“I heard Ruth Brown, and I just found my kind of music,” — Janis Martin

“I heard Ruth Brown, and I just found my kind of music,” — Janis Martin

Cultural history is peppered with What Ifs. What if someone like Janis Martin had gone the distance? What if she hadn’t lapsed into obscurity? Would she have carved out a small space for women in rock ‘n roll (alongside the likes of Wanda Jackson)? Rock ‘n roll was so associated with men. The sexual energy coming from the stage was male, and geared towards … everyone, really. The energy did not discriminate. But, like it or not, there is a diffe…