BY WILL KENNEDY
tiful: jittery, anxious, confident and icy,
her voice high drama, somehow both af-
fected and genuine, the sound of steam
rising from the depths of the earth, suck-
ing bone marrow from every syllable.
Amos sent seismic shock waves
through a generation, particularly for
young women emboldened by her can-
did narratives of sexual assault.
The a cappella lead single “Me and
a Gun” on Earthquakes is a harrowing
true-life recollection of Amos’ rape at
age 21. This year, Amos released her
15th studio record, Native Invader, and
the album shows her older and wiser, a
bit softer but no less singular.
Loren, Jaeger and Reising all find
parallels between Amos’ work and the
recent social media movement that’s
come to be known as #MeToo.
“Her music tells stories,” Loren says,
“not only of violence toward women in
the form of sexual assault, but of the in-
sidious spiritual violence in the way we
are taught by our culture to feel uncom-
fortable or somehow wrong with our bodies, our sexuality
and our emotions.”
Reising continues the thought, pondering Amos’ early
involvement in RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National
Network). Amos was the organization’s first spokesperson.
“That was an opportunity for other women to say it out
loud, to stop being ashamed of the actions of others,” Reis-
ing says. “#MeToo is the next generation of that. A lot of
people are still getting accustomed to the fact that this is
happening everywhere. We are still getting accustomed to
laying the shame at the feet of those who deserve it.”
LESS LADYLIKE
Tori Amos influences a generation of
Eugene artists
E
ugene artists Halie Loren, Bettreena “Betty” Jaeger
and Amelia Reising will never forget the first time
they heard the music of Tori Amos.
Jaeger is a singer-songwriter best known for her
work with Betty and the Boy and now Betty and
the Babes. “As a kid, I found her music deeply terrifying
in a way,” Jaeger says. “I sensed a level of indescribable
rage in her voice that immediately caught my attention as
a sensitive preteen.”
Eugene jazz-pop singer-songwriter Halie Loren also
has vivid memories of the first time she heard Amos. “By
the time I was 19 I had memorized her entire discogra-
phy,” Loren recalls, “and frequently performed some of
her songs in my solo piano/vocal shows.”
Reising remembers scraping together change and re-
turning bottles and cans to buy Tori Amos records.
“Tori was the first musician I’d ever heard who sang
about the trauma of rape,” Reising says. “And she sang that
song dozens of times — hundreds, maybe — in concert,
refusing to be ashamed. That’s amazing. That’s insanely
brave and defiant.”
The music world hadn’t seen anything quite like Amos
when, in 1992, the classically trained pianist with a mezzo-
soprano vocal range struck lightning with her debut album,
Little Earthquakes. The album shook the comfortable pi-
ano singer-songwriter idiom, spiking it with hellfire and
Anne Sexton-style poetry.
Her melodic phrasing was equal parts brutal and beau-
“Sometimes music and art gifts survivors the words to
articulate their emotional experiences when they maybe
couldn’t have naturally done so themselves,” Jaeger adds.
“Tori’s music speaks to me as a woman and as a songwriter
in a way that gives me permission to write about less ‘la-
dylike' topics and to bare a wounded or poorly healed soul
in in my music, even if it means risking being deemed a
woman who is too fervent or hot-blooded.” ■
Tori Amos' Native Invader Tour comes to Eugene along with Scars on 45 8
pm Saturday, Nov. 25 at the Hult Center; $34.50-$78.75, all-ages.
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