JANIS IAN Folk singer's talent shines in her latest, 'Billie's Bones'

Her new CD blends her talent in blues, folk, jazz and country.
By JOHN PATRICK GATTA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
You don't realize how impressive Janis Ian's gift for writing and performing is until you're confronted with it. This time her talent illuminates the recently released "Billie's Bones."
Over 13 tracks she continues to refine the definition of folk artist and singer/songwriter. With her whisperlike vocals and impressive guitar-picking style, the subtle blend of blues, folk, jazz and country achieve a hypnotic presence.
The title track refers to Ian's lifelong admiration for jazz vocalist Billie Holiday, and how after all these years, she still doesn't feel worthy to be in her shadow. Emphasizing her feelings is a poem from 1968 that's printed within the compact disc booklet. Physical images arise once more during "Matthew," a blunt look at the murder of homosexual Matthew Shepard.
Metaphor in jazz
"Bones is a jazz image. That's where I always heard it used," she said during a phone interview from Milwaukee. "I've always liked the concept that you stand on the history of your form, be it acting, directing, writing, whatever. I find the bones metaphor really apt for someone like me because I am getting older and I am becoming very conscious of my own mortality."
Those two songs connect on another level during Ian's current tour.
"Sometimes it does feel like when you're onstage singing something like 'Matthew,' you hear in your head how Nina [Simone] or Billie would have sung it, how any of the great singers that you've been influenced by would have sung it," Ian said. "On the one hand, trying not to let that influence your own singing too much but on the other hand trying to learn from it what you can, moment by moment. It feels very much like standing on a pile of bones that occasionally rustle and move under you."
The new release follows a four-year span between studio recordings. To keep fans satisfied, she released "Live: Working Without A Net" last fall, which compiled material from a decade's worth of shows.
Record label
Ian admitted that the length of time it took between albums is one of the luxuries afforded to her now that she's signed to the independent label, Oh Boy records, which is owned by legendary folk artist John Prine.
Her career began on a major label back in 1966 with the controversial hit, "Society's Child." The song lyrics dealt with an interracial couple. Ian returned to the top of the charts nine years later with "At Seventeen," a haunting number that finds an adult looking back on her ugly duckling years in high school.
Performing the hit song at nearly every performance, she now finds solace in its words. "For me the benefit of time is really wonderful, to have been singing it long enough to know that I survived it. And I think that's what the audience reacts to as well. We all got through it. We all survived. We're all alive much as we thought for many years that we wouldn't be. There's great strength in that."
While some of her peers have confronted the politically-charged atmosphere prevalent in this country through their self-penned material, Ian maintains her distance and allows her revelatory songs and characters to make an impression.
"I usually don't do overtly political material. It's more sociological. I feel like I'm a lot better at that. It's easier to change hearts with sociology than politics. And I'm more interested in changing hearts than opinions.
"People are inundated with facts. When they come to a show, that's the last thing they want. But they want stories."