Liliith Fair, the late-’90s institution that put female musicians front and center, is back, and back in San Diego. No dates or venues have been announced as yet, but the revived tour features such familiar faces as festival co-founder Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow and British chanteuse Beth Orton. All three starred at the July ‘99 stop at Coors (now Cricket Wireless) Amphitheatre in Chula Vista. This time around they will be joined by  (literally) an A-to-Z roundup of female (or female-fronted) talent, from A Fine Frenzy to Zee Avi.

And while some might think that the lineup “still has too much of that folk-softie-ballad crap,” as one (yes, male) commenter put it on Lilithfair.com, it “looks like it’s a bit more diversified this time around.” This year’s bills range from classic-rock stalwarts Heart to party animal Ke$ha, R&B powerhouse Mary J. Blige to country firecracker Miranda Lambert, and indie faves Cat Power and Gossip.

The big news, though, is that big-time country legend Loretta Lynn recently joined the tour. The one-woman Lilith Fair of her time (her first hit single, “I’m a Honky-Tonk Girl,” was recorded 50 years ago this month), Lynn recalled in a statement, “When I first started out, they said girl singers couldn’t sell records or concert tickets. We’ve come a long way since then and we’re gonna have a big time out there!”

Mikel Toombs is an SDNN music columnist.

Tags: Beth Orton, Lilith Fair, Sarah McLachlan, SDNN, Sheryl Crow

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 5:29 pm and is filed under Decibel . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.