February - July 2001
Arjuna Greist 1 : brave \'brav\ adj brav-er; brav-est [MF, fr. OIt & OSp bravo courageous, wild, perh. fr. L barbarus barbarous] (15c) 1 : having courage: DAUNTLESS 2 : making a fine show : COLORFUL (~banners flying in the wind) 3 : EXCELLENT, SPLENDID brave-ly adv 2brave vb braved; brav-ing vt (1546) 1 : to face or endure with courage the stares of strangers in small southern towns weighing the expenditure of self against the price of forfeiting and hesitating not once at the city limit sign
Ever meet anyone so brave they, by just their existence, took your breath
away? In late August 2000 I opened my home to just such a person. I knew
next to nothing about her; I got her name, I did think to ask if she was an
axe murderer & of course I gleaned the important facts (guitarist {Ibanez};
politically astute; mostly folk/rock; not allergic to cats; cool with larger
sized dogs) along with the miscellaneous information such as itinerary &
travel time & vehicle description so I didn't inadvertantly open my home to
just ANY Wandering College Student, & this is how I met Arjuna Greist & her
guitar, Angela Darothy Iris aka "ADI", a beautiful solid-top steel-string
a/e with mother of pearl inlay. And there was Arjuna, trekking across America
from East to West & trusting in the good people off the Indigo Girls' list to
provide her safe haven & offering in exchange a song & conversation & the
bartering of thoughts.
I remember in one of the emails she informed me
that the van was purple (I thought "Uh oh") & that she would have shaved her
head approximately 2 days before we met, just after her 21st birthday (bigger
"uh oh"), & just before traveling alone across the deep South. This
immediately inflamed my never-very-dormant maternal instincts. I gave voice
to a lengthy email about EXACTLY what she was to do & what she was to say &
how she was to behave & where she was to stand in relation to the vehicles in
order to stay on camera should she find herself cheerfully rolling along with
red & blue lights flashing in her rear view & discover herself conducting a
conversation with her own reflection in the aviator style glasses of a cop &
to not stop at any diners where the parking lot was full of all terrain
vehicles whose tires were the size of small third world countries. It was
not just concern I felt for her, it was actual fear. Arjuna very politely
let me know she had a Mother & She had adequately covered all this. At
first glance it's doubtful two persons could come from such diverse
backgrounds if they had been separated deliberately at birth. Arjuna was
born in Kentucky & raised in/on an organic farm in Connecticutt by Hippie
parents. I was born in the Tornadic Bible Belt, a late child to a Depression
Era couple (oh god there went my fan base!). Arjuna chopped lettuce with
Pete Seeger; I had to plot strategies worthy of Alexander to view Bowie on
The Midnight Special. Arjuna shaved her head in her 21st year of Being Arjuna
because she wanted to be certain she left no doubts in anyone's mind about
exactly where she stands & what she is & what makes her Arjuna. I have made
probably an entire career of willfully setting traps designed to befuddle the
minds of not just anyone, but everyone, myself included
And so she arrived. Her purple van was truly purple (think Grape
Ape) AND the entire rear end of it was covered with Wiccan/Pagan/Gay/Lesbian
bumperstickers; I do not mean she had bumperstickers on her bumper, mind you.
The entire backside of that grape-colored automobile was papered, rafter to
cellar, with what in my area basically amount to battle taunts. Her head
was truly shaved with a dusting of feathery brown just centimetering through &
her ears were pierced in delicate splendor, several times. She wore a loose
dress with spaghetti straps (it was August & the temperature was hovering
around 105 F) & sandals & was barelegged & clean skinned & non-shaved from
neck to toe, stepping out of that van into a State known for it's Big Hair &
in a town where it is considered "normal" to primp & tease & fluff & paint
the face merely to run buy dog food. My neighbors were outdoors barbecuing
for a birthday & they were extremely interested in both Arjuna & her van & I
was bemused thinking what sort of gossip THIS would generate & how it would
have been embellished & evolved by the time it got back around to me. Did I
pause for a moment with a bit of trepidation? Yes. I did. I don't live in a
place which is tolerant of even the gay & lesbian persons who TRY to blend
in, & there is NO ONE like Arjuna here. And she.... She must have felt like
an exploring pioneer, a stranger in an even stranger land, boldly going where
no bald queersexual had gone before.
