9:10 am
Sitting on a picnic bench outside of the catering tent. On the way here, passed cows, farms selling sweet corn and deer crossing signs. Toto, we are not in New York City anymore. While waiting for everyone on the bus (where I'll be staying this week) to wake up, had eggs, bacon and one little blueberry pancake for breakfast. Now, someone is setting up a big barbecue grill next to me. Grass underfoot, charcoals heating up - I'm feeling very suburban at the moment.

The weather is still cool, and the sky is "hazy" as the lady in catering described it. Darien Lakes is a huge amusement park with monster rollercoasters visible in the distance. I walk to the bus to see if I see signs of life and begin taking a few photos of it. "That'll cost you." a gruff voice calls out from behind me and I'm facing a chin-length, bushy moustache and a man behind it looking amused and fierce at the same time. Turns out he is Dave, the bus driver, and he proceeds to give me the lowdown on all of my busmates. They began appearing from the bus, one by one.

Got the bus rules - no paper in the toilets, no Number 2 under any circumstances, if you turn it on you must turn it off, no personal belongings in the main cabin and a multitude of other little things to avoid trouble. I get a bottom bunk - always the best bunk in a tour bus - and load my things into it. Home Sweet Home, for a week, at least.

12:15 pm
Waiting in front of the Production Office for my laminate reminds me of my days in the music business (pre-Cybergrrl) working for Metallica. Same business, different band. Sound check is starting in the background and a loud, booming "Check,Check." reverberates through the field. The sun might be coming out.

2:10 pm
Had Burritos for lunch with a soggy chocolate chip cookie and weird-tasting iced tea. Saw Sarah (as in SARAH) walking around the buses earlier and wasn't completely sure it was her, wearing a white cotton hat pulled down over her head and a shape-clinging blue dress. Saw her again and could see her smile--familiar somehow. You sometimes get a flash of a thought when you see someone 'famous' like "hey, that person looks like someone who looks like Sarah McLachlan." Strange. She has a soft, full, womanly shape, not slight and waifish as I expected. And an unselfconscious way of standing, comfortable in her own body.

2:45 pm
Sat in the press conference and got to ask two questions. First, I asked each Lilith woman at the table what woman they admired most. The responses:

*Alison Pippitone (local Buffalo artist) - Etta James
*Liz Phair - Hilary Clinton
*N'Dea Davenport - Her cousin who was like a big sister to her and died of leukemia
*Paula Cole - Harriet Tubman and Tina Turner
*Sarah McLachlan - her mother
*Emmylou Harris - her mother who has "She continues to be an extraordinary inspiration to me, her strength and her grace, and the ability to give to other people and her selflessness and yet she is a lot stronger than she realizes."
*Jepp (new artist on Village Stage) - "A woman that has the courage to be herself and to be strong and to be wild. I really appreciate that." *Mary Lou Lord (B Stage artist) - her mom, her sister Debbie and Shawn Colvin, the women at the table, and Joni Mitchell

My second question went to Alison Pippitone and Jepp asking how they hooked up with Lilith Fair and what were their expectations. Alison's manager had contacted the folks at Lilith. Per Alison, "I remember I was on my way to New York and nobody calls on my cellphone, because it's too expensive, unless it's big news. So they called and said 'You're playing at the Lilith Fair,' and I thought 'Wow, that's cool.'"

Jepp had just spent the last month in France and the response to women artists there was different. She credited Lilith Fair for bringing the response to women performers to a new level. "You guys are really making a huge difference," she said to Sarah, Paula, and the rest. "As far as my expectations, I'm just so happy and grateful to be around women who are doing their own thing and to have the courage to stand up and be counted, just knowing you have a voice. That's all that matters to me."

3:30 pm Village Stage
Alison Pippitone and the Cash Cows were performing as the sun burned down from a blue sky, and I searched for a patch of shade to shield me as I watched. Jangly guitar, reverberating bass, country twang, rhythm and blues, discordant harmonies. The crowd cheered their local heroine who had made it to a stage at Lilith Fair.

3:55 pm Village Stage
Melanie Doane played a violin accompanied by a guitarist and drummer. I could hear her singing an ironic song called "Happy Homemaker" as I wandered over to the Tower Records booth where Alison Pippitone was signing CDs to try to arrange an interview.

4:20 pm B Stage

Caught last song in N'Dea Davenport's set as she called out to the crowd to get them to sing along. I'm looking forward to catching more of her set in Milwaukee. The stages are set up on opposite sides of the field. Getting my exercise.

4:55 pm B Stage
Mary Lou Lord has a very 50s feel in her look and a very storyteller feeling in her songs, choosing music by the likes of Richard Thompson, Neil Young and Lucinda Williams. Her voice is clear and strong. She tells the audience that she used to perform on the streets of Boston and in subways around Harvard Square.

