I'm singing, and everyone's lovin' it.' I was inspired."—Melissa Etheridge
Bob Dylan’s "favorite female singer" and one of the groundbreaking icons in women’s music recalls the bohemian folk years of Greenwich Village, the radical left culture that shaped her life and music, and the feminism that changed it.
Women’s music legend Alix Dobkin for the first time chronicles her rise to fame as the first artist to record an openly lesbian record album in 1973. Her story, however, opens much earlier in post-war New York City where, growing up in a Communist family, she watches Jackie Robinson steal home, rubs elbows with radical left celebrities like Paul Robeson, and comes of age under the watchful eye of the FBI. Dobkin herself joins the Party at the height of the McCarthy witch hunts and offers readers a first-hand glimpse of daily life as a teenager living under government surveillance.
During this time she also matures as a devotee of folk music, having fallen under the spell of renowned performers such as Leadbelly and Pete Seeger. Yet it’s after she arrives on the burgeoning folk music scene of Greenwich Village, where she meets the up-and-coming Bob Dylan, Bill Cosby, John Sebastian, Buffy Ste. Marie, and Flip Wilson, among many other rising luminaries, that she achieves her first acclaim as a singer-songwriter. Her music takes on overt feminist dimensions when she joins a women’s consciousness raising group and comes out as a lesbian. Rich in period detail, storytelling, and outspoken politics, My Red Blood is essential reading for lovers of music and history.
"My Red Blood is a magnifying glass on a revolution in music, culture, and politics. Here's the sixties from someone who remembers everything."—John Sebastian, leader of The Lovin’ Spoonful
Singer-song writer and producer of the groundbreaking 1973 "Lavender Jane Loves Women," Alix Dobkin has six additional highly praised albums and a songbook to her credit. She lives in Woodstock, NY.
Tour Dates
October 19, Monday, New York: Barnes and Noble, 82nd and Broadway, 2289 Broadway, 7 pm.
October 29, Thursday, New York: Barnes and Noble, 122 5th Ave, 7 pm.
November 3, Tuesday, New York: Gay and Lesbian Center, 208 West 13th Street, reception at 6:30 pm, program at 7 pm.
November 9, Monday, Boston: Berklee College of Music Bookstore, 1090 Boylston Street 2 pm.
November 10, Tuesday, Boston: Boston University Bookstore, 660 Beacon Street, 7 pm.
November 13, Friday, Philadelphia: Giovanni’s Room, 345 S. 12th St, 5:30 pm.
