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The Music industry is a known quantity these days, and the
aspiring recording artists are not nearly as likely to fall
for the old routine rendered up by a fast-talking man with
a cigar and a blank contract.
Singer-songwriter-pianist Kate Schrock, for one, knows all
she needs to know about how such things work and is making
her own way, thanks to the example set by such '90's pioneers
as Ani-Difranco.
"I've been aware of her since she put her first album
out," Schrock says. "I think she went to Bennington
College in Vermont before I did. She instills confidence in
a lot of independent artists."
Schrock will make her return to central Arkansas for a performance
Sunday at the Afterthought; she first played here Sept. 8th,
but that show was at Juanita's, and she was traveling with
a 4 piece band. This time, she's bringing only her bassist,
Roger Gupton. The chance to play the grand piano at the Afterthought
was too good to pass up.
She is touring to promote her third album, Dames Rocket,
released last May on her label, Kakelane, on which she released
her debut CD, Refuge, in 1994 and its follow-up, Shunyata,
released in 1997. (Shunyata is a Hindu word for 'enlightenment'
and dame's rocket, according to the dictionary, is "an
old-fashioned garden flower of the crucifer family, with white
or purple fragrant flowers in spring and early summer.")
"I started with a simple song, with a simple meaning
or message, and as I've progressed, I've explored more, musically,"
she explains. "The emphasis is on my poetry, and as the
years have passed, I've grown as a musician. Each album has
been more of an exploration."
A native of Maine, Schrock studied philosophy at the University
of Chicago before graduating from Bennington. Before the college
years, she spent some time as an Elite model in Europe. After
graduating, she lived eight months in Los Angeles and was
in a band in Chicago.
"The band was called Sin Embargo, and we would put out
our own recordings," Schrock says. "We made cassette
tapes, so that was a good way for me to learn how to go the
do-it-yourself route. It just grew that way, organically,
so by the time I was interested in getting into a real studio,
I had been saving up my pennies so I could make my first album.
"The reason I went to Los Angeles was to meet with major
labels, so I got to know more about the pros and cons of that
approach, and after weighing it, I chose to continue on doing
it myself. I had a near miss a couple of years ago, which
hammered it home to me to do it my way. I almost did a licensing
deal with a label out of New York City that went bankrupt
while we were negotiating, so that's as close to the fire
as I want to get."
She has opened shows for the BoDeans, Taj Mahal, Sonia Dada,
Stephen Stills and former Rolling Stone Mick Taylor. Though
her recordings are of her original songs, she sometimes enjoys
incorporating an unusual "cover song" in her performances.
Lately, she's been listening to a lot of box sets, including
the music of Simon and Garfunkel.
A singer-songwriter and painter, Schrock has heard herself
compared with joni Mitchell, while her voice and piano playing
have earned her comparisons with Kate Bush, Tori Amos and
Sarah Mclachlan. She has yet to exhibit her art, however.
"I'm a binge painter, as well as a binge writer,"
she says. "I will go
through phases, but haven't gone that far yet, getting my
art in a gallery.
I've just used it as my CD artwork."
Home is now a 130-acre farm near a small fishing village
on the coast of Maine, where she spends time in her garden
and has plans to explore beekeeping. She has worked at building
lobster boats, but hastens to add that she has not spent a
year at sea on a boat, as has been reported at times.
Schrock figures she had about four piano lessons when she
was 9 or 10, before deciding that the best thing she could
do would be to teach herself. She cites Ray Charles, Stevie
Wonder and Chick Corea as her major piano influences, but
adds that she always heard the piano parts of the music of
the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and knew that is what she
wanted to do.
"I promised my mother that I would learn the piano,"
Schrock says. "She wanted me to focus on something and
I said I would grow up to play the piano."
Schrock's mother, Jan Schrock, Lives in Little Rock and will
be at the show helping sell her daughter's CDs.
"She works for Heifer Project," Schrock says. "My
grandfather, Dan West, started the Heifer Project."
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