There is something noble &
vulnerable about a shaved head. Maybe it is that they cannot manage a
masquerade; there are no pretenses, nothing hidden, everything there is
literally laid bare, every bump of the landscape open for contemplation,
every mole & birthmark exposed for perusal. Perhaps it is because it mimics
birth, one of the few times in our lives when the stuff that makes us unique
is distilled & most pure, when we are so much ourselves there is no reason,
no chance, no point in dissembling. This was exactly why Arjuna decided to
shed her former two feet of blue dyed locks. It was a thoughtful,
well-chosen statement of the direction she intends her life & her music to
take.
"Some Chick Sings" (so named after the MC at her second open mic
couldn't figure out her name & therefore billed her as SCS) was recorded
during one afternoon in late July 2000 in the attic studio of friend &
co-producer Jef Scoville in Roslindale, MA. It was done with very little
over-dubbing with the intention of conveying to the listener what it is like
to hear Arjuna live, with the exception of one song, "Moment", which was
recorded in 1999 with Arjuna adding bass guitar & sand shaker tracks to her
own lead. The idea was not to produce an air-play-ready first venture, but a
slice of music which could serve as both demo & fundraiser for her Adventure
in Folk Singing starting this spring.
Even so it's managed to get
better-than-just-decent air time at the first college station it was sent to,
lingering for eight weeks at #6 on the Cornell (IA) countdown. (One of my
favorite parts is when the nearby subway roars through. They left it in,
sandwiched between "Song for Matthew" and "Moment" & I don't know precisely
HOW or WHY but it's artistically perfect there, like a rush of traveling
lonely noise to ground & center you & bring you back from the humbling,
haunted place "Song for Matthew" has taken you.)
Arjuna is a poet & singer first & foremost & both in her emails & in person she explained to me she had learned to play the guitar & write her own songs in self-defense almost because it seemed "that explosive combination of melody and word" was the medium which would allow her to best express herself. And express herself she does with humor, haunting lyrics, & melodies which will remain in your head long after the seven songs & the dark blue cd have stopped
spinning. The fact that she basically taught herself to play (with a lesson
or two from Dar Williams. Yes. Seriously.) & has been doing this for only a
little over four years & is STILL this damn good should send you left
clicking in a pique of indie frenzy.
It's always tempting to compare a voice or song writing style with another artist's in an attempt to find a common ground between reviewer & reader, & with Arjuna this is easy. Think Rose Polenzani & Dar Williams. Nice thought, isn't it? The topics range all the way from love to broken relationships to abuse to religion to hate crimes & holds the most poignantly simple, singularly gorgeous tribute I have heard to Matthew Shepherd (& I have heard many) written in one sitting on the night of his murder: "Song for Matthew"
*snip*
When she graduates this May Arjuna will be
starting her first national tour~~ Which means she will be traveling across
America in her purple van with it's declarative stickers & Adi at her side &
she will sing for her supper like the traveling minstrels of old. In return
she is looking for kind & intimate strangers to feed her green stuffs & a
cleared space on the floor for her futon & open ears to listen to her sing &
if you are lucky you will be treated to a Kitchen Concert such as we were
graced with. Gigs paying actual money will be much appreciated & there is
the very real possibility of intelligent conversation & the exchange of ideas
& the gentle prying open of minds shouldn't be entirely crossed off either.
(Witness my neighbors who made the simple declaration, "Now that was a
COMFORTABLE woman, I wish I had the nerve to be that comfortable" leading to
major bouts of giggling from my daughter who now uses the words
"comfortable" & "lesbian" in every available situation & possible scenario.)
It's always a personal pleasure for me to discover a new voice & talent &
to be able to share them here is just icing on the cake, & when I've been
lucky enough to count that person among my friends, that's even better. YOU
now have the chance to hear a woman possessed of a lovely voice, with a gift
for truths that rhyme & who has diligently mastered the art of being
comfortable in her own skin. And if you can offer her a plate of rice or a
bowl of leafy veggies & a place to lay her head for the night email her at
SomeChickSings & she & Adi will make it well worth your time. And hey~~
Gigs resulting in ca$h are also Very Cool.
Catch her while she's still playing kitchens.
~~Webster's Ninth New Collegiate
Dictionary with a wee bit of help from Digger~~