Sweet Jane

She's not given to idle chatter, much less feckless gossip or aimless schmoozing. Cutting to the chase is more Jane Siberry's style. She runs her own record label, Sheeba with the same loving attention to detail (and enviable financial acumen) as Righteous Babe Ani di Franco.
Last year saw her bring her inimitable personal 'roadshow' to Dublin. It was quite a novelty (not to mention a challenge) for those of us raised on faceless gigs in low places. With a weekend of music, poetry and song, located in the inspired surroundings of the Dublin Writer's Centre, Siberry proved that you can bask in the glory of music without always having to put up with the customary accoutrements of gigs such as jostling at the bar, and inhaling copious quantities of cigarette smoke. On that occasion people travelled from all over the country and from the UK for the weekend. Not bad for an artist who releases her own records on her own label, largely through her own website. (www.sheeba.ca).
Jane Siberry is packing her suitcase for a return visit. This time round she's doing the full monty - Galway, Cork, Belfast and Dublin. We manage to catch her in the bowels of a recording studio in Canada where she's recording some new songs before she hits the road. She's quick to explain why she's extended her stay here this time.
*I met some really intriguing people (in Dublin) last time*, she offers tentatively. *That adds to the attraction, and Paul McGee who promoted the show last time wanted me to try a couple of more shows, so I was happy to put my trust in him to set it all up."
As well as her four date tour, Siberry's trip to Ireland will see her spending some time in a recording studio with Donal Lunny. It's an experiment that she's looking forward to, and she's coming armed with a plethora of old songs (some with Irish roots) which she wants to record with the benefit of his byzantine musical knowledge.
*I'm coming to Ireland all prepared in one way, and yet nothing concrete in another way. All I do know is that I'm supposed to be ready for something when I'm there, and the musicians will reveal themselves. I've worked so often heads first, and I know now from experience that you just don't know until you're physically in the same place what's right for the music. This record will have some Scottish, some Welsh, some Irish and some American spiritual songs, and I think I'll be using a sitar and uileann pipes on it, but it's really only when I'm there that I'll listen to my body and it will tell me what's right for the music. I'll follow my body because that's my tuning fork.
Siberry's just released twin live albums simultaneously, Tree and Lips, both of them pieces in the jigsaw she started with Child in 1997. Recorded in The Bottom Line in New York, the trio reflect on the multiplicity of mirrored images which Siberry creates in her music. Lips, in particular is a must-have, with its fractured stories and barenaked arrangements.
But for this, what she's called her Pilgrim Tour, she's written more new material that relates to the idea of journeying.
*The idea of the pilgrim doesn't really relate just to me*, she explains. *It refers to all of us, especially this year, having a sense of journeying, and no one knows exactly where they're going. A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place which means 'get thee to the nearest human interaction', rather than the Pyramids; that's how I see it.
Siberry's spirit of adventure has never been far from the surface during her live shows, and this tour promises to be no different.
*There's going to be a question and answer period during the shows*, she says, *and I did this before back home on what I called 'It ain't a concert concert' where I actually played some of the videos I directed. I'd sit on stage beside the screen, and watch while people got lost in what was on the screen. It was one of the most special tours I've done, and I'm looking forward to trying it in Ireland now."
I venture that this is a brave way of approaching a tour, abandoning a set list and leaving herself open to the vicissitudes and vagaries of unpredictable audience participation. She laughs blithely:
*A set list! I long for a set list! I long for something structured, but I'm eager to see what happens. I like things to go wrong because you have to draw on that and whatever you draw on within yourself has to be of quality for your audience, and the audience has to do the same.
"There's nothing like being in a bar with a bar band who's been playing together for years and suddenly someone finally makes a mistake. Everyone on stage finally has to come to attention, and the whole room electrifies - and that's physically quite pleasurable. That's not to say that I haven't had nights where I've bombed, but the rewards when things go well are equal and opposite." n

Jane Siberry's Tour Dates:
Roisin Dubh, Galway - November 15th
The Lobby, Cork - November 17th
The Errigle Inn, Belfast - November 18th
Vicar St., Dublin - November 24th