3 6 * « s t M at t . aprii 18. 2003
MUSIC
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All vegetarian.
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• 1 0
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3 5 5 1 S E Division S tre e t, 5 0 3 -2 3 6 -6 8 9 0
w iw w .h a v e n c o f fe e .c o m
to Thomas Bruner and Tony Stroh
who share a Birthday and a
deep devotion to Thomas Lauderdale!
l l f ^ Brown was
15, her mother took
away the family
television and, in
retaliation, Brown
picked up her first
guitar.
She played
along with the radio
and cassette tapes—
everything from
Edie Brickell to The
Smiths— and slow
ly, without realizing
it, “1 could play
music,” she
exclaims. “One day
I started to play
[Pink Floyds] ‘Wish
You Were Here,’
and I couldn’t
believe it. From
then on 1 was
obsessed— 1 played
five to six hours
daily for the first
several years, get
ting together with
friends and jam
ming out.... Here I
am, 16 years later, still at it.”
Bom in the small, industrial town of
Meadville, Pa., and transplanted from the
growing music scene in Ithaca, N.Y., the new
Portlander has been schooled by playing with
some of the best. She recalls her fondest musi
cal memory: “It was a show 1 did in Ithaca at
the A BC Cafe in 2000. I was accompanied by
my hand at that time and Hank Roberts,
world-famous cellist, who was recently just
hack from a European tour with Andy Sum
mers from The Police. It was an amazing
night, and I have the recording to prove it!”
The young dyke’s current projects include
a much-anticipated C D compilation (arranged
by Haven owner Dale Schiff and recorded at
Jackpot Records) to benefit the Sexual Minor
ity Youth Recreation Center, which has made
quite an impression on Brown. “Everyday peo
ple inspire me,” she comments. “People get
ting together and doing amazing things
through organizations and nonprofits like
SM YRC inspire me. Richie Havens, Joni
Mitchell, [John] Coltrane, [Charles] Mingus,
Soulive, Alix Olson, Pamela Means, 72-year-
young women at a peace marches, people on
the bus, voices speaking truth about them
selves and what they see— that’s inspiring.”
In addition to inspiring others with her
three solo voice-and-guitar albums— 1998’s
W hat Is Mine, 1999’s Change the Channel and
2002’s Rant and Wail, which she describes as
“truly raw, recorded in an hour and a h alf’—
the eclectic folk artist is also hooking a tour of
the East Coast for late summer and early fall.
Though her musical ventures are primarily
solo, Brown says she’s always open to “the
right mix," with current interests delving into
the open jam and the implosion style of jazz
and blues— which she calls “the birthplace of
politics in music.”
Having toured the East Coast and gigged
all over the country, the singer is happy to set
Tamara J. Brown lends her
voice to two killer Portland
events April 2 0 and May 1
tle in the Pacific Northwest. “I always wanted
to try the West Coast on for size,” she notes.
She and her partner, Portland thespian Julian
na Jaffe, seen last year in the triangle pnxJuc-
tioas! musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, went
“cross country," she explains, in 2001 to scout out
a place to move to. “We had only planned to
hang in Portland for a day, hut we met two amaz
ing people at an open mike...who took us in like
family, gave us the key to their house, full run of
the fridge and showed us around.”
Thanks to these extraordinarily friendly
locals “we fell in love with Portland and the
beautiful people here...w e felt like Portland
was an enhanced version of Ithaca.... I felt so
at home right away!”
Expect Brown to stick around for a while.
“T he Northwest is so full of beautiful forest
land, mountains, rivers and beautiful people
fighting tooth and nail to protect them from
industry! It is inspiring to witness all of the
social and environmental activism going
o n ...so fortifying to live in such a Mecca of
growth and change.”
She's quick to point out that Portlanders
shouldn’t take that for granted. “1 have come
from a place where I never would have imag
ined Portland could ever exist. It will he a
long time till there is something like SM YRC
in my hometown. It is so wonderful that Port
land is so accepting of new things, ideas and
perspectives!" j n
T a m a r a J. B r o w n joins the Flat Mountain Girls,
Myshkin and Pirate Jan e for the Laydeez
H oedoum, a fund-raiser for In Other W ords,
7 p m. April 20 at the Alberta Street Public
House, 1036 N .E . Alberta St. Tickets are $5 plus
donations at the door. She plays 8 p.m . May I
with queer artists Alix Olson and Pamela Means at
Nocturnal, 1800 E. Burnside St. Tickets are $10
in advance from In Other Words. For more
information visit www.tamarajbroum .com.