Michelle,

As many are noting here, there are actually quite a few. But Mark's assumptoin of not being interested in turning knobs is quite correct. It is just not something they normally do. There are quite a few reasons for this.

The carreer path of a producer is very illustrative by Carol King. She wrote in the Brill Building in the 50's and 60's in New York. She had cuts like "Heatwave", "Up on the Roof" and dozens of others in the late 50's and 60's with Motown and other places. That was back when there were writers and artists, and rarely did they intersect. But she was the back ground of much of the world in that era. Well known but unknown, because the writers did not recieve as much attention as the stars.

That changed around 1970 with the explosion of the singer/songwriter in the California era. Carly Simon, James Taylor, Crosby Stills Nash, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Brown, the Eagles, etc. all were singer/songwriters, and exploded the "inside cut" phenomenon that we still hear today. Carol became a HUGE recording artist with an album called "Tapestry" and reset the bar for what was expected of writer/artists.

As she progressed both financially and renown, she got into producing, mostly herself at first, then asked by record labels to produce others. That is where she is today.

You don't hear as much from female producers for the same reason you don't have quite as many female songwriters. Women tend to come to the writing world later than men because they are usually concerned with being the stars. So the learning and professional curve is longer. But it takes earning credits in other areas, writing, to earn your way to being a producer.

Then there is the other nasty side. A producer not only has to be the creative director for people that tend to be self absorbed spoiled children who are the artists, so they become baby sitters, and also they are the lightning rod for anything bad that can happen with the business side on the label. So if a project turns out bad through no fault of their own, they are fired. Their reputation is in tatters and they have to re-earn it over again. It happens with men also. Everyone's butt is on the line on every project they are involved in and record companies don't tend to like throwing away millions of dollars on projects that don't sell or are sabatoged by the artists themselves, competeing forces within their own labels or outside business interests. So it is much easier not to take on that role, and a lot more sane.

The latest example that I know of personally is a writer named Victoria Shaw, who is a well known writer here in town. I work out of the studio next door to hers on Music Row. This past year she come out with a group she produced known as "Lady Antebellum." It is two guys and a girl, who is the daughter of a very well known artist from the 80's, Linda Davis. They did very well this year, with several hit songs and awards.

Inevitably, as soon as their album was a success, they fired Victoria as producer. Why? No one knows, but I am sure people at the label tell them "the NEXT one can be even bigger if we change the entire team you work with." And that is probably because someone further up the food chain has some producer they want them to work with because they are in some kind of business arrangement with that producer where they will financially benefit if the changes are made. Everyone is paranoid their jobs are going, so it is very dog eat dog.

Overall the music business is like an iceberg. Very little of what goes on is seen from the general public. Everyone tends to think that you write a few songs, record them, get them out there and things take off. Everyonce in a while that happens and it always has to have elements of that in it, but most of it happen behind the scenes. That is the frustrating part of the real music business. 85% of a career are things you have no control over.

That is why you can't get too caught up in anything, expect anything, and worry about anything other than that 15% you can have something to do with. Writing, performing and recording. The rest is like a relay race. you start it off and it is up to others to carry the baton to the next level.

MAB