Local Music
Lisa Hunter's CouchTour '97 ALSO Poignant Plecostomus Sister Seed
It's a Saturday night in May and singer/songwriter Lisa Hunter is on the phone from Madison's Music Cafe, a Seattle family-run coffee house much like Ann Arbor's Gypsy Cafe, and she's rewed up on what was supposed to be the final gig of her first big national tour. But it's not over yet. Additional stops in Arizona and Texas have been added and she won't be back until her gig at the Gypsy on Friday, June 20.
"l'm hitting Flagstaff and the Kerrville Folk Festival on the way back, which wasn't the original plan," Hunter explains. "The gig at Charly's Exchange Pub (in Flagstaff) was amazing, so they offered me another gig. The place was packed and the local TV station even did a piece on me. It was pretty strange, like 'Ok, play 20 seconds of a song so we can tape you for the evening news.' Pretty strange, but nice."
CouchTour '97 was just that. Drive into town, play a gig at the local music club, either on the level of The Ark as an out-of-town act/concert or in a small homey, venue like The Gypsy Cafe, hit up the local media, stay with friends to keep the costs down and sleep on sofas. The process seems to have worked perfectly. Shows included dates in Indiana, Wisconsin, Texas, Arizona, California and Washington and Lisa has a laundry list of good things that have happened along the way.
"It's sort of overwhelming," she says. "The commercial Madison pop station did a 25-minute interview and played the CD. The Seattle Weekly selected my gig at Madison's as a hot pick, so that was great. The Flagstaff show ... l've never been on television before. Everything has been amazing." This attention has meant her debut CD from last year will get a second pressing when she's back in town.
Hunter's tour and career received another shot-in-the-arm while she was out on the road as well. Right after The Couch Tour left town, one track from the CD, "The Party," received airplay on the national syndicated and influential Acoustic Cafe music show. "A number of people have mentioned hearing me for the first time on that show," says Hunter. "The segment was on artists who run their own labels, so there I was, in a set: Ani DiFranco, Lisa Hunter, Steve Earle and John Prine. Wow!"
The Hunter Tour is an almost book example of how an artist can build on local success, and take their music to the next level - i.e. national attention. Of course this s easier done when you can toss an acoustic guitar in the trunk of your car as opposed to having a BAND thing going on - more people, more expenses. Hunter also gives credit to the folk scene in other areas.
"Most people in the coffee house clubs are so friendly and so into the music, it makes it a lot easier. It's worlds away from the rock and roll circuit, you know, just play and get out of here - we're trying to sell drinks," says Hunter. "Everyone's main focus on the business level has been their love of music. l've been pretty lucky."
After this month's Gypsy Cafe gig, what next? Hunter wants to focus more on playing Detroit, especially after her recent Detroit Music Award nominations, try to play some East Coast gigs, and schedule a late-Fall two-week return tour to the West Coast, this time with dates in Colorado. This time, there would be one difference.
"I'm going to actually fly out and rent a car. It's a luxury but financially this tour paved the way for me to do that," says Hunter, as someone from the Seattle cafe interrupts the call to tell her it's time to go on. I asked her to give me a run down of Madison's Music Cafe before she goes.
"Oh ... it looks nice. All the seats are taken, the crowd looks like they are here for the music and everyone is drinking coffee. The people who own the place have been great!" She says goodbye and is off to play her two sets in the Seattle club.
These small club dates aren't going to last forever, you know. Which is why you shouldn't miss Lisa Hunter"s homecoming gig at the Gypsy Cafe this month.
Spacy jazz garage fusion that is equal parts Albert Ayler and Captain Beefhart is what you'll get on the Poignant Plecostomus cassette, pecher pour plaisir. There's this incredible scary violin, a garage punk kind of roar and a band that's as tight as can be. "Shaken Baby Syndrome," is the logical extension of John Cologne near the edge and a gut level explosive bottom more likely found on a Sex Pistols track. This sounds grim, but the music here is so well charted out, and so catchy, t carnes you away with how it just pours from the souls of the musicians involved.
But the band can play real pretty now, too. It's 180 degrees in the other direction on "l'm Gonna Break Yer Fuckin' Eggs," a nice fusion ballad of sorts with another great violin solo. And, no, these aren't long-time Ann Arbor jazz journeymen here. This is yet another Community High band, so there.
l'm not sure is it's a great idea to write about shows l've missed ... But my biggest musical regret was not catching Detroit's Sister Seed for at least one of their two Ann Arbor gigs last month. For the non-musically complex, the folkish duo of Alicia Gbur and Christine Kerwin could be compared to the early Indigo Girls. But, f you pay attention, especially on the latest cassette ten-song release, Underground, a live in-the-studio sort of thing recorded in Nashville last year, there's much more happening with this pair. Lyrically, there's an emotional complexity about the worid, life and relationships that sneaks up on you without waming and without being over-dramatized. And the voices. It's more like the Everly Brothers or the vocal interplay between McCartney and Lennon than a couple of female folk singer la la la voices. To top the whole thing off, both Kerwin and Gbur have separate, distinct song-writing voices to boot. l'm not going to miss them the NEXT time Sister Seed comes to A2 either.
The View From Nowhere AGENDA 220 S. Main St., A2, Ml, 48104 or e-mail: alangoldsmith@compuserve.com