LGBT music comes alive in Chicago by Gregg Shapiro

I did nothing/
But always love you/
Is that so wrong/
What's with the world today/
Will this ever be/
What we need it to be/
I'm gonna kill you/
With nothing but kindness

But you come around/
With that sweet smile/
And you come around/
With that sweet caress
(Ripley Caine — 'Our Song')

Ripley Caine was born and raised in Chicago. She started playing guitar at eight (after her family turned down her request for a drum kit) and joined her first band at 15 (being the youngest and only female member). After spending two years in San Diego rocking the west coast, Ripley returned to Chicago to form the Ripley Caine Experience. She currently performs as a solo artist with her blend of acoustic, electronica, rock, alternative music. Ripley has served on the board of directors of Women in Rock (a not-for-profit organization dedicated to raising public awareness for female performers) and is the founder and co-coordinator of Cake Chicago (a monthly queer showcase at Red Line Tap). Sweet Pickle Music included Ripley on its two compilation albums of emerging women in Chicago music, Big Fish Little Fish Vol 1 and Big Fish Little Fish Vol 2.

When, and how, did you become a performer?
It actually became me. I've always been a bit obsessed with music — in a healthy way of course. I started playing guitar when I was eight years old. The folks wouldn't let me have a drum set, so guitar it was. I joined my first band when I was 15. At around 18, I started going to open mics and getting more involved in a community around poetry and music. I've been playing ever since.

When, and how, did you become aware of performers singing songs about lesbian lives?
Actually, in a hair salon. When Tracy Chapman first hit the scene, the dude doing my hair was commenting on how I sounded like her. Way back in the day... :)

How you go about writing your songs?
It's always changing and I am fascinated by the process. Sometimes the lyrics flow first, other times the music flows first or it all flows simultaneously. I do my best to have the songs sound different from each other. A whole record of the same is very boring to me. I enjoy alternate tunings and moving up and down the neck to attempt at making the songs more dynamic.

To what extent, and in what ways, do you write about lesbian lives?
It's all in the lyrics. I don't specifically set out to write about the ladies. I don't feel that my songs are lesbian specific but they could be and often are but in an abstract way. They are more about the struggle we all face in life through sexuality, the daily grind, and then some. Gay, straight, whatever — we all struggle with something and/or someone.

Can you tell us a bit about any of your songs that tell of lesbian lives?
Um, I'd rather not. I'd rather the listener sculpt their own perspective.

What seems to make people more receptive, or less receptive, to songs about lesbians?
I guess it's more about how people can relate to lyrics. If one finds a connection to a lyric, they might be more receptive. If there is not much pulling them in, why be receptive to it?

As a performer, what has been your experience of homophobia?
I don't tolerate it!

How important is it for performers to sing about lesbian lives?
It's all relative.

What advice do you have for emerging performers?
Be real. Stay true to what makes you tick. Not what others do. Do what makes you happy. Don't sell out!!!!

What are some of the other issues faced by performers, particularly performers who don't hear their voices represented in mainstream culture?
It all depends. I don't particularly think that mainstream culture is all that great. It's all very vanilla.

Can you tell us about Cake Chicago?
I host, perform and run 'Cake Chicago' — a live monthly artistic showcase. It's a place where an attempt is made to bring everyone together under one roof for art/love/music/cocktails and more.

What have you been doing over the past year? What's coming up in the
next year?
Writing, recording, writing, recording.

Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Hee hee, I'm single... :)

Discography

• Thrift Store Sweater (1998)
• Corvair (EP) (2000)
• Lover (2002)
• Works in Progress (2004)
• R2 (2005)
• The Logic of Love (2006)

More Info
www.ripleycaine.com
www.myspace.com/ripleycaine
www.myspace.com/cakechicago

RIPLEY CAINE was interviewed as part of the article, 'Out There, Every Day: Singing of the Lives of Lesbians, Dykes, Queers, Gay Women…'. Read the article and other interviews (Madeline Davis, Skim, Gretchen Phillips (Girls in the Nose; Two Nice Girls), Nedra Johnson, Bernie Bankrupt (Lesbians on Ecstasy), Ferron, God-des (God-des and She) and June Millington).

SUE BARRETT is an Australian music writer, with a special interest in women in music. She witnessed "the incident" at a Cris Williamson/Tret Fure/Judy Small concert that prompted Judy to write a coda for the song, 'Lesbian Chic'.

c. 2008

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-0705090554may11,1,1219907.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Or, if you can't link it up, read below.

Performers flock to Alt Q festival
By Web Behrens
Published May 11, 2007

It's a busy week for musician/producer Scott Free: On Saturday he'll host
his biggest event of the year, Alt Q (formerly Queer is Folk), a show that
draws indie performers from two continents. After pulling that annual
affair off, three days later he'll be back at the mic, hosting another
edition of Homolatte, the regular performance night he originated seven
years ago.

Homolatte is a twice-monthly showcase for "queer words and music" --
storytellers, poets and singer-songwriters. Though it happens in an Uptown
restaurant now (Tweet), its original venues were always coffee houses,
hence the name.

Free, who is also a musician, has dedicated himself to nurturing a fertile
music scene for gay and lesbian artists. It's working: The grass-roots
effort helped inspire two sister events, both of them monthly. The
rock-centric Flesh Hungry Dog Show celebrated its two-year anniversary
last month at its home, a gay bar in Edgewater. Meanwhile, the Cake
Chicago variety show -- which focuses on live music but includes comedians
and other performers too -- debuted seven months ago at Red Line Tap, a
Rogers Park pub not otherwise known for drawing a predominantly gay and
lesbian patronage.

The showcases share several goals. They promote openly queer musicians who
are writing and performing their own work. Also, the events' organizers
hope to shift perceptions -- within and without the gay and lesbian
community -- about the kind of music gay people enjoy. Just what is queer
music, anyway?

"Gay people have been force-fed a lot of dance tracks. That's fine, but
it's almost like we don't have permission to listen to rock," says Gary
Airedale, who runs the Flesh Hungry Dog (the name of Airedale's
now-defunct band) Show.

Lesbian music is also saddled with a stereotype from the '70s -- when folk
music, in some circles, was euphemistically referred to as "women's
music." As Ripley Caine, founder of Cake Chicago, points out, "If you're a
chick and you're playing acoustic guitar, you're automatically assumed to
be a big old [lesbian]. Personally, I don't feel like I'm writing queer
music. The stuff I write is pretty general. It's about ex-girlfriends,
sure. So it's hazy."

"As with any musical genre, the edges always get fuzzy," Airedale agrees.
"The moment you assign a definition to queer music, that's the moment
something crops on the edges and you think, 'Oh, man, is it?'"

It's a little ironic, then, that the highest-profile queer music show of
the year, Alt Q, happens at the Old Town School of Folk Music. But the
eclectic five-act lineup is not a roster of traditional folk singers.
"It's pretty acoustic based," says Free, "but within that realm it can
vary: jazz, bluegrass, and this year, Celtic pop."

The three impresarios -- who each fill multiple roles to make their events
happen, from booker to partial sound person to host -- all agree that
their gigs are not in competition, but part of a collective movement to
foster a greater scene.

And their work is paying off, they note. "The people who come, it's very,
very mixed," Caine observes, "which is great. I'm just trying to get all
of us humans in a room together and be comfortable."