Photo credit: Liz Tormes
Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
I live in NYC and don’t own a car – so when it comes to tour travel, I mostly have to rent vehicles, like we’re doing in the UK for shows in June and July. There we’ll be in a very basic medium wheel base splitter van with 9 seats, likely a VW. My good fortune is that all my close calls in tour travel are due to traffic and road blockages or closures, and not break downs! Knocking wood that holds true for my shows this year!
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
I try to bring healthy things that will hold me over, like a couple boxes of go macro bars, so I’m not tempted by that coffee and sweets thing that can get you on many road trips. Tour travel is repetitive and can be boring, so food can become something to break the monotony. For me at least, there tends to be a “reward reflex” that can be adrenaline fueled — you just had this great show, a beer or a glass of wine (or a cookie, or three!) would be GREAT right now. But day after day, that can add up and not feel so great. So I try to eat as healthy a meal as possible from among the available options before the show, and not go too crazy.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I’m not a big string breaker, so this isn’t a huge cost for me. This year I’ll be playing the most I’ve done since before the pandemic, so I’ll be spending a bit on those Martin medium gauge stings. And frankly my old Gibson could use some work, so I might end up spending more getting the guitar ready for playing more consistently.
Where do you rehearse?
I’ve been so lucky to share a rehearsal space with some other musicians in Queens, NY, notably Steve Wynn, who set up and decorated the space with Linda Pitmon, the awesome drummer for The Baseball Project and so many other groups. Steve and Linda created such a sweet vibe in what is essentially a concrete box in a semi-industrial building in Long Island City. They’ve got everything ready to step into the space and play with a full band, but it also works if you want to just sit and strum on your own or even have an office hour with a cup of coffee and your computer. I’ve loved having this option as my house can be chaotic for music making with my husband and teenager around to interrupt/overhear, etc. Plus I love the way it looks so much I took my recent promo photos in the space.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
I was just out of college and trying to figure out my “way in” for writing country songs. A friend challenged me to write an answer song to the classic truck driving tune “Roll Truck Roll” by Red Simpson. Writing from the perspective of a female character waiting for her truck driving paramour to come back to her was just conceptual enough to get me out of my own way. The results weren’t genius but they became a finished song that I recorded, nothing helps songwriting more than finishing one, helps create space for the next one and the confidence to get started. “Roll truck roll, bring my baby back to me. I’m getting tired of waiting and I’m much too lonely. Use those 18 wheels and all the speed you can muster, Roll Him on Home.” The friend that challenged me to write the song in the first place thought that the word “muster” didn’t sound very country, but that was how it came out!
Describe your first gig.
I played gigs in college with a couple different groups, and we did everything from dorm parties and festivals on campus, to opening for Swans and Fugazi. My first gig under my own name and with a band I’d set up to play just my songs and covers I’d chosen was in about 1994 or 1995 at Brownies on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I’d asked some friends from different corners of the country music scene like Michael McMahon from the Last Roundup, Diane Stockwell, Brian Dewan, a great writer and my neighbor in Brooklyn, Doug Wygal of the Wygals and Barry Feldman. Though I’d been on stage before, I was very green at leading the whole band, and I’m sure it showed. Eric Ambel, who I’ve subsequently worked with as a producer, sat me down afterwards and said “you have to sing INTO THE MICROPHONE.” Definitely a lot of learning curve!
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
I still work a day job, and have since my daughter was very young and I knew I wouldn’t be able to travel enough to make money playing music. I work for a business that produces written research for professional investors, and I’m well-experienced in parachuting into whatever project is needed – whether editing and supporting the research production, or recruiting new staff. I was very grateful during the pandemic that work in that area was plentiful, as I could tell it would take a long time for the musician’s life to evolve into something that felt normal and consistent enough to make a living. I’ve done some version of this type of work for the last decade, and it has certainly sustained my music when the music “career” wasn’t very robust.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
Twenty years ago I sold modest amounts of albums and physical product, enough to at least keep making music, even if it didn’t pay all my bills. Unless it is vinyl or t-shirts, you’re not really selling very much anymore in terms of the music itself. The “album” is not something that earns much on its own, unless you have great luck getting your music used for some other commercial purpose, which can still be quite successful. Touring is more costly than it used to be, particularly if you have a fanbase outside of the US as I do. So we’re going to find out this summer if you can make up the difference with live touring, and that is an exciting prospect even with all the caveats of inflation and fuel costs and overall sustainability still being open questions.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
There are thousands of opinions and external pressures out there that can take a lot of energy away from the music itself. I wish I’d let go of a lot of what I’d thought other people wanted me to do and really focused on what made sense to me more of the time. That said, the fact that I’m still able to make music and perform to audiences is something I’m really grateful for, so I’m really trying to stay in the moment and make the most of it!