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Jane Siberry
Jane Siberry is my favourite singer in the world, and I never tire of telling people how fantastic she is. She is much less famous in the UK than she is in Canada, where she’s from, so I’ve become a bit of an evangelist for her cause here. I was thinking of one of her songs last night, so suddenly felt the urge to write something on this page in case it points anyone new in her direction. (I’m not sure if Swimmer One can really be said to be influenced by Jane Siberry, at least not obviously, but my soon-to-be-unveiled side project, First Minister, is quite Siberresque.)
I usually tell people she’s like a more knowing Kate Bush, or a sexier, more feminine Laurie Anderson. That’s shorthand, though, and doesn’t sum her up properly at all. She’s as brilliant as either of the above, though, and incredibly versatile. Her first album, from 1981, sounds like a more playful cousin to Blue by Joni Mitchell. By 1983 she was making something resembling synth pop (imagine if the Associates were a girl group). Then the songs got longer, more multi-layered and cinematic, especially on her album The Walking.
One of my favourite Siberry songs is The Bird in the Gravel, from that album, in which she plays multiple characters - a heartbroken maid, a truck driver, a servant and a kitchen full of noisy cooks. Then, just as people were getting used to this, she started making country music (on Bound By The Beauty). Then a jazz album (Maria). Then she recorded an album of simple songs she wrote when she was a teenager (Teenager). She’s recorded everything from a 25-minute odyssey about dragons and lost innocence (Oh My My) to a funny song about her dog (Everything Reminds Me Of My Dog). When I saw her play in Scotland a couple of years ago, she played a 12-minute musical poem about a dreamlike journey through a forest, a 30-second version of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor, and then sang I Know My Redeemer Liveth by Handel. She was very funny too, in a completely random way.
I LOVE her. Cannot emphasise that enough really. She’s whimsical or ironic one minute, heartwrenchingly sincere the next. Sometimes she’s both in the same line. Ultimately she sounds like no one else in the world. And, years before Radiohead thought of it, she started selling her music on a ‘pay-what-you-like’ basis. You can get LOADS of it on MP3 from her website, for whatever you can afford (go to STORE, then follow the links). Some you can only get if you live in Canada or the USA, but there’s plenty available worldwide too.
In 2006, in a typically eccentric Siberry move, she sold almost all of her possessions, including her house, changed her name to Issa Light, and set off around the world, to live as a wandering troubadour, finally liberated from material possessions and concerns. I interviewed her for the Scotsman newspaper just as she was setting off, and she seemed nervous but happy. I hope she’s doing ok. You can read about her continuing adventures at Issa’s MySpace page. I often do.
Andrew
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