8

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

May 8, 2009

•

www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

She keeps going, and going, and going

But Rachael Sage knows that performing is a joy, and a privilege

by Anthony Glassman

If the Energizer Bunny asked his fairy godmother: "I wish I was a lesbian songwriter who travels unceasingly across the land, spreading songs like grass seed in the yard that is America," this is what she would turn that energetic rabbit into.

Rachael Sage.

Oh, she doesn't have the name recognition of Amy Ray or k.d. lang or Melissa Etheridge. She might not even have the cachet of Tret Fure. She does, however, have time on her side, and

British invasion, another of her idols is John Lee Hooker.

"I met Johnny Lee while I was a radio DJ at Stanford University," Sage said. "I used to play piano at the happy hour in my dorm, and his organ player delivered the kegs. One day he heard me playing and invited me to a barbecue at Johnny Lee's house."

"I ended up interviewing him for the station, and after that we just hit it off," she continued. "He'd invite me over on weekends to play his Wurly [Wurlitzer organ], and say, 'Now Rachael, play me some of that Joni Mitchell classical music!" "

"I had pretty bad carpal tunnel myself at the time, and it really made me think, 'Am I just going through the motions here, or am I as conscious and grateful as I can be, every chance I get to do what I enjoy?' Performing is a privilege sometimes it's way too easy to forget that," she said.

In addition to creating and promoting her own music, Sage also likes to lift up other musicians and artists. Her MPress label releases an annual New Arrivals compilation, which highlights new talent. It also features guest appearances by established artists like

BILL BERNSTEIN

she's coming to Ohio to sing songs, kick ass and chew bubble gum, and she's all out of bubble gum.

Sage is touring to support her latest album, Chandelier. It's been a decade since she won the Lilith Fair Talent Search, but the awards keep on coming. This year, she has (so far) nabbed the Billboard World Song Contest for the Lior Magal remix of "Angel in My View," and took the grand prize in the Great American Song competition. Inspired by the some of the earliest rockers on into the second wave of the

On her latest album, a central theme

is fragility, which holds with the title, Chandelier.

"Life as you know it could come to a crashing halt at any time, and if it does, will you have done everything possible to relish it along the way?" she asks, referring to the title track of the album.

The song grew out of her emotions when learning that a friend of hers, another musician, was diagnosed with severe tendonitis. The recommended treatment? A year off the road, healing

up.

Jill Sobule and Melissa Ferrick, and raisees funds for charities which so far have included Gulf Coast Relief, World Hunger Year and the National Eating Disorders Association.

Her work with other artists includes a drawing by an MPress intern in the album artwork for Chandelier, and she was photographed in a dress designed by one of her neighbors in New York City's East Village.

"I really enjoy finding fellow artists in the city who are still in that place Continued on page 10