Sallie Ford

Plenty a future has been pondered in a French café, and so it was for Sallie Ford. During a tiring tour of Europe last winter Ford's then-bandmate Jeff Munger mentioned he was ready for a break from the tours Ford and her band, The Sound Outside, had logged. She said she too was ready for something new. "And I said, 'I wish I could have an all-girl band,'" Ford says. Ford calls Slap Back, her Vanguard Records debut an "ode to all the babe rockers." To Pat Benatar and PJ Harvey, Xene Cervenka, and Joan Jett, and Heart. But it's also her first album without guitarist Munger, bassist Tyler Tornfelt and drummer Ford Tennis, so Slap Back is just as much an ode to herself, to her accomplishments and her ambitions. She wanted to play more guitar, so she made herself the guitar player. She wanted to play in a band with keyboards, so she signed up Cristina Cano (Albatross, Siren & the Sea) on keys. She added Anita Lee Elliott, who's been in Viva Voce and Blue Giant, on bass, and Amanda Spring (Point Juncture, WA.) on drums. Like that, Ford had the band she hoped for.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of artist