A Conversation with Rebecca Martin (continued)

PM: And every night people play the songs that they wrote?

RM: Yep.

PM: Do they always finish the song?

RM: Yes, you have to finish.

PM: You have to finish!

[laughter]

RM: You get up, you have breakfast, you all meet at 11:00. Then you write all afternoon, and you're exhausted.

PM: And you have to finish! Oh, that's hilarious!

RM: Then at night you sit around and everybody sings their songs. Some people write two, believe it or not.

PM: And do some of them just suck, or are all they all good? Or how does that go?

RM: Hmmm. Yeah, yeah, some of them suck. But there's something weird--I hesitated because there's something really wild that happens in an environment like that, and it's that everybody is--it's like being on a boat in the middle of the ocean, and you only have so much food, and you have to ration it, and everybody is taking care of one another. I mean, there was that feeling where you were just cheering everybody on, you wanted everybody to do great. And there was a real feeling of camaraderie there. I have to say that everybody had some kind of a connection. Even the smallest of connections, they were forged. But you also had favorites that you wish you could write with all the time, like I said. There was this harpist named Julia Thornton. I wrote one of my favorite songs of the year with her, a song that I'm going to actually record, without a doubt.

PM: With a harpist.

RM: With a harp. It's the most intense beautiful harmonic yummy stuff I could ever have wished for to write a melody, too.

PM: Now, did she also turn out to be gifted in the lyrical realm?

RM: Her thing wasn't lyrics. She was musical. But she wanted to sing. So when we wrote that day, she also performed a song that I had that I thought would work well with her voice, so she sang for the first time.

PM: Wow! What a cool environment.

RM: Yeah. I mean, you get to try some things out, if you dare. It's definitely the place to do it. But we had a great time. By the end of the week, Bill and I were like--we just couldn't separate. It was so funny. In fact, the very last night we had sleepovers--

PM: [laughs]

RM: --because we just couldn't. It was like being in camp. Yeah, it was just really a magical week. We all had a ball. And my best friend from home came with me.

PM: Really, who's that?

RM: Alice Bierhorst, who's a really great songwriter, too. She's one of my favorites in New York. She and I went together. So pretty much it was me, Alice, and Bill. We were [laughs] the three musketeers.

PM: So I've got to hook up with Alice. Is she playing around?

RM: She's not playing right now, but she's got seven records.

PM: Really?

RM: Yeah. And she's so unique.

PM: Okay. I'll be looking her up in a minute.

RM: You can go to her website and read. She's one of the most soulful beautiful beings. I mean, she's my best friend. She's amazing. And her thing is sort of like Laurie Anderson meets...I don't know who. She's totally wild and beautiful and melodic and very wonderful, a wonderful lyricist, and a great guitar player, great singer. But she really loves writing songs and making records, whereas her passion is not performing, like mine is. We each have that different thing that we have, I think. But she just sits and writes one song after another--I mean, she makes projects like crazy. She's just really, really prolific.

PM: Speaking of performing, I'm excited to be in New York City and able to see your CD release at Joe's Pub at the end of the month. [As it happened, I was called out of town suddenly and had to miss the gig. Aargh.] I had this feeling that you and I would be like old friends in about ten minutes. And yeah, you're just lovely.

RM: Thank you, Frank. You are, too. Thank you for your wonderful questions and your curiosity. I appreciate that. It's a big deal.

PM: I look forward to meeting you in person soon.

RM: That sounds wonderful. And I'll see you in a couple weeks.

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