AUGUST 14, 1998 GAY PEOPle's ChronICLE

EVENINGS OUT

Folk pioneer Janis lan still loves being on the road

by Harriet L. Schwartz

Janis lan readily admits that Windham Hill, her new record label, is treating her well. Nonetheless, she approaches performing with a decidedly blue-collar attitude.

"I approach the stage very differently than I did even eight or ten years ago," Ian said in recent phone interview. “I think it's one of those things that getting away from New York and L.A. teaches you. It teaches you how hard people work for a dollar. People think that they work hard and then you talk to someone who works fourteen hours a day in a factory doing the same thing every day and you realize that everybody works hard. I think it's been a piece of luck that I can make a living doing what I do."

Ian says that as audiences pay higher ticket prices, they expect more of a show. She tries to deliver.

"I talk to the audience, tell funny stories, move about a bit-I'm not going to be in the Whitney Houston mold,” she says. “I guess it's more approach than anything. I just don't approach it as a songwriter. I approach the stage as a performer."

Currently on the road supporting her new album Hunger, Ian says that touring solo represents a positive change that is enhancing her live show. While she misses the camaraderie of working with a band, she enjoys the freedom and connection that, as a solo artist, she has with the audience.

"I've been doing this since I was 14that's a long time," Ian, 46, says. "It's easy to get static or get into a rut or be one of those performers who just whines about how hard their life is. I'm having more fun performing than I think I ever have. Part of that is being out without a band. I love being with a band, working with a band, but there's a lot less pressure when you're up there solo. There's nowhere to hide, but there's a lot more flexibility. If someone in the audience wants to hear something that I haven't sung in 20

years, if I remember the words than I can do it, which keeps it fresher for me too.

While lan has evolved as a performer, she has both grown and remained constant as a songwriter. She burst onto the music scene in the mid '60s when, barely a teenager, she wrote and recorded "Society's Child," a song about the interracial love between a white girl and a black boy. The song was viewed as a militant protest song, and banned by radio stations across the country. It was through the intervention of famed conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein that the song gained national recognition and Ian received her first Grammy nomination. Ian continued to define her distinctive style with songs like "At Seventeen," which many budding lesbians took as an ambiguous look at coming out. (Ian has since come out as a lesbian).

Though lan has made a successful career out of writing and recording her own material, she has also earned recognition as others have turned her songs into hits. Roberta Flack made lan's "Jesse" famous in 1973, and since that time lan's songs have been recorded by countless other artists including Bette Midler, Mel Torme, Joan Baez, and Etta James.

"It's a compliment, as clichéd as that sounds," Ian said about other artists recording her songs. "It means that I've hit a universal note that allows them to make the song their own. The only thing I don't like is when people have edited [a song] without talking to me. [But] everything isn't written in stone anymore. Either you get battered into sensibility or you grow up, I guess."

With a career spanning three decades, lan has watched the evolution of women in music. While she was one of the pioneering women, pushing on music industry boundaries, she now benefits from the proliferation of women in the popular music scene.

"It's made certain things easier—there's, not so much explaining to do," Ian says. "There's less and less of the attitude on the

part of some companies that a girl with a guitar equals a really boring folk show. Someone like Ani DiFranco has totally changed that."

lan has not simply observed DiFranco's revolution, but has joined forces with the indie superstar. DiFranco produced one of the tracks on lan's new album.

"I think Ani's great, I think Ani hung the moon," lan says. "She was just a joy to work with. You always hope that people will live up to your expectations, without feeling crushed by it. Ani is one of the few people who does that very naturally—I think because she is what she is all the time. There's no pretension. And she's musical-it's great to work with someone authentically musical."✔

lan will be performing at "An Evening at Club 47" on Saturday, August 15 at the Evans Amphitheater at Cain Park, located on Superior Rd. between Lee and South Taylor in Cleveland Heights. Call 216371-3000 for ticket information.

Janis lan

Moments of brilliance

Hunger

Janis lan

Windham Hill Records

Reviewed by Harriet Schwartz

There are moments of brilliance on Janis lan's new release Hunger, and “Getting Over You" is one. Rare is the artist who can pen a song about a breakup and not end up firmly in cliché land, yet lan has written and delivered a masterpiece. With sad-yetstrong lyrics and a knock-out beautiful vocal performance, lan's "Getting Over You" is about as close to perfection as one can get.

Continuing her command of the ballad, lan delivers “Shadow," a tender song open for interpretation.

The album's first single, "Honor Them All,” is not nearly as striking musically, but a close listen reveals a truly impressive lyric about valuing family. Taking a different turn, "Wel come to Acousticville" should have wide an peal as an enticing, bluesy number

Two other worthy tracks are Black & White which confirms that fan is still

keen observer of race relations in America,

and "Searching for America." "Searching

brings the legendary fan together with indie rebel Ani

Jahis (an

DiFranco, who also produced the song and contributed background vocals and bass,

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