Kelly Willis back with
her best work to daie

John Goodman

This Week Editor
jelnsOnsnews.com

Kelly Willis at the Starfish Room
(1055 Homer) Friday, September 3 ai
9:45 p.m.

KELLY Willis came through
Vancouver once before, but that was
a lifetime ago.

“fdid a little: two week run with Dwight
Yoakum — that was probably in °92”, says
the Austin, Texas singer. She was signed to
MCA Records at the time with the full
weight of the Nashville hitmaking machine
behind her.

Willis left the label in the mid-nineties and
when she performed several dates on the first
Lilith Fair cour she was without a record
company. “I was road-managing myself, I was
driving the van,” she laughs in recollection.
“I got to do seven shows that year. The first
year the record companies didn’t know how
cool it was.”

After completing those shows Willis went
straight into the studio to start work on her
CD What I Deserve. “It took me a while to
finish it,” she deadpans. “About three days
into the first sessions (in San Francisco} I
decided I didn’t feel comfortable and I came
home. The other people that were working
with me freaked out — my manager at the
time, and the producer of course, who I
left.”

Without a label that was a risky thing to do but Willis had
support for her decision, and a dig fan, in the UK's Geoff
Travis. Based in London, Travis is the man who sct up the
Rough Trade punk empire to releas¢ music the major labels
weren't interested in.

Success for Travis is measured in maintaining indepen-
dence. As an innovative entrepreneur he does things his way
and so does Kelly Willis. “He completely believed in me —
he offered to underwrite (the sessions),” says the singer
admiringly. “Geoff Travis really kept his cool and trusted my
instincts and if I felt uncomfortable chen I needed to be out
of there. When I played him the tapes of what we had so far
he was really supportive. He was like a knight in shining

AUSTIN, Texas singer Kelly Willis performs at the Starfish Room cn

armour to me.”

Willis completed the record in Austin in December of
1997 with producer Dave McNair and a great supporting
cast. Her husband Bruce Robison contributed harmony
vocals and a classic hurting song “Net Forgotten You,” the
Jayhawk’s Gary Louris wrote several cuts with Willis includ-
ing the title track, and Green on Red’s Chuck Propher plays
guitar throughout the CD.

Prophee also provided the last song for the sessions, “Gor
a Feelin’ for Ya,” written in collaboration with southern soul
man Dan Penn. The latter’s list of writing credits goes on
forever but start with James Carr’s “Dark End of the Street”
and Aretha Franklin’s “Do Right Woman.” Willis, like all the
best singers, goes for the soul.

Photo Michae! Gomez

Friday, Sept. 3.

Asked to anaivze her approach Willis
responds. “Most alternanve country bands
come atit fom a rock poimt of view and !
think [rs coming at it from the other side, |
think thar makes me alice ba different —
tiavbe not quite cool enough to be consid:
sivd alternate country. But then again |
dow't itin with the country crowd either, I
somebody dikes me 1] don’t care what they
call me,” she laughs.

Willis wasn’t raised on country music.
“Paian army brit -- f grew up in
Oklahoma, Kansas, North Carotina and
Georgia — when we moved to Texas I felt a
kinship with it right away.” When she first
started singing she performed rockabilly and
harder rocking material sipping in a ballad
or owe for a change of pace. “TP wasn’t raised
on country music and really had to discover
it,” she says. SL doved Buddy Holly and thar
sort of bridged the gap between rockabilly
and country.”

On What ] Deserve Willis covers material
(Paul Westerberg’s “They're Blind” and Nick
Drake's “Time Has told Me”) not associated
with country but that’s not unusual for her.
“T thought | could shed a different light on
them,” she says. “I intended ‘They're Blind’
to sound a lor more acoustic and country
than that. It ended up sounding like, what }
like to call, ‘boy rock.’ The guitar players
just got very excited.”

Despite the differences in interpretation,
Willis makes the songs her own. “1 thought
they were beautiful and I don’t like to limir
myself to categories. I kind of like musit to
just be music.” 7

Willis and Geoff Travis shopped the fin-
ished record around finally deciding on
Rykodisc. “They were really enthusiastic and
didn’t want to change anything,” she says.
“That was a key for nie. | wanted somebody who just really
liked it the way it was and wanted to work that record.”
Travis remains her manager in the U.K.

Since the record was released Willis and her band have
been doing non-stop touring. She will be on the final four
dates of the Lilich Fair tour including the closcr in
Edmonton. “I’m real proud of that,” she says. “I had a blast
in the first year. This year I think it will be a little bit differ-
ent. (This time around) I even have somebody who is going
to do the sound for me. I know it will be fun.”

On Friday, September 3 Willis will perform in Vancouver
at the Starfish Room before heading south for a short West
Coast tour. When she gets home she'll start thinking about
what she wants to do with her next record.

Nat's most popular burgér! Two
patties stacked high with leteuce,
tomato & our Triple “O” sauce
on our toasted bun, Served with
our half Caesar & a slice of our

. famous fresh B.C. blueberry pie.

For take-out
call 316-SPOT. 99
Be ;

». Phar applicable taxa,