Fire in the Rain...Singer in the Storm: An
Autobiography, by Holly Near with
Derk Richardson, William Morrow
and Company, Inc. New York, 1990.

Reviewed by Lee Russell

Holly Near is one of my personal he-
roes, and it would be almost impossible for
me to write a negative review of this book.
I admire her courage, strength, and out-
spokenness; her tireless efforts on behalf of
the causes she believes in; her central role
in the creation and growth of women's
music; her ability to make a career in alter-
native music work on her own terms; her
high energy concert performances; her tal-
ent as a song writer; and her great big voice.
Most of all, I admire her commitment to this
work over the long haul. She hasworked for
twenty years now and shows no signs of
stopping.

I was excited to learn that she was
writing an autobiography; I wanted to
know more about what makes this amazing
woman tick. Like the artist herself, the
book delivers.

Fire in the Rain...Singer in the Storm
tells the story of Holly Near's remarkable
life and career, including her early work
with Jane Fonda, touring to protest the war
in Vietnam, and the genesis and growth of
her company, Redwood Records, which
over the years went from a family business
run by her parents from their dining room
table to a rather contentious feminist col-
lective, and finally to the stable partnership
it remains today. She also talks about her
involvement in the early stages of women's
music; of a 1975 California tour with Meg
Christian, Cris Williamson, and Margie
Adams, she says "We walked onstage. The
place exploded. I thought for a moment,
‘My God, we are the Beatles of the women's
movement!"'

Although Holly considered herself
straight, she fell in love with Meg Christian
and came out publicly as a lesbian at the
first Michigan Women's Festival in 1976.
She has worked with a wide variety of
people, including Ronnie Gilbert of the
Weavers; Inti-lllimani, the exiled Chilean
folk-singing group; and Susan Freundlich,
her longtime sign-language interpreter. All
of these people are in the book. The book
also chronicles her growing politicization,
her commitment to coalition work, and her
ever-expanding work for peace and jusfice,
with special emphasis on Latin America.

She estimates that over the course of her
career, she has raised almost $10 million
for the causes in which she believes.

There are many other lesser-known
stories as well. The collaboration between
Redwood Records and Sweet Honey in the
Rock was painful and forced the members
of Redwood to confront their internalized
racism. Holly's relationship with Olivia
Records was also difficult. Holly consid-
ered Olivia to be like in-laws, with all of the
tension that implies.

Fire in the Rain describes the internal
conflicts of this complex woman whose
lesbianism does not seem to come easily to
her (although she insists on calling herself
a lesbian, it is clear that emotionally and
sexually, she is bisexual), who struggled
with political correctness in the 1970's, and
whose punishing schedule and ceaseless
touring caused a series of serious health
problems that led eventually to a complete
collapse in late 1984. Holly spent most of
1985 slowly healing herself. She is unspar-
ingly honest in
her self-ex-
a m i n a ti o n
throughout the
book, but
never more
than when
talking about
herbreakdown
and recovery.

H o l l y
Near comes
across as a .
large-spirited
and generous A
woman, writ-
ing with great
a f f e c t i o n
about
people she
loves: her fam-
ily, her many - - . -
friends, her
partners at
Redwood. We
see someone
who is fully - - - - -
engaged in her
life, intensely
involved in the
world around
her, passionate
about people
and causes,

D ’ A

the A D

  ire in th Rain...Singer in the Storm: A Review

December 1990

 
 
   

and refusing to fit herself into someone
else's narrow box.

Fire in the Rain is not without its
faults. Holly Near's great talent is as singer,
songwriter, and performer. She is not par-
ticularly gifted as a writer, and many parts
of her story do not come alive. Much of the
treatment of her life is analytical and philo-
sophical. She talks about events and feel-
ings, but we cannot feel them through her.

This is especially true in the sections.

on her relationships. The description of her
relationship with Meg Christian, poten-
tially one of the most interesting sections of
the book, is limited by her desire to protect
their privacy. As a result, the texture of the
relationship comes through dimly, and the
reasons it began, grew, faded, and ended
are never entirely clear. Her second lesbian
partnership was with the singer Nancy
Vogl; since their relationship broke up, she
has had no long-tenn partners, although

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