From: owner-dads-yard-digest@smoe.org (dads-yard-digest) To: dads-yard-digest@smoe.org Subject: dads-yard-digest V7 #9 Reply-To: dads-yard@smoe.org Sender: owner-dads-yard-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-dads-yard-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk dads-yard-digest Saturday, March 5 2005 Volume 07 : Number 009 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [dads-yard] Catie article in Phila. Gay News [WoodellDC@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2005 01:05:47 -0500 From: WoodellDC@aol.com Subject: [dads-yard] Catie article in Phila. Gay News I'm here at the office, on the night Catie is playing, but I can enjoy this article, as I hope you will!...Deb Curtis is still 'Dreaming' By Robin Renie PGN Contributing Writer ) 2005 Robin Renie Since her first self-released recording, "From Years To Hours" in 1991, Boston area-based Catie Curtis has engaged a loyal audience with her honest, contemporary folk tunes and a beautiful, rock-oriented voice in the United States and abroad. Fans have tow chances to see her - 7 and 10 p.m. March 4 at The Point, 880 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr. Opening for Curtis at these intimate, solo acoustic shows will be Nadine Goellner, an acoustic soul and jazz singer/songwriter from New York City. "Dreaming In Romance Languages," the title of Curtis' latest CD - her first release on Vanguard Records - arose from the sleep state, a dream of language confusion. Curtis says "communication confusion" and "relationship confusion" fuels the songs on "Dreaming." The title line appears in "Saint Lucy," the accessible folk-pop tune that begins the CD. A most haunting and beautiful song is "Doctor," which evolved from a conversation with a fan in Italy. "This is an Italian guy who follows all the singer/songwriters, and is very attuned to both politics and contemporary and older music like The Beatles," Curtis explained. "That discussion, along with it being close to Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, served as a point of inspiration." Curtis says she began to call the song "Doctor," as she was thinking about King and John Lennon, and how they would have responded to a post-Sept. 11 world. Although "Doctor" evokes a tone that the warring humans have lost our way, it ends with optimism, reminding of the possibility of positive, creative responses to violence. Other memorable tracks include the love-trouble tune "Hold On," the very catchy "Red Light," and a story of angels in "Deliver Me." But the most memorable thing for Curtis about "Dreaming in Romance Languages" is likely to be her life circumstances at the time of its recording. Just as the tracks were being completed, her first adopted child was arriving from Guatemala. She and the band finished the tracks, knowing that her life would be forever changed. Then she went to the airport to meet her partner and their new daughter. The couple's second daughter arrived from Guatemala on the day of Bush's 2005 inauguration. Curtis, no fan of the current administration, says she tries to keep things in perspective. "I try not to let politics overshadow all the positive things that are happening," she said. "I mean, you know, it just so happens that we have a conservative government. We're a gay family and we just have to keep believing that as we go and do what we feel is right in this community and in this culture, that our actions will have some counteracting power over the bullying mouthpieces of the government." Quickly, though, she makes it clear that politics are not a big part of her show. She greets audiences with a warm sense of humor and songs of love and human connection with all its complexities. "I spend a lot of time singing and playing stuff that I'm making up," she said. "I do it all out loud as opposed to pen and paper. And it's clear when a line comes out, it has to be both honest and unusual in order to grab my attention." ------------------------------ End of dads-yard-digest V7 #9 *****************************