Some Gifted Female Songwriters

Patty Griffin performs during a charity benefit concert at the Austin Music Hall in Austin, Texas, on Jan. 9, 2005. The Atlantic Theater Company has a new musical in the works -- "10 Million Miles" -- with a score by Griffin, whose most recent album is "Children Running Through." The off-Broadway show will open June 14 at the Atlantic's Chelsea theater. Preview performances begin May 11, 2007.

Patty Griffin and Dave Matthews perform at the 3rd Annual Leadership Music Dale Franklin Award honoring Emmylou Harris held at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center on September 19, 2006, in Nashville, Tenn.

Lucinda Williams arrives for the 44th Annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2002. Williams received four Grammy nominations.

Lucinda Williams performs "Broken Angel" during the opening day of the Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tenn., Friday, June 13, 2003.

Singer Mavis Staples performs "America the Beautiful" at the Democratic National Convention in Boston on Thursday, July 29, 2004.

Blues singer Mavis Staples performs at the 5th Annual Jammy Awards in New York on Tuesday, April 26, 2005. The Jammys celebrate artists overlooked by other music awards, especially those with strong live performances.

Rickie Lee Jones on stage at the Stravinski hall during the opening night at the 33rd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland on Friday, July 2, 1999.

Singer and songwriter Rickie Lee Jones performs during a tribute to Bob Dylan on Saturday, May 19, 2001, in New York. The tribute, in honor of Dylan's 60th birthday, which is May 24, was a benefit for PEN, an international fellowship of writers, poets, editors and playwrights. In 2003, Jones released an anti-Bush ballad, "Ugly Man."