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HEATHER WATERS |
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REGION NATIVE RETURNS TO SHOWCASE NEW CD…
HEATHER WATERSby Ernie Thomas
As always, we try to work through the stack and spin through at least a portion of every disc that comes our way, in the hopes of discovering a lost gem or at the very least, a diamond in the rough.
From the first few notes of “Brown Jacket”, which opens the ten song set from this hitherto unknown West Coast-based artist – Heather Waters – I was captivated.
Waters’ voice drips with a rare and exciting soulfulness. Her vocal delivery is smokey, distinctive and alluring; with each lyric pouring from her lips with conviction and emotion.
The songs on Shadow Of You are very darkly-hued and melancholy. Steel pedal guitar helps to convey the depth of her heart-ache while letting loose with lines like –– “You’re bound to break my eggshell heart” –– from the tune, “Along In Tennessee.”
Recalling a young and less hardened Lucinda Williams at times, Waters’ music and sound would be best termed – “Americana” – as she encapsulates elements of country and blues in large balanced doses. The singer/songwriter adds a tablespoon of bayou swamp water and a healthy pinch of traditional heartland folk as seasoning to this earthy brew concocted since turning to music just over a decade ago.
Though her bio sheet mentions that Waters had honed her talent in the trenches of Nashville and was mentored by the legendary Delbert McClinton, imagine this writer’s surprise to learn that Waters lived her first 19 years of life in “da region”, was a 1990 graduate of Crown Point High School, and had been studying pre-law at Valparaiso University at the time the music bug really bite her hard.
“I was born in Gary, Indiana and grew up in Crown Point High School,” recalled Waters, thrilled to be speaking with “a home town publication” about the journey she has taken with her music.
“I think what really got it started for me with music, was singing in the school production of ‘Godspell’ when I was a senior,” reflected Waters. “That got me pretty fired up.”
Then she went off to school to become a lawyer and the musical fire that started just a year earlier was nearly extinguished by the burden of studies.
But the embers continued to smolder and eventually, re-ignited during a visit to Front Porch Music, a small town musical retail shop/school near the university, where they host open mic nights and all ages folk concerts.
“I first started singing at Front Porch Music,” she continued. “I loved the atmosphere there and got to be very good friends with Jane the owner and a lot of the staff there.”
Waters took the playing music so adamantly over the course of a year’s time, that to her parents dismay, she quit college in 1994, during her junior year.
Moving to Chicago, Waters took a job with Washburn Guitars in their entertainment relations department. Though oddly enough, she admits to not being a guitar player. “Nope, I’m just a singer,” she chides, noting she tours with an accompanist.
“I honestly didn’t know what it would take to get ahead and get my career started,” she remembered. “I met a folk musician named Harvey Reid at Front Porch Music and he invited me to come out to the East Coast to check out the scene there. I liked it and wound up renting a room from him at his house.”
After a while in Bean Town, Waters ventured down to Nashville just after the 9/11 tragedy. There she found a champion in Delbert McClinton, who had heard a copy of her eponymous debut EP and fell in love with her voice.
McClinton invited the young singer to guest on sessions that would ultimately become his Grammy-nominated 2002 release, Room To Breath. She can be seen performing with him in the music video for his song, “Lone Star Blues.”
Waters said it was a “pinch me I’m dreaming” situation when she walked in the sessions and found herself in the company of such other “guests” as –– Joe Ely, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Guy Clark and her personal hero, Emmylou Harris.
Waters became so close with McClinton and his wife, Wendy, that she was invited to live at their home for an extended period while she attempted to forge out her own career.
During that time, thanks to the exposure gained through working on McClinton’s recordings, Waters began getting calls to do sessions with a variety of other established artists, such as Anders Osborne, David Rawlings, Gillian Welch and a side project by Rami Jaffee of The Wallflowers.
Welch, Jaffe and Rawlings returned the favor and have guested in various capacities – from co-writing to playing – on Waters’ Shadow Of You.
Though this album is currently release on her own DIY label, Red Fogg Records, word is that some real labels have caught wind of Waters and are looking closely at the artist. As well they should.
Waters is an amazingly talented singer and a pretty solid songwriter to boot.
How Waters managed to escape the region without most of us hearing about her abilities remains a mystery, but her story should serve as an inspiration for other region talent.
It is unlikely a talent like hers can remain under the radar forever. Just remember when that day comes, that you read about her here first!
More information on this amazing artist: www.heatherwaters.com
Heather Waters performs April 16 at Front Porch Music in Valparaiso, IN and April 17 at Red Line Tap in Chicago |
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This
genre-fusing artist’s first full-length album was one of many which had
casually collected in the “in-box” of promotional CDs in recent weeks
here at the humble confines of Midwest BEAT headquarters.
In
fact, the photo that graces the cover of Shadow Of You, is
of Water’s grandmother and was snapped outside of a Gary, Indiana diner
during the 1930s. A few other images inside the CD booklet were likewise
culled from the family photo album.