By LISA TOREM
Singer-songwriter Cathy Richardson, performs with grace—like a sleight-of-hand Houdini. Richardson can extract blues licks from a blues-harp, slam-dunk a tambourine against her hip during a classic folk tune—then subtly squeezes the melodic pulp from White Rabbit, Jefferson Airplane's classic-rock hit. She has just finished performing three sold-out shows before a brood of loyal fans who came to see her play with the Jefferson Starship Band at Heartland Café Oct. 21.
Richardson's half-whiskey, half-honey vocals still the nostalgia-driven crowd. Once more, she switches gears—acoustic guitar drones against her chilling, super-sized range. Wow. She straddles the stage adjacent a fiery, fiddle-player.
As lead vocalist of the Cathy Richardson band, she has played the quintessential honkey-tonk haunts time and time again, but has also taken detours through uncharted musical cul-de-sacs.
Richardson co-starred in Love, Janis—a tribute to '60s icon Janis Joplin that was developed in Chicago in 1999, then went off-Broadway and to San Francisco. Once in San Francisco, she actually met up with Big Brother and The Holding Company band members ( Janis Joplin's back-up band ) , who shared their memories of touring with Joplin.
Ultimately, she toured with them and shortly thereafter the band opened for Jefferson Starship. The band has toured throughout the United Kingdom and will tour Japan and Australia this winter.
Richardson, raised in the Chicago area, talked candidly about her foray into the music industry, her love of songwriting and her perception of the San Francisco music scene ( where she now lives ) .
Lisa Torem: What's your relationship with the Chicago area?
Cathy Richardson: I grew up in Burr Ridge and lived in Elmhurst for about 10 years. Still have a house there. I've been living in San Francisco for a couple of years.
LT: How did you develop your vocal style?
CR: Grew up listening to classic rock, sang in the choir, but still mostly interested in rock 'n roll. My heroes were the group Heart and singers Nancy Wilson, Janis Joplin and Grace Slick. I looked up to them a lot. I wanted to emulate what they were doing—not copy them, but [ emphatically ] "I want to do that, I want to be that.'
LT: Sounds like you've done that! How does it feel to portray Janis Joplin and to work with her original band?
CR: Yeh—I was in that play, Love, Janis. We ended up taking it off-Broadway in New York. Opened in 2001—happened during Sept. 11. That was just a crazy, weird time. Managed to stay open during that time. Almost ran for two years. Then I lived here [ Chicago ] . Had my band here. Made records. Played a lot of gigs.
Two years ago, Love, Janis opened in San Francisco. I love San Francisco. Just loved that whole scene. Seemed like the perfect place to do the show—after all the work I did developing the Janis character. … It really meant something to take it back where people actually knew her.
Everybody has an idea of who she was, and what she was about. People who really knew her were in San Francisco—at least during that time that she was a rock star.
Big Brother and The Holding Company—they all came to the show—it was really an amazing experience. They embraced me, took me in, They had me over—told me stories—showed me pictures. I just decided to stay there and that's when last year BB and the Holding Company asked me to go on tour singing with them. That was a lot of fun. We were opening for Jefferson Starship on that tour and that's how I met them.
They asked me if I wanted to come on board. This year we made a new record. We're touring all over the place: Europe twice this year [ and ] going to Japan in December. All kinds of venues—large and small. [ Looking around ] This is one of the smaller ones. But, it's still really fun. It freaks people out to see a big band in a small, tiny place.
LT: Freakier to you or the audience?
CR: [ Laughs ] I'm used to it.
LT: You have such a flexible vocal and performance range—switching effortlessly between a sweet ballad and hard rock. How do you prepare yourself mentally to switch gears in front of an audience like that?
CR: I really try to stay right in the moment. Don't think too much about it in advance. That's one of the things I learned from Janis. I think that was definitely something she strived for—to be completely in the moment—open to whatever spirit that is that works through us when we get in that zone.
LT: That's very spiritual. Tell me about your favorite song—that you've written.
CR: [ Laughs ] Oh, boy. I don't have a favorite one. But, I think [ the song ] Things Are Different. So hard to talk about your own stuff and toot your own horn because we're taught to be modest, but at the same time when you're an entertainer you're trying to explain what it is you're doing—requires some kind of 'get it out there' attitude.
Composition-wise, it's a very, strong song. Very personal and emotional. It's kind of a song about loss and that life is a series of changes. [ I was ] dealing with that a lot at that time of my life. That song hits home for me a lot.
Then there's my song Two Questions, where I just repeat the same two questions over and over again. Each time it builds with intensity. People say, "You're saying the same words over and over." [ Laughing ] Yes, that's the point.
LT: Do you have a specific strategy for writing music?
CR: It's different at different times. Sometimes I'll [ keep a ] journal or write whatever comes out on paper. Later, I'll pull something out of it to make a song. It'll start like a little seed. I'll play my guitar, then get a melody. Then the words will come—so it just happens in different ways.
LT: Can I guess your favorite musical era?
