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Patsy Cline's Crown
Laura Cantrell
by Elizabeth Raggi |
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| It's
midday in midtown Manhattan and I'm sneaking off for an extended
lunch from work to catch the CMJ Music Showcase and to talk
with sing/songwriter Laura Cantrell. By day Laura works in
the equity research department of Bank of America; by night she's
the country sweetheart whose won over the likes of Rolling Stone
and indie champ John Peel. During the week she keeps track of the
records; on the weekends she spins them as the host of freeform
radio WFMU's Radio Thrift Shop, a gig she's had since 1993. "Its
difficult doing a day job and gigs," she tells me after a warm hello,
"but it helps as far as getting a record out." Laura takes the stage
in a vintage red lace top and black skirt and boots, and with a
stunningly bare voice, sways the room. |
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A week later I get a real chance to sit down and meet the woman
behind the 2000 release The Tremblin' Kind. Arriving
straight from work, in sharp glasses and a suit, she sips her tea
with the surety of a seasoned veteran - to the bank, the music world,
… interviews. What am I supposed to ask someone who's received rave
reviews from just about every New York publication not to mention
those in Scotland, where she also has a strong following? I decide
to open with something original.
WOMANROCK:
Did you always want to be a singer? Was it always in you?
LAURA:
I always wanted to do something musical but I had all these doubts.
That was a self-confidence issue, so I probably played down certain
things because you never know when they're gonna blowup.
WOMANROCK:
You've said you're not driven. Then how did you get to where you
are now?
LAURA:
When I think of somebody driven, I guess I mean someone obsessed
with the idea of becoming a certain type of artist. I've definitely
worked hard to get my music heard by anybody who'll listen. And
over the years I've also put a lot of effort into making a transition
from being on a radio show that's about this music to actually making
this music. I've never really had the idea that there would be success,
its not like I didn't fantasize about having a hit record, but when
I think of somebody driven I think of Shelby Lynn. You know, people
whove got this absolute undeniably strong quality about them. Or
like Ryan Adams, this certain charisma - undeniable. I don't think
of myself that way.
WOMANROCK:
How did you make that transition from playing to making music?
LAURA:
I've sort of been performing all along. I've had different little
bands, not necessarily country. I was playing in college and doing
a country radio show. I think one of the things that helped me to
have confidence was seeing what the local musicians and what the
local audience said about my radio show, how well received it was.
People who I knew were great players were like, Oh, I heard you
play this on the radio. It was great. It gave me a way to talk to
them, to become a peer of theirs before I was really ready to do
that with my music.
WOMANROCK:
It seems like everything just fell into place.
LAURA:
Well, it's not that. I think that there are a lot of musicians who
aren't shooting to be platinum artists, who have modest goals. They
want to make their own music in a format that people can digest
it in. I saw that especially in the early 90s, there was a lot of
country music coming out that wasn't purely country - it had other
roots - or stuff that wasn't exactly country but had a country influence.
I took inspiration from those things and these artists to think,
maybe we can use something like this and not have to say I'm gonna
quit my job now. So I guess that process for me is kind of realizing
what you can do as an independent artist right now.
WOMANROCK:
Do you think because you grew up in Nashville surrounded by so many
people trying to make it, you were more levelheaded about your aims?
LAURA:
You definitely get an overdose of musicians in Nashville these days.
You know, its like this Mecca.
WOMANROCK:
Like an actor in LA?
LAURA:
Or New York. They come and think 'I'm gonna get on one of these
five record labels and have my shot.' But that never really was
what I was interested in. I'd feel sometimes if I had a different
voice, that was what I wanted to do. But I was inspired by a lot
of the older artists. I almost feel like the history of the music
was what I was most inspired by, more than the idea that I could
make a video.
WOMANROCK:
If you had a different voice?
LAURA:
I think again of someone like Shelby Lynn or people out there who
just have these voices that are almost larger than life. For those
people they should try to be more out there, you know to shoot for
Patsy Cline's crown. You might as well. My voice doesn't really
go there.
WOMANROCK:
But isn't that the charm of it? Isn't that what people love about
it?
