In the first installment of what will be a recurring series of question and answer-style interviews with emerging talents on the acoustic music scene, Kathy Sands-Boehmer speaks with Raina Rose. A 2007 Kerrville New Folk winner, the young Austin, Texas-based singer-songwriter is a native of Portland, Oregon. Raina Rose is currently touring the East Coast with Rebecca Loebe, another talented young singer-songwriter.
Raina Rose
Were you really born on the day the music died? (We know it’s not the same year though!) So I have to ask: do you have a psychic connection with Buddy, Ritchie, and the Big Bopper?
February 3rd is the day the plane went down, and on a sunny February 3rd in Hollywood, CA sometime during the Reagan administration, I was born! I feel a kinship with Buddy Holly for sure, he was from Lubbock, TX and they absolutely hated him while he was alive, the town was ashamed of him. Now there’s a museum and a street named after him. I guess he was ahead of his time. . . Actually, I don’t really feel like that. . . I like his glasses though. But it’s a cool metaphor to be born the day the music died. I’ve tried to write songs about it, but they all come off as very self-important. . . shocker!
Now that we got that out of the way, let me ask you this — how does it feel to travel the country and spread the love like you do?
It feels great most the time, except when it’s completely exhausting. At the moment I am booking for July & August and, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my job. I am a stubborn girl and I work hard and endlessly for what I want; but it’s a difficult thing to be thinking about what city you are going to be in on August 13th when it is March 4th. I have a hard time with that, but when August rolls around, I get to play music in Alaska because of the work I’m doing now. That’s pretty cool. The love thing is just who I am, I think. I really mean it too! We are all part of this human family and each one person is fascinating and beautiful and strange and unique and deserving of love equally. I have to admit, there are some I love more than others, but loving everyone is just recognizing the innate humanness in each of us. Music is a really potent way of bringing that out of people . . . and into people.
If you had to describe your new CD, End of Endless False Starts in as few words as possible, what would you say about it?
I would say this is the first record I’ve made that I am truly proud of and excited to share with people. In my opinion, it’s a really good listen all the way through.
What kind of musical sensibility do you feel that John Elliott provided for you and for the creation of this record?
Oh well, if the question of John Elliott’s genius came about, I would jump on it like a tiger. I deeply believe in John’s talents as a songwriter, musician & producer. I deeply believe in him as a person. Over the course of my friendship with John, we have both really grown as musicians & artists. John and I met the summer of 2006 completely randomly at a campground in Lake Tahoe, the only free campground, set miles down a dirt road and unmarked. Since then we’ve toured the country together and he was around during most of the songwriting for this record. He has played most these songs with me live. He has become one my best and closest friends in the world and I would trust my theoretical child with him. That kind of trust was imperative for this album because it was a real break-away for me. It goes places that neither of my previous albums go — strange places. John is amazing at stepping over boundaries in a non-threatening way. The album would be completely different, as would our lives, if either of us had chosen a different campground. I am super grateful to John for many, many things.
“The King’s Flashlight” is my favorite tune from the recording. What prompted you to write it? It’s such a catchy and memorable song!
Well, I was sitting on a bed at my folk’s house in Portland, OR in which I had been sleeping occasionally. I grew up there and as beautiful as that town is, I didn’t feel at home. I do feel at home with my folks, of course, they are fantastic, generous and loving people (who never gave me crap for not going to college and being a career camp counselor turned folksinger), but as for the town, it just seemed like another city that I could find my way in. It was after a year and a half of touring and each city I was in felt familiar enough, but not like home. That sentiment matched with the fact that I had just figured out that I didn’t really want to be famous, I just want to play music and inspire people, hence “I don’t want to be the King. . .” I just want to light the way for the King. Like the silent partner. That sounded really good to me at the time. I don’t need approval or want responsibility, but I want a part in the revolution nonetheless. I am still figuring out where home is, and it seems more and more like Austin, TX every day I am there and every day I am away. I love that town. I’m glad you like that song!
Like many of us, Kathy Sands-Boehmer wears many hats. An editor by profession, she also operates Harbortown Music and books artists for the Me and Thee Coffeehouse in Marblehead, Massachusetts. In her spare time, Kathy can be found at local music haunts all over New England. This and many previous Q & A interviews with artists are archived at www.meandthee.org/blog/txp/. Future ones also will be archived here on AcousticMusicScene.com.
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