Claudia Jane makes impressive first CD debut
Listening to Indie music is a little like panning for gold. You have to dredge through an awful lot of gravel before you hit pay dirt.
Music prospectors will discover very quickly that they have found a 24-karat nugget in "Identity Crisis," a new CD by Ashland artist Claudia Jane.
Jane, AKA Claudia Jane Curran, is a former Daily Press staff reporter who recently gave up both her Daily Press job and a shot at law school to live her dream of a music career. She's developed a loyal following in the local performance scene with a hauntingly pensive voice, at once sweet but melancholy, vocalizing images that are compelling yet tantalizingly ambiguous.
Her talents shine in her initial CD, produced by co-performer Sasha Mercedes of Phish Roe Records. With minimal accompaniment — usually just her own guitar, and a few friends backing her — it's Claudia Jane’s voice and vivid lyrics that are up front and center.
The results are intriguing, sometimes stunning; an effort that stands out from the crowd and announces a new artist who is going places.
"I've been singing all my life I guess. I've been writing songs since my adolescent years," says Jane.
Making her first CD was not her idea. It wasn't until a couple of friends used her music on their own CDs that the possibility of making her own disc was raised.
"I write songs for fun, I sing for fun, and perform for fun. It's something that I enjoy. A couple of my friends have been prodding me for about three years to record," she said.
Jane said her performances at private parties or club dates would lead to questions from the audience about the availability of her songs on CD.
"Finally it got to the point that so many people were asking me that I worked with one of my friends, Sasha Mercedes, to do one,” she said.
The music Jane creates will never be mistaken for lightweight pop fare. It is evocative and complex; free-association mind paintings that aren't always easy to deal with.
"It's not a CD that you pop in the player and dance to as you make dinner," she observes. "You listen to it. Relate to the songs and make the stories up in your own head."
The first track, Cleopatra, oozes with barely repressed sensuality.
"I've got this secret
It's like acid in my blood;
I can't control who loves me
Or who I love."
Real cat on a hot tin roof stuff.
Jane says the song gives her the impression of a woman who is so in love with a man that she is willing to die for him. But it could as easily be interpreted as longing for another woman’s lover.
It's just one example of the intriguing ambiguity of Jane's lyrics.
"It's not so much me telling people what to think but me giving people the story and letting them figure it out as they go along," Jane said.
"Gravity" is a soft jazz number with a bluesy feel. A lone guitar accompanies, with a very subtle, perhaps too subtle, organ in the background. It cries out for some cool horn to flesh out the understated instrumentation.
"Top Step" is a masterpiece of dark emotion, a tale of secrets, of sexual abuse.
"Duct tape master goes to bed
Safety stays inside her head
Cutie-pie now don't you tell,
Or we'll both end up in hell.
Father, who are you to share me?
Mother, who are you to share me?"
It is a song of hiding, of shame and pain. It's not an easy performance to listen to, but it grips with unflinching power.
"They are things people don't usually talk about," Jane agreed.
"Susanna" is the ballad of a waitress who can't wait to get out of town. With wonderful slide guitar work by Mike White, Jane says it's based on a couple of waitresses she knew when she worked in Phillips.
"One of them always talked about how she always wanted to get out. I left Phillips before I found out if she got out or not," Jane recalls wistfully.
"Not Good Enough" is a powerful declaration of the principle that a girl's got to have standards where love is concerned.
"One Way Ticket" grew out of a story Jane heard about a ride on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. It's also about a metaphysical journey through life. "Desoto's Youth" on the other hand, is a song about death, replete with imagery about flying through space.
"Fool for you" is filled with images of the idiots that love can make of us all, while "Only My Fear" paints a picture of personal demons close to the surface. It's hard-edged and immediate, as raw as the fuzz-tone electric guitar accompaniment.
"Good Night Joseph" is a song of sorrow for a life cut short, while "Identity Crisis" is a more hopeful theme of who we are - E Pluribus Unum.
"Mannequin" features more of Jane's compelling lyrics ("I drink the poison of your plastic kiss") matched with dark Spanish-flavored guitar work also by Jane.
Identity Crisis is not a compilation without flaws. ""One Way Ticket" and "Fool for You" don't measure up to the emotional intensity of the rest of "Top Step," "Cleopatra" or even "Good Night Joseph."
Still, Claudia Jane has produced a remarkable first effort. It seems clear that it is but the beginning for an artist who enjoys challenging her listeners, someone who has a clear idea of her own musical identity.
“Identity Crisis” is available at venues throughout the Bay area or through her web site, www.Claudiajane.com
(Source: http://www.ashlandwi.com/placed/index.php?sect_rank=4&story_id=180618)
