The Changer and the Changed (1975) was Olivia Records’ second album release, and this album by Cris Williamson quickly became the biggest seller in women’s music, eventually selling 500,000 copies. Allmusic gives the record its highest rating (five stars), and Stewart Mason has a rave review on the website: “The simple but rich arrangements set Williamson’s glorious voice and piano against strings, flute, and Jacqueline Robbins’ jazz-inflected fretless bass, giving the album a timeless sound and putting the focus entirely on the songs and Williamson’s elegantly passionate performance of them.’
Behind the scenes, Olivia Records started to put the full weight of its philosophy into place on this album: To the extent possible, their work was to be in women’s hands from start to finish. As in most fields during this time period, women were regularly excluded in the music industry from working as backing musicians, producers, arrangers, engineers, etc. Thus, besides performing on guitar, Meg Christian produced The Changer and the Changed; other contributors later released women’s music albums, such as Margie Adam. June Millington, previously in the all-female rock band Fanny, provided backing vocals and also played drums, acoustic and electric guitar, slide guitar, and keyboards; Millington shows up on later Cris Williamson releases also. In all, Allmusic lists 50 people in the credits for The Changer and the Changed, with the vast majority being women.
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After touring with Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden in their “Indochina Peace Campaign” in 1971 and 1972, Holly Near began writing songs and performing in the Los Angeles area. Unable to land a record company deal, she released her debut album in 1973, Hang in There on her own label, Redwood Records (which she started a few years before Olivia Records came along). She often toured with Olivia Records artists and performed on some of their albums, including The Changer and the Changed; but her early albums were released on Redwood.
(January 2014)
