Sorry it took so long to respond...I thank you so much for your story and what Olivia has meant to you. The last 35 years of my life have been devoted to the same reason we started Olivia to create a wonderful and safe space, to create visibility and to build a community and connection.

About the old music...you can get it from the individual performers websites as well as Amazon and GOldenrod Music. WE are unfortunately no longer producing new music but never say never.

We have just started an Olivia community in Tucson which is our next great adventure into living. If you haven't heard....check out www.oliviacommunities.com. and if you like what you see (I think it's an incredible opportunity!) give our terrific experts a call. WE are close to 15% deposited in the first couple weeks of a very quiet email announcement with thousands showing interest. It's phenomenal.

 Olivia can do anything with the support of her community.

 xo

 Judy

Judy,

Now that you've got me interested...I was 5 in 1973.  "The biggest tomboy with a baby doll," is how my mom and grandmas described me.  After 3 suicide attempts between 1981-82, a sympathetic basketball coach slipped me an audio tape recording of some songs by Meg and Chris.  It literally changed my life.  I came out to myself, and  stopped trying to commit suicide, but could tell no one.  Fast forward to around 1986-87 and Holly Near came to my college campus.  Something in the way she sang made my heart weep.  I felt like I had come home.

I saw Holly Near perform on my most recent cruise with Olivia.  Again she made my heart weep.  And wonder of wonders....I got to hear Meg Christian sing, live and in person!!!  (It made my heart go pitter pat!)

I loved coming to your talks, Judy, and hearing the herstory of Olivia and about the feminist movement.  So many women, even on the cruises, don't know the contributions that Olivia made as a women's record company before she became a lesbian travel company.  The women of today have risen higher because they stand on the backs of the strong, independent, women of vision from yesterday.

I can't thank you and the Olivia Team enough for the wonderful experiences you provide for our community!     

Now, my question.  Is it at all possible to find some of the older music that Olivia Records put out?  And is it still possible to find Teresa Trull's album, "Ways a Woman Can Be?"  I've looked all over the internet, to no avail.

I love the old music, and my girls have grown up listening to Meg, Chris, Barbara Higbie, Suede, Lucie Blue just to name a few.  (My youngest daughter, my non-traditional girl, asked me to put Gym II on her I-Pod!!! )

So, thank you Olivia.  Thank you, Judy.  And here's to 35 more beautiful years!

Deb

*25th Anniversary Carribbean Cruise, Punta Cana, DR - Comedy Festival, 35th Anniversary Caribbean Cruise.

"at what concert did I announce the idea of cruises? That's a toughy..."

Was it the first night of the 15th Anniversary tour in 1988??

DC to LA ?

Was it 1975?

Hey Cruizer not bad... The collective was GInny Berson, Meg Christian, Jennifer Woodul Kate Winter and Judy Dlugacz...

 Anybody know when we moved to LA from DC?

Also...at what concert did I announce the idea of cruises? That's a toughy...

Well, there was you Judy. Also Meg Christian (Who we look forward to seeing on teh Caribbean Dreams cruise) & Cris Williamson.

Oops, that's 3. Canadian counting!!

Okay! 

Cris williamson's first record with Olivia "The Changes & the Changed", sold how many copies in the first year???

Sophie's Parlour 

ok  I cheated I googled the phrase and found it.. pretty cool!

It is really strange to have someone say that a "student wrote a paper about Olivia..." like it is science or history....funny, only because of having lived through an era when the music of Olivia was pretty much the soundtrack of my life. "There's Something About The Women", "Valentine Song", "The Rock Will Wear Away", "The Ways A Woman Can Be", and the heartbreak "Hurts Like The Devil"....among so many others. How incredible it is that the world and culture acccessible to lesbians today is so large and varied, when we used to be like little islands, sending out flares to find "our people" to connect. We had "I KNOW YOU KNOW" bumper stickers, fumbled with handkerchiefs to try to figure out what we wanted to convey, or would ask "Have you ever heard of Meg Christian?" It is a different world today.

The history of Olivia and the history of lesbian culture is anything but "trivial" but......to answer the question, it was 1977, Teresa Trull, the album THE WAYS A WOMAN CAN BE and the song "There's Something About The Women". 

There still is.

Wow...thank you Evergreen!!  I have been hoping to find the words to that song...I try to sing along every time I watch the DVD from the two cruises I have been fortunate to be on.  (going on my third to Mexican Riviera in a month..woo hoo!)

I love reading the trivia...but cannot contribute as I only discovered Olivia in 2004 on my first trip to the Caribbean. 

Hopefully one day I can educate future Olivia travelers on some Olivia history!!

Thanks again

Donna