LAURA:
I think that people can relate to it. There are a lot of artists
whose songs I appreciate and I don't really think they have amazing
voices. But they can convey their message, they can communicate
through their singing. Then there's the people like Buddy and Julie
Miller, who are really great singers. I don't think either of them
has a show-stopping voice but they really put a lot of different
emotion into their singing. And I'm not comparing myself to them,
but I really think that if I could emulate someone it would be them,
that they are able to have so much meaning in their singing. That's
really something that people will bond to.
WOMANROCK:
What made you come to New York?
LAURA:
It was really exciting and Columbia was the best school I got into.
I got into Vanderbilt too, which is in Nashville, so I was weighing.
I could go to New York City and to an ivy league school, or I could
stay in Nashville and go to Vanderbilt. And there's nothing wrong
with that, most of my family went to Vanderbilt, but it just seemed
like it would be totally the same.
WOMANROCK:
What you knew versus what you didn't?
LAURA:
Right.
WOMANROCK:
I wasn't surprised to learn that you were an English major. There's
definitely a literary quality to your songs. What writers influenced
you?
LAURA:
I was heavily into several Southern writers when I was in college.
A lot of kids from the South who identify themselves as Southern,
when they leave they have a moment when they go; What was this whole
culture that I left behind? Its kind of alien, its not the same
as New York or wherever, and you try to come to grips with that
and look for writers who have had that experience. Definitely Robert
Penn Warren and Katherine Porter. I'm not saying I cultivated a
great knowledge of them but this is the stuff that I gravitated
towards.
WOMANROCK:
Did you want to be a writer?
LAURA:
Well, I think there definitely is an urge to write, to be more than
a songwriter or in songs to be able to tell stories. I don't feel
that I do it very well.
WOMANROCK:
That you write songs very well or that you tell stories very well?
LAURA:
I don't think that getting those to fit into a song format is necessarily
a strength for me. I think of people who do it really beautifully
like Steve Earle or Lucinda Williams, who are able to write these
amazing details that just open up whole worlds. They're very visual.
I think I'm trying to take my own little skills and use them in
the same way.
WOMANROCK:
You were worried about your songs not blending with the other songs
on your album. Were there songs you left out?
LAURA:
There were definitely some songs that I was working on that either
weren't finished yet or were older and didn't seem to fit. I have
a little EP that I made about five years ago. We thought of re-recording
some of those songs but we decided not to. These pieces just seem
to fit really nicely. |
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No
perfectly. On Not the Tremblin Kind you ride with lovers, drinkers
and losers. At times Laura conducts with lines like the title tracks
opener: You can play master but I wont wear your chain. Other times,
as in Little Bit of You, a tune written by Jay Sherman-Godfrey of
the World Famous Jay Birds and who also plays guitar on the album,
she's as pleading as a caught stowaway. But her own songs are the
standouts. On Queen of the Coast she assumes with aching realism,
the life of country singer Bonnie Owens who does the "washing, and
ironing and pickin up" while she sings backup on her second ex-husband,
Merle Haggard's tour. Churches Off the Interstate is more hopeful.
Though they "cannot change the way I feel inside," she sings, "Ill
dive right in and hope I turn out fine." The momentum carries through
on Big Wheel (co-written by Tepper and Godfrey) whose train track
rhythms made the Long Island Railroad I was riding on when I first
heard it, feel like a freight train. But the true treasure of the
album is Cantrell's My Heart Goes Out to You, where her voice and
Jon Graboffs mandolin flutter like two moths against your ribcage.
Laura Cantrell not only leads you through a landscape, she conjures
her own- part horizon line, part city skyline.
But her modesty would probably find fault with that last paragraph.
As we wrap up, sharing books, bands and even some family anecdotes,
a familiar song comes over the sound system. It's Churches Off the
Interstate. Laura's obviously surprised. Maybe somebody recognized
you, I say. She laughs, shakes her head and glances down, hiding
a bit of a blush. Well if they didn't, they sure will soon. |
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_________________________________
 You
can now buy Laura Cantrell's album
directly from the WOMANROCK
Music Shop
or through her Web site:
http://www.lauracantrell.com/
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_________________________________
Elizabeth Raggi is the former assistant editor of Irish America
Magazine and is now seeking less green pastures in New Mexico.
Links to her work can be found at:
http://www.taramusic.com/lofrev.htm#Lincoln
http://www.irishabroad.com/irishworld/irishamericamag/
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