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All Music Guide:
Portland, OR-based singer/songwriter Sarah Dougher has played in groups like the Lookers, The Crabs and Cadallaca, which also features Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker. In addition she holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, teaches Greek and Roman Literature and writes for the Willamette Week, San Fransisco Bay Guardian and other publications. Dougher also wrote Sent Out On The Tracks They Built: Sinophobia in Olympia, 1886, a book on racism and railroad building in Olympia, WA, with artist Nikki McClure. Her personal and political solo debut album, Day One, was released in 1999 on K Records; Walls Ablaze, her second album and her first for Mr. Lady Records, appeared in spring 2000 and shows in England, Japan and the eastern U.S. followed. She and fellow collaborator Jon Reuter played The Knitting Factory in New York City for a month-long residency in January 2001, selling out every show and earning props from The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Village Voice. As one of the founders of the rising Ladyfest festival, Dougher played Ladyfest Glasgow in summer 2001, just prior to issuing her third studio effort The Bluff.
Wikipedia:
Sarah Dougher is an author, teacher, and singer-songwriter from Portland, Oregon.
Background
Career
Dougher has a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Texas. Apart from her musical endeavours, Dougher teaches courses on the History of Women in Rock music and Lyric Poetry in the Women's Studies department at Portland State University. She also teaches a course on homeless adolescents and food insecurity.
Dougher has been an organizer for the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls, and is currently involved with the Girls Rock Camp Alliance, an international coalition of girls' rock camps. Between 2006-2010, she worked full time teacher and development person for p:ear, a mentoring program for homeless teens in downtown Portland.
In the absence of Mr. Lady, Dougher started the record label Cherchez La Femme which centers around the same grassroots feminist ideals of the labels Dougher herself has previously recorded under. In 2006, Dougher was hired to score a version of Euripides' classical Greek tragedy Orestes, which ran for five weeks in Portland.
Music
Dougher has released eight albums over the past ten years, a combination of work with bands as well as solo releases. Since 2007, she has co-directed Portland's Flash Choir with Pat Janowski. The Flash Choir is free, no-audition choir that specializes in collaborative, audience-inclusive work. In January 2010 she debuted a 10-song composition called "Strangers Together," with a libretto from Oregon poet and pacifist William Stafford's book, Passwords. Portland's Regional Arts and Culture Council supported the creation and production of this work through a project grant. In 2009, she composed a choral work called Caesar's Gatebased on the collaborative work of poet Robert Duncan and collage artist, Jess, commissioned by the Cooley Gallery at Reed College.
Solo
The first of her solo albums, Day One, was released on indie label K Records in 1999; the latter two, 2000's Walls Ablaze and 2001's The Bluff, were released on Mr. Lady records. In June 2005, Dougher released Harper's Arrow on the Cherchez La Femme label. Beginning with "Day One", Sarah began a long-lasting collaboration with Jon Nikki (Prima Donnas, Gene Defcon, Mocket, Sir, Sarah Dougher, Puce Moment). Jon Nikki contributed guitar, keyboards and piano, bass and drums on many of Sarah's recordings as well as a songwriting credit on the album "Walls Ablaze" for the song "What's Good Is Better Than Gone".
Cadallaca
Dougher has also worked with Sleater-Kinney vocalist Corin Tucker and novelist sts in the band Cadallaca, where she provided vocals and played the Farfisa organ. In the tradition of 1960's girl groups, each member of the band assumed an alias, Dougher being credited as Dusty. The band put out two official albums: Introducing Cadallaca (K Records) and Out West(an EP, on Kill Rock Stars).
The Crabs
The Crabs were a Portland, Oregon based indie-rock band. Originally formed as a duo in 1993 with John Lunsford (vocals, guitar) and Lisa Jackson (vocals, drums), the pair later added Sarah Dougher on keyboard following their 1997 release What Were Flames Now Smolder. Dougher contributes keyboards and vocals to the 1999 release, Sand and Sea
Personal
Dougher was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. Her cancer is in remission.
