Many musicians are gifted; Janis Ian is brilliant. Her resume is nearly as long as her life. In 1967, when she had her first hit, "Society's Child," America was almost as shocked by the youth of the teen singer-songwriter as by the audacity of her "lament for a budding black-white romance stifled by hidebound parents.
Ian's creativity has been boiling ever since. More than 20 intricate and challenging records later--among them 1975's Between the Lines, which yielded her multiple-Grammy-winning hit "At Seventeen"--Ian came out as a lesbian. She moved to Nashville, fell in love, released her landmark 1993 album Breaking Silence, and deepened her command of her art. In recent years, while the music industry dithered over downloads, Ian embraced the Interact. Currently her site offers free MP3s as well as detailed accounts of duetting with Dolly Parton and writing with the late Woody Guthrie on her latest CD, Billie's Bones. Ian is now touring the United States. She e-mailed us from the road.
What's it like living in Nashville at a political time like this? We saw what happened to the Dixie Chicks when they expressed their views.
I'm not sure anything much happened at the end of the day except a great deal of free publicity, frankly; album sales continued, airplay continued (with the exception of that really stupid move by Clear Channel). I think that anytime you express an opinion that goes counter to a portion of the political beliefs of any country, you're bound to get flak. With "Society's Child," people were fired for playing it, a radio station was burned to the ground, children were grounded for listening to it. Nothing nearly so violent occured with this.
In terms of Nashville, it's like any other city; people have opinions, they make them heard, they tend to congregate with others of like minds. I think the diversity of opinion here is much more representative of the country as a whole than, say, New York or Los Angeles.
Your online account of recording Billie's Bones is a fascinating journey. How did you decide to do this, and what surprised you along the way?
I had a few queries from fans wanting to know why I was taking a full year off from touring "just to edit a book, put together a live CD, and record a new CD." Most of them seemed to think making a record consisted of going into the studio and playing through the songs a couple of times. It seemed like they'd be interested in seeing the process from start to finish.
The big surprises for me were the sheer amount of man-hours involved and how little "civilians" understood the process. In terms of man-hours, I'd hesitate to even guesstimate the time we all put in, but it's absurdly high compared to going on tour or writing a son--and most of it's in the planning and preparation! In terms of understanding, words I'd grown up with, like star take or edit, had to be explained from square one. The most fun parts were putting together the song drafts so people could actually see the process of writing the song from start to finish, particularly with something like the Woody Guthrie cowrite "I Hear You Sing Again." And the Dolly session, which involved three engineers and two editors before we'd finished.
You and your partner, Pat Snyder, recently married. Could you tell us a bit about the ceremony?
We're both in our 50s and we've been together 15 years, so we decided to keep it very, very simple--and then spent our celebration money on a big party a month later! I had to be in Toronto for a science fiction convention, so we went up three days early. Mike and Carol Resnick agreed to be our "best man and woman" and spent the morning trying to convince Pat that she wasn't going to lose her voice or forget her lines (which consisted solely of "I do").
We chose the Apache wedding ceremony for our rites because it seemed to sum up everything we felt, and the minister (tall, distinguished, with a great voice--we lucked in) added a few blessings of his own. Dress was casual: subdued Hawaiian shirts and slacks. Afterward we all went back to the hotel and had a big lunch.
When you're not making music, what makes you happiest these days?
Being with Pat.
How do you two like to spend your time together?
We spend a fair amount of time talking, sitting on the porch reading, and watching videos. We take breaks for gardening or walking. It's all pretty normal.
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