5:20 pm Village Stage
Jepp really belts it out, powerful wail over fuzzed out guitar. Intense, piercing and impressive. She came to Lilith via London via Minnesota and throws candy to the crowd--Hershey bars and Nestle's Crunch.

5:40 pm
Trucks are kicking up dust from under the gravel lots as I make my way back to the tour bus to regroup. I'm equipped with a radio, a fanny pack, my laminate, a mini back pack with a cassette recorder, digital camera and cell phone, and a bottle of water. I'm ready for this.

5:45 pm
Liz Phair is joined by Sarah in a black dress and N'Dea during her set. The crowd cheers.

6:15 pm
The Wild Strawberries rouse the crowd over at the B Stage. This is their last show of the tour this year. They had also played Lilith last year. Lead singer, Chanteuse Roberta, has red-red, spiky hair, and a commanding, self-assured voice and presence.

6:35 pm
The sky is a sweet blue, the sun is in the distance now, and a cool breeze is blowing. I run across the field and through the crowd to catch some of Emmylou Harris on the Main Stage. She is a woman with an elegant style, a strong spirit on stage, a gentle country twang, and a perfect pitch voice described by one person as "smooth like listening to butter." Halfway through the set, she thanked Liz Phair for ". . . lending me her glitter. I'm feeling like a babe!" Later, she was joined by Paula Cole and the entertwining harmonies they created made goosebumps rise on my arms. "I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am," Emmylou called out to the crowd, "Then you're probably in nirvana," she said, pronouncing nirvana with the last part rhyming with Vanna White's name. "Yes," we are, assured the crowd.

7:45 pm
The temperature has dropped, and I pull on a long sleeve shirt over my tank top. Had a dinner of tuna steak, roasted potatos, rice, salad and orange sode. I saw Sarah again, this time in the dining room. She was wearing a different outfit (Outfit #3) --a denim skirt and tank top. I notice these things, don't ask me why.

7:50 pm
Paula Cole's transformation from demure and endearingly awkward at the press conference to a sultry seductress in a red velvet long skirt and bare midriff surprises me. She moves around the stage in a dramatic, modern dance way and her sharp, rich-toned, precise singing voice is expressive and determined. The crowd screams in approval. She ends her set with "I Don't Want to Wait," then takes a bow with her entire band and tosses red roses into the audience.

9:00 pm
The lights go out, the crowd cheers, and I maneuver back through the crowd under an indigo sky to see Natalie Merchant appear in a pink, buttoned up suit and bare feet. I first saw her perform in 1985 and she stood, seemingly terrified, in the middle of the stage wearing a coat buttoned up to her neck and holding a book practically in front of her face the entire set. She didn't move a muscle. Tonight, she danced across the stage, moving her body, her arms, and singing in her lilting Natalie voice. She is joined by N'Dea Davenport at one point and the two of them belt out soulful harmonies. Then she begins to take her hair down, literally, during another number, unraveling her braids and finally bending over to shake her hair into long, flowing tresses.

10:00 pm
Sarah has just taken the stage but a crowd has gathered around the TV in the catering tent to see President Clinton's address to the nation. In between laughter (at the television), Sarah's voice reaches into the tent with the music of "Sweet Surrender" swelling behind it and the crowd roaring. Eventually, I'm drawn toward the stage and catch Paula Cole joining Sarah and looking freshly showered with hair still wet. Fireworks are electrifying the sky in the amusement park behind the stage, giving a bright and celebritory feeling to her set. Paula wails, voice like an instrument, then leaves the stage after the song. Next, Emmylou Harris appears for a duet with Sarah on "Angel." Chills start at my ears and run down my back and arms to my fingertips. Even when Sarah's voice cracked, the audience cheered more loudly with encouragement. She can do no wrong.

11:00 pm
The finale brings all of the artists of the day from all three stages to the Main Stage. About a dozen women dance together, smile together and sing "What's Going On?" together. Natalie dances like a slow-spinning top between the others, Alison and Jepp take a few minutes to get their courage up in the midst of all their idols, then lean into the microphone together to join in, Sarah brings Roberta forward to the mike but she smiles sheepishly and then disappears back behind the crowd on stage. Then the women form a Samba line, hands to shoulders or the hips of the woman in front of them, and dance off stage left. The crowd screams. The house lights go up. The crowd reluctantly settles down and gathers their things to leave. Euphoria sparks through the air, brighter than the fireworks from the hour before.

12:10 pm
After a slice of cold pizza on the bus, I say goodnight and crawl into my bottom bunk. To some, this sleeping set-up might feel like a coffin. To me, it feels like a nest. I burrow in for the night, warm and exhausted.