Niki Aukema, a native of the Netherlands, was a long-time Cambridge singer-songwriter whose career was quite varied.1 In 1971, she was part of the first crew to go on the road performing the musical play, Jesus Christ Superstar. For the Cambridge folk-rocker, one of the highlights of that tour must have been the occasion when the cast crossed paths with Boston's rising rock group, the J. Geils Band. A couple years later, Aukema released an R&B-oriented album, Nothing Free (LP, Paramount, 1973).2 Mickey O'Halloran once wrote that Aukema's record "featured a stellar cast of then-unknowns (Billy Vera, Roy Bittan, John Payne, Chip Taylor, John Nagy, Andy Pratt, and a certain Ben Orzechowski3)."
Aukema became quite disillusioned by the commercial side of the music industry. Paul Rishell recalled that "She was ... a little hurt and confused by the music business."4 At some point in the 1970s, she stopped performing for a while.
The Boston-Cambridge popular music community was going through major changes in those formative first few years of Aukema's career. Most of the central folk-figures of Cambridge had moved on by the late 1960s. Even Bonnie Raitt, that classic '70s Cambridge folkie, was about to pack her bags for the West Coast. After the dust settled, we find younger players such as Jeanne French and Chris Smither on the way up, along with promising new arrivals such as Paul Rishell.
In the late '60s and early '70s, Boston rock clubs typically hosted cover groups and boogie bands of varying aptitude; but something new was just getting started. Arguably the two most popular local bands, the Modern Lovers and the Sidewinders, didn't fit the usual formula. They were followed by a handful of back-to-the-basics rockers, with original material, who were able to convince booking agenst of night spots, such as the Rathskeller in Boston and the Club in Cambridge, to give them a try. Willie Alexander's "Mass. Ave.," actually the B-side of a single, became the anthem for the emerging Boston-Cambridge club scene.5
It would seem that this new stripped-down, hard-rocking spirit exerted a considerable influence on the music of Niki Aukema. By 1979, she was singing again at the Idler in Cambridge6 and she was ready to try something different. Late the same year, she formed a rock band called Lip. She played guitar and sang, Dave Amaral played bass, his brother Rob Amaral was the lead guitarist, and Wilson Brown played drums. Steve Morse said that Aukema and band performed hard, gritty rock. She told him, "I always felt like I had to live up to somebody else's expectations. Now I'm just doing what I want, and to heck with the rest."7
Lip with Niki Aukema and Planet Street on the 6th
Aukema often dressed in black for her shows. She told Steve Morse, "[A]ll the music I write has a very determined fight in it." When he asked her age, she answered, "I'm ancient and innocent at the same time."8 Paul Rishell observed, "When it came to singing, she was a real athlete. She had a very strong Gospel style in her singing and a lot of head tones, too."9 According to Morse, she would shout out vocal lines with authority but could also bring her music down to a whisper.
In later years, once again Aukema felt disillusioned with the music business, expressing herself, instead, by writing poetry. Niki Aukema died of cancer on Thursday, December 10, 1992, evidently somewhere near Scranton, Pennsylvania. In his announcement of her demise, Steve Morse described her as "an enigmatic but highly talented figure."10 Other sources agreed that she was a gifted artist. Many hearts were saddened by her death. -- Alan Lewis, 9/11/2001 (slightly revised 12/4/2001)
1. Sources for this article include short items in our clipping files, several Internet sites, and especially Steve Morse's article in the April 3, 1980, issue of the Boston Globe. Thanks to Rob Amaral (perhaps best known as a member of the Lifters), Jeanne French, and Paul Rishell for sharing their observations and memories.
2. Niki Aukema also recorded "You Are My Sunshine" for the compilation, Live at Jacks (LP, Rulu, 1973). We find her singing behind Peter Gallway on his album, Tokyo to Kokomo (LP, Imagination, 1979), with such New England notables as Harry King (synthesizer), Heidi Metzger (supporting vocals), Billy Novick (saxophone), Andrea Re (supporting vocals), Paul Rishell (guitar), and Mike Turk (harmonica).
Since I went to some trouble refreshing my memory about Heidi Metzger, whose name I recognized, I should add here that she was a member of the Boston group, the Secret Admirers.
3. The late Benjamin Orr of the Boston rock band, the Cars.
4. E-mail message from Paul Rishell to Alan Lewis, 3/14/2000.
5. Willie Alexander, "Kerouac" b/w "Mass. Ave." (45, Garage, n.d. [1975]).
6. A 1979 Idler item in the Calendar section of the Boston Globe listed Niki Aukema as a blues artist.
7. Boston Globe, 4/3/1980.
8. Ibid.
9. E-mail message from Paul Rishell to Alan Lewis, 3/14/2000.
10. Boston Globe, 2/5/1993.
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