by Ernie Thomas

Whether fronting the Ripley Caine Experience (with keyboardist Otto Roeser and drummer Jim Gifford), or playing as “just a girl with a guitar” in a smokey coffeehouse somewhere, singer/songwriter/guitarist/bandleader, Ripley Caine captivates an audience with a cache of songs that are drawn from real life experiences that, like life itself, are often dark and disturbing.    

 “Every show I do is a little different, because I am constantly writing,” she said.  “Some of the stuff [performed] is stuff I have recorded and some of it is new stuff I’ve just written.”

 Caine and her music are anything but cliche’.     “It’s not your typical singer/songwriter stuff,” mused Caine of her live show.  “It’s much more interesting.  I don’t sing about the whales and rainbows an all that.”

 Like so many headstrong artists in who strive to be unique in today’s cookie-cutter music business, Caine has little interest in signing with a major label.  “That used to be the dream for artists years back maybe, but it’s not what it’s cracked up to be,” she said.   “I’m more interested in continuing to do my own thing as an independent.”

 Helping other female musicians “do their own thing” is also important to Caine. She has spent the last three years on the board of “Women In Rock,” which is a national organization (www.womeninrock.org) that promotes women musicians and female-fronted bands, and assists them with various aspects of the music business -- management, bookings and networking.

 Playing guitar since age eight, after her parents declined to buy her the drum kit she had originally begged for, Caine is a self-taught musician.   

At age 14, she was holding her own in an all original R&B/funk group that consisted of much older musicians.   Once she secured a driver’s license and became mobile, Caine went exploring the coffeehouses and clubs of her native Northside and began establishing herself on the scene as a soloist. 

 “I wrote songs back when I was 13 and 14, but it was the kind of pure ‘cheese’ you would expect from a 14-year-old writing songs.  I started to really get focused a few years later,” said the graduate of Lane Tech High School, who pursued a video production degree before her passion for music consumed her entirely.

  “Believe it or not, competition in video is tougher and even more cut-throat than in the music business,” she said.  “I can’t say I chose this as my career, because it more or less chose me.” 

 Caine has begun touring a lot in the last couple of years and now regularly plays gigs throughout the Midwest and into the Southern states.  

 “The only way to get your music heard is to get out and play for people,” she said.  “I’d like to spend a lot more time touring and hope that happens sometime soon.”   Preventing that is something called “reality,” which requires that Caine pays bills like the rest of us.   “I’m a bookkeeper by day so that I can eat and pay rent,” she laughed.

 If nothing else, Caine’s experiences keeping ledgers and as a video production major will serve her considerably once the “big break” comes her way.   

Perhaps that time is coming soon, as more and more people are starting to take notice of her music.   Caine’s latest CD –– Lover –– was released last October via Sweet Pickle Music, a multi-artist independent imprint.   That is a step up from her last two releases –– Corvair and Thrift Store Sweater –– which Caine financed and hawked on her own.  All of her CDs are available [including sample music clips] on her website: www.ripleycaine.com

 Caine has been invited to perform and fared well in several notable music festivals and conferences in the last year and a half –– including SXSW, Rockrgrrl, Ladyfest Midwest and Grrlfest. 

 She has also performed as some of Chicagoland’s top venues –– Double Door, Abbey Pub, Elbo Room, Subterranean, Martyrs, etc. –– and opened shows for national acts, including indie rocker Michelle Malone and comedienne, Margaret Cho.

  “The plan is to just keep playing as much as I can in as many places as I can until it does!”  

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