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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2000)
September 1. 2000 » T heir names are ubiquitous. They’re busy as heavers, with regular gigs booked at Touchstone Coffee House, Bor ders Bcxiks and Starbucks. They’re a com munity presence, long-standing staples in the scene, fixtures in the Just Out events calendar. They’re Barb Galloway and Donna Luck- ett—or, as Luckett charmingly sums up: “I’m the short, cute one. Barb’s the tall, talented »» one. After hearing about this infamous musical couple around the office for almost a year, 1 was excited to finally learn more about the duo than just their names. “Playing music is not a hobby, it’s how we earn a living,” Luckett asserts in her Southern drawl, compliments of growing up in Ten nessee. In fact, they scoff at unpaid gigs (including Portland’s pride celebration, which, unlike Vancouver’s Saturday in the Park, only pays out-of-town acts). It’s apparent that music nearly encompasses their lives. Luckett says her day job— as a social services worker for the state of Oregon— enables them to play their music. She spends the rest of her time as the group’s txxiking agent, promoter and bass player. Galloway is the principal songwriter and lead guitarist (and occasional home renovator). Oh yeah, and they’re a couple. met them on one of their rare nights off at ! their co-owned, modest home in North Port land. I’m first greeted by the lesser-known duo of the house: Keelah and Cedar, the couple’s Labradors. Keelah, the older of the two, keeps to herself while Cedar becomes well acquainted with my lap. Before Luckett has a chance to show me around the house, I spy a neatly arranged, cov ered pile of instruments behind the couch in the living room (complete with a “Celebrate one definitive word. “We’ll play anything— we Diversity” bumper sticker on the bass drum). see a person three feet tall, we’ll do ‘Itsy Bitsy This area, I discover, is their practice space, Spider’ at the drop of a hat.” where they come together every Sunday night Galloway, a former motocross racer who to jam. “Our neighbor drinks a beer on his grew up in the Portland area, gained some of front porch and listens every time we practice,” her first performing experience during the Luckett says. 1970s and '80s doing Joni Mitchell cover tunes and playing with the well-known Dyketones, a The first thing to know about Galloway and ’50s-style hand with a leshionic kick. Luckett—the entity— is that it’s not always a duo. At several gigs and on the group’s 1998 full- length CD, When I’m Galloway, Kelly and Luckett jam on the waterfront With You, their friend during Vancouver’s Saturday in the Park this summer Cacy Lee accompanies them on drums and Kiera O’Hara plays piano. “We kind of make a commit ment to keep women in the group," Luckett says. Although O ’Hara left the group in February to fiKus on her new jazz trio, Portland vocal authority Maureen Kelly recently joined the lineup, much to Galloway and Luckett’s delight. “She can rattle the windows without an effort,” Luckett says. “Maureen’s put a new spark in the group.” The second thing to know about Galloway and Luckett is that they’re lesbians who play music but who don’t play womyn’s music. "We play folk, blues, country, bluegrass, rock, jazz. We’re floozies,” Luckett says, combining folk" and “blues" into Maureen Kelly (left) recently joined Donna Luckett and Barb Galloway as a vocalist When I'm With You is a mature, well-pol ished set of Galloway’s tunes. It truly sheds light on her mixed palette of musical influences, which include Mitchell, Portland songstress Connie Cohen and various jazz artists. Whereas the title track is a folksy, bluesy jaunt, “Some times I Love You” and “Just Because” are inspi rational acoustic ballads, and “Lazy Sunday” is a beautiful, introspective instrumental. just out 33 Lyrically, When I’m With You just as easily could have been called When I’m Without You. The first two songs demonstrate an urge to break free, with lyrics like “you wanna go / do you wanna go?” and “I’m on the road to any where.” Aptly enough, Galloway, a shy woman in person, says music always has been a release for her. “Barb lets the music speak for her. I can shut up and she still won’t talk,” Luckett says. “She talks the music out of the guitar. She gets in a trancelike state.” Luckett goes on to explain her partner’s writing style: “Barb just disappears into her stu dio. I’ve even seen her wake up in the middle of the night with an idea for a song.” Galloway reportedly has written “volumes and volumes” of songs. Luckett once unearthed one of her partner’s recordings in their base ment and began crying as she listened because it was so beautiful. When she asked why they never played it, Galloway said it was because the song was written about someone else. Luckett said she didn’t care. When I ask her if she’s a songwriter, t(x>, she replies, “I have written some of the corni est, hokiest shit you’ve ever heard in your life.” Luckett, whose first instrument was saxo phone, says she’s happy just to play bass for the group. “I just wanna keep things simple,” she says, although she has been known to perform a mean version of “House of the Rising Sun” to the tune of “Amazing Grace.” As if the couple’s plate isn’t full enough already, Galloway and Luckett (who are both “older than dirt,” according to Luckett) have been chewing on two major life alterations: the onset of a multiple sclerosis-type disease in Galloway and the possibility of adopting a child. Galloway says her condition, called spastic paraparesis, affects her lower extremities and makes walking difficult and running next to impossible. Fortunately, the disease doesn’t affect her masterful guitar-playing ability. Her fingers still rip the same solos, hut now she sits down when the group perfonns. She puts it simply: “It’s very exhausting." Luckett says the idea of having a child had been rattling around in her head for a while, and the couple now have entered the “long and tedious” adoption process. Because of legal reasons, Luckett says she can’t reveal too much more information about their soon-to-be child, although she admits: “We want a little girl. We want to let her become what she will.” Despite these changes, the music remains the constant force in Galloway and Luckett’s lives. They continue to practice every Sunday. They continue to play gigs every weekend. They continue to devote their lives to music. And who knows, as Luckett says, “One of these days, we’re going to he on Oprah." ■ K aty D avidson is a Just Out staff umter who wants to he on Oprah— hut for other reasons. She can he reached at katy@justout. com.
