My Shirt Looks Good on You
An Interview with Catie Curtis
- By SD Sampson
S: You have been pretty open about writing about gay themes in your lyrics, but until the song Elizabeth it has always been from a distance. Other artists who are also lesbians write about the elusiveness of love, the dysfunction of love, the pursuit of sex or coming out but they just don't come right out and say -"hey, I really just love this woman" - plain and simple. What has been the reaction to this song by your live audiences and has the reaction been different that you expected?
C: Yes, I thought when I first wrote this song that there would be a lot of awkwardness around it. I thought I would notice people tensing up when they heard me say Elizabeth. In the song, I get through a verse and a chorus (so I'm well into the song) and the word Elizabeth comes at the end of the chorus. But what happened, and I would hear it audibly from the stage, was this soft "oh" after I said "My love, Elizabeth". I feel like it is water in the desert for people because you don't usually hear anyone being that open about their love. I have experimented over the years with writing a song that was gender-specific but the songs were not good enough. I felt like the first time I do this I wanted it to be a really good song. I feel really good about the song Elizabeth. I'm trying to get the song covered in Nashville by a guy. I'm changing the lyrics a little bit because I feel it is just a classic love song with the images of the river and the train. So I believe in the song and I believe in the sincerity of the emotion behind it because it is about my partner Liz. That gives me the confidence to play it.
S: So, Elizabeth (Liz) is your partner? How long have you been together and how did you meet?
C: Yes. We have been together five and a half years. We met at the Hole-in-the-Wall Camp, which is a camp for children with life-threatening illnesses. She was the entertainment director and she called to have me come and play some music.
S: Now you have finished your first leg of touring for My Shirt Looks Good on You and played these songs to audiences from Boston to Seattle. Are you still happy with what you have written and what have you learned that you will try on your next album?
C: Yes, I am still happy with it. Lately, I have been interested in writing songs that I could play solo. In this last record I knew when I was writing the songs that they were band songs. For some reason I'm getting into the sound of the acoustic guitar again. I'm feeling like I might want to write an album that could be performed solo or duo. It would be music that is more geared to acoustic presentation.
S: How does it feel touring? You have been touring for ten years - is it hard?
C: It is interesting because I have gone through a complete cycle with it. When I first started I was really into it. Then in the mid-nineties when I was with EMI, I started to feel like a traveling salesman. They were pushing me so hard to go out and stay out and I was feeling like I was really out of balance. It was before I met Liz and I felt it was all about my career and not about other important things (like finding a partner). I really needed to slow down, so I did in 96, 97 and 98 and didn't tour that much. It was really at a time that I should have been touring a lot but I was at the beginning of a really important relationship. It felt like I was really betraying myself if I was out too much. But now, in the last year, I am enjoying being out playing again. Liz is really supportive and she really gets it and I feel secure in what we have. We have learned how much is too much and how to schedule it so that I work when she is at her busiest time and she barely notices I'm gone. Now I really feel like I am so lucky that I get to tour and I love it right now. It feels good.
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ABOUT SD
SD Sampson is a professor in a small women's college in Boston, Massachusetts. Her writing represents her forty-something years on this planet. She tries to see the humor in life to keep her sanity. She writes to avoid grading papers. Contact: ssamp@erols.com |