CR: [ Laughs ] Definitely would be "the summer of love"—'60s bands. Like '60s San Francisco scene. I like a lot of '70s music, too. Used to be much more of a musical snob. Then I realized it's such a ridiculous thing. It's just music. Everything's valid for its own reason. Everything deserves to exist.
I really love the '90s, too. I was part of a real '90s scene that was happening in Chicago. Don't know about the scene, now, but at that time in the mid-'90s— [ Laughs ] boy, we had fun.
LT: Do you attract the younger audience out there?
CR: Everyone wants young people to like them. We love the kids. Played a show in Inverness, Scotland—was a very, young crowd [ of ] 5,000—a very decent-sized crowd. Other bands on the bill were young MTV bands that were driving around in tour buses—really big in Scotland. Paul [ Kantner said ] , "I'll be surprised if they know one song of ours." We came right out and played Somebody to Love, and they were all singing. Knew every word.
LT: I'm not surprised. What motivated you to be a singer?
CR: My mom was a singer. Never a professional singer—could have been. Had a beautiful, soprano voice—operatic, but a little bit sweeter, maybe more on the Broadway side.
LT: And she was OK about you going into rock?
CR: She was so encouraging. Always told me to go for it. Always used to let my band practice in the basement. My dad would take me shopping for synthesizers. They were super-cool, super-supportive. Definitely my biggest fans.
LT: If you weren't a singer …
CR: I really don't know. I'd like to do graphic arts. Maybe I would do something like that.
LT: Congratulations! Can you tell me a lyric that you have written that's gotten you through hard times?
CR: That I've written? [ Laughs ] A song that got me through hard times that I didn't write [ was ] a song called Be Cool, by Joni Mitchell. In my late teens I had a tumultuous relationship that caused me a lot of heartbreak and also my "coming-out" period which made me suicidal. But Be Cool—I'd play it and it would really calm me down when I got really upset. Later, I wrote a song called Don't Throw It Away, [ where I was ] talking to a younger version of myself.
[ Richardson sings: "I know it hurts, but don't, don't, throw it away … " ] I wrote it to … [ pause ]
LT: Help get through that period of your life?
CR: Or maybe help somebody else get through …
LT: How has working with Jefferson Starship been different than working with your own band?
CR: I'm upfront a lot, but [ there's ] also support. It's really an ensemble. That's how the band has always been. Everybody's writing, singing, playing everybody's songs—contributing. It's very collaborative in that way, but it's also got this huge legacy—that's bigger than myself stepping in.
I hope to support what they're doing and give the audience a powerful experience: That's really my main objective because music is very powerful.
The song Wooden Ships is like telling a story—painting a picture with characters. And we're doing this old folk music and it's not just, "Hey, baby, I love you and you broke my heart." A lot of this music is like rock opera to me—there's a whole sci-fi period, there's the peace-and-love era—we should be together, we will be together, "c'mon, people now, smile on your brother … " [ reference to Reach Out in the Darkness," a popular song of the time ] . [ Kantner ] does a lot of political stuff …
LT: It's a good time for it …
CR: Yeah. I feel like in San Francisco, I live in a bubble. You can do your own thing—it's totally fine to be gay in San Francisco. Going in different parts of the country makes me aware of my own fears and [ that ] people are afraid of people that are different from them.
LT: Yeah. Does this affect how you communicate your music?
CR: Music transcends a lot of bullshit—and hopefully, we can just bring people together.
LT: How long is this tour?
CR: This one is 10 days. We'll go out for a few weeks, come home a few weeks, then do the Hawaii and Japan thing.
LT: Greatest moment on stage?
CR: Ever? Gosh … I've had so many great night—great experiences— [ Laughs ] can't even remember …
LT: So what's the biggest difference between performing Love, Janis and performing with Jefferson Starship?
CR: Doing Janis is totally different than doing this—but I always give it the maximum. Sometimes singing quietly is giving it the maximum. Just serve the music in the best way possible. And the audience, too. Playing live and putting on the show is more than just playing music. It's happening live—the audience is part of it—all part of the energy that is making it happen. Even if you're in a tiny place and you're not slacking off and people think: "I can't believe I just saw you in this place … "
LT: What would you like your Chicago audience to know?
CR: [ Laughs ] I didn't die or anything. Show up if I come to town. I love it here. I love playing here. This is where my people are. Chicago fans—they want you to go out and conquer the world—
LT: As long as you come back?
CR: [ Laughs ]
LT: What else have you been up to?
CR: Our new yoga clothing line. It's called Shining Shakti.
LT: That's Hindi, right?
CR: Yeah, for divine [ or ] feminine. Shiva is masculine and Shakti is in everything. It's a life force. It shows a lot of promise. We're in about 30 studios and boutiques across the country. That's really exciting.
LT: So you do yoga, right?
CR: Yeah.
LT: Does it help you focus on your music?
CR: [ Laughs ] It helps with everything.
Visit www.shiningshakti.com for more info on yoga gear.
