When Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September of 2020, three Oregon songwriters — Kristen Grainger of Salem, Bre Gregg of Portland and Beth Wood of Sisters — found themselves looking for a way to pay tribute to her life.

With the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing and public gatherings prohibited, a tribute concert was impossible. So the trio invited a bunch of their female songwriter friends to write a song about a woman who’d inspired them and submit a video of themselves performing the song. More than 60 clips poured in from across the country, featuring songs about Ginsburg, Aretha Franklin, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, Georgia O’Keefe, Jane Goodall and more. They posted the videos to a YouTube channel, named the project She’s Speaking and launched it with a livestream concert. In late 2021, She’s Speaking went live with an in-person show in Portland.

“It was clear from their response that audiences were not only thirsty for live music experiences, they were thirsty to hear women’s voices and stories, to feel the energy and joy of these eight women songwriters from across many musical genres,” Grainger said in an interview. “Audience members sang along, held each other’s hands, laughed, shed tears of joy, danced in the aisles and, at the end, leaped to their feet and yelled for more. That’s how we knew this show was something special.”

Live at the Tower Theatre

On Sunday night, She’s Speaking Live will visit Bend’s Tower Theatre, with Arietta Ward, Naomi LaViolette, Liz Chibucos, Lisa Mann, LaRhonda Steele and a top-shelf backing band joining the three founders for a celebration of women songwriters, women’s stories and women’s voices.

Kristen Grainger on She’s Speaking

“Instead of sitting around like John Mayer and waiting on the world to change, we are changing it ourselves, one song at a time, one show at a time, one town at a time.”

Grainger was kind enough to answer a few questions about She’s Speaking via email; here’s some of that interview, edited for space and clarity.

GO!: Why do you think the mission of She’s Speaking is important?

Kristen Grainger: As an industry — across all aspects of it — music is dominated by men. When we created She’s Speaking, the numbers were pretty dismal.

According to a study of 800 popular songs from 2012-2019, 22% of artists, 13% of songwriters and 3% of engineers were women, and the ratio of men to women music producers is 30:1.

Generally, the people with the power to decide whose music gets streamed, who gets stage time, who gets air time, who gets signed, who gets booked, whose songs get recorded and how — those people are nearly always men.

Add all of that up, for any woman artist trying to penetrate the din, the deck is stacked, and not in her favor.

Fundamentally, what the data shows is that there need to be more platforms where women’s voices and stories may be heard — spaces for songs by women, about women, for everyone. This is not only music from people who represent more than half the world’s population, it is, empirically, excellent music. Come and hear LaRhonda Steele’s “Full-Growed Woman” and Beth Wood’s “Long Live the Queen” and any of the other umpteen amazing original songs we perform. Spotify may make you wait seven or eight songs before you hear a woman’s voice — we won’t.

GO!: How would you describe the vibe of the She’s Speaking live experience?

KG: The show’s vibe is all about connection — the artists with each other, the audience with the performers and with each other. It’s hard to describe other than wonderful. It’s not eight angry women hunched over guitars singing about injustice (other than me; that actually captures me pretty well). In addition to gorgeous music, there’s a lot of joy, sass and charisma coming from that stage.

GO!: What does this project mean to the artists involved?

KG: Consider that we started out as three performing songwriters, isolated, frustrated and sad (and a little alarmed) about Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing. Individually, we may have felt we could do nothing more than wring our hands over our own powerlessness, our lack of options due to the pandemic shutdown and, well, the way things are. But as women artists in a small West Coast market, if nothing else we have each learned to collaborate, get creative, work hard and never give up. Because the three of us pooled our creative resources, there now exists this powerful and beautiful experience that brings great music to more people. If we hadn’t done it, who would?

With no money, no corporate involvement and no business plan, we started a YouTube channel that turned into seven live shows in 2024 — evidence that this is good music and people want to hear more. Instead of sitting around like John Mayer and waiting on the world to change, we are changing it ourselves, one song at a time, one show at a time, one town at a time.

Dropping In: B-positive about donating blood

If You Go

What: She’s Speaking Live

When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, doors open 6:30 p.m.

Where: Tower Theatre, 835 NW Wall St., Bend

Cost: $21-$41

Contact: towertheatre.org.