If lyrics in Kate Schrock’s music bring
a character or a lover to a place of decision, musical
careers can perhaps be brought to a similar place of turning.
Since traveling to Jamaica and Ecuador , Schrock’s
music has taken on the poetry of a world larger and deeper
than personal reflection, conjuring up both the cries of
the disenfranchised and the voices of their heroes.
At the Lincoln Theater performance in Damariscotta on Saturday
night, the artist, who grew up in the area, sang selections
of her new material to an enthusiastic crowd of some 200
people.
“Rebel’s Eye”, for example, celebrates
those in the third world who dare to stand up for justice.
Dedicating the song to reggae legend, Bob Marley, Schrock
sang:
“I fell under the influence of your sweet mystery
/ you took my heart so many miles from where it used to be
/ is it the stranger who is dangerous? / or is it the familiar,
not the peculiar, that truly imprisons us?”
Schrock recently spent time in Jamaica working on a project
with Glen DaCosta of Bob Marley and the Wailers fame. She
plans to return there this September to continue working
on the project.
While branching out into new themes and topics, Schrock
has not forgotten her roots, or the influence of songwriters
such as Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones and Elton John.
She continues to perform many songs that pre date the new
articulation of thought she has found in her third world
experience.
Opening with “Bird on a Wing”, Schrock sang: “Bird
on a wing, you’re trying to sing, you gotta learn to
fly sometime / you’re making me cry / watching you
fly / don’t fly away this time.”
The song comes from her most recent CD, “ Indiana ”,
a 2003 recording inspired by the search for innocence. Schrock
has described the music as an attempt to strip away pretense.
Schrock said she is still writing about “true matters
of the heart”, matters that now include themes centering
on social injustice, identifying ignorance, greed and other
sins that divide. “That’s compassion across the
globe, not just, ‘Is he going to love me?’”,
she said during an interview.
“Human relationships, romance, misunderstanding,
pain – no one’s ever going to stop writing about
love”, said Schrock.
Writing with a bigger picture of the world, however, represents
not so much a fork in the road, said Schrock, as it does
a deepening of what she’s been writing about all along.
Being in Jamaica with people spiritually rich and musically
alive helped her understand some of the tensions in the US
culture that stem from the country’s focus on materialism.
Despite the more global theme in her work, Schrock said
change still boiled down to a personal choice. “Am
I going to love?” said Schrock. “Not just each
other, but everyone, ourselves included. What’s the
decision?”
Schrock is in the studio now, recording new material on
her own label, Kakelane Music.The recording will include
recent works such as “Message to Babylon ”, “Why?” and “Carolina
Hurricane”.
|
