Janis Ian

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><script type="text/javascript" src="http://hb.lycos.com/hb.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ratings.lycos.com/ratings/lycosRating.js.php"></script> <script type="text/javascript"><![CDATA[//><!]]></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://scripts.lycos.com/catman/init.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-start.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-middle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-end.js"></script> <noscript> <img src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/img/common/ot_noscript.gif?rand=401745" alt="" width="1" height="1" />  <iframe frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" width="728" height="90" src="http://ad.yieldmanager.com/st?ad_type=iframe&ad_size=728x90&section=209094"></iframe>  </noscript> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=125 BGCOLOR="#AAAAAA" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="03c467d1euxmic.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Kristi Singer</b></FONT><B>     </b><B>|     </b><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Kristi Singer"><U><B>home</b></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jamey Graves"><U>Jamey Graves</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jam Pain Society"><U>Jam Pain Society</U></A>   |   <B>Janis Ian</b>   |   <A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jimmy Buffet"><U>Jimmy Buffet</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id124.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Joey McIntyre"><U>Joey McIntyre</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id241.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="John Legend"><U>John Legend</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id112.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Journey"><U>Journey</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id173.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="justincase"><U>justincase</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id214.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jaheim"><U>Jaheim</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#111111" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <A HREF="id16.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writing Samples"><U><B>Back to Articles</b></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=355 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Janis Ian</div> <bR> <div> <B>Janis Ian has played through her pain</b></div> <div> <B>By Kristi Singer</b></div> <div> <I>Star-News Correspondent</I></div> <div> February 21, 2003</div> <bR> <div> Little did Janis Ian know that her thoughts on society at 14 years old would span a lifelong career as an artist. But that's just what Society's Child did.</div> <bR> <div> "It just grew out of what I was seeing going on around me," Ms. Ian said of the album during a phone interview from her Nashville home. "I lived in East Orange, New Jersey, in the height of the civil rights movement, (and) a lot of people were talking about that. That's usually where songs come from - people talking about something, or you're thinking about something and you talk to people about it. Before you know it, you have a song."</div> <bR> <div> Society's Child, which The Associated Press has described as "a white teenager indicting America for its racism and hypocrisy," was released to teh world in 1965. Because of the song's controversial nature, it was banned on radio, but later played after composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein showed support for the artist. Society's Child went to No. 1 and received a Grammy award.</div> <bR> <div> Nine-time Grammy nominee Ms. Ian is on tour in support of her 1999 release, god & the fbi. The title, which seems strangely current to the present state of worldly affairs, was based on the experience of her parents, who were put on the FBI's watch list because of their civil rights activism.</div> <bR> <div> "They were harassed for a really long time," Ms. Ian said. "God and the FBI were the two big presences in my life."</div> <bR> <div> Throughout her career, there seems to be a strong thread tying Ms. Ian to speaking truths about society, something she sees as a gift.</div> <bR> <div> "People said it was just the gift of a big mouth," Ms. Ian joked. "I try and avoid looking at it as a responsibility because I think once you start doing that you start believing your own press. I'm an artist; I'm not a brain surgeon. I express my opinions... I've always avoided looking at it as a calling. I try to look at it more like that's just where my talent happens to lie."</div> <bR> <div> As for what truths are anxious to exit Ms. Ian's mind at the moment, she said she's been thinking lately about the past.</div> <bR> <div> "I've been thinking a lot about lineage, about the importance of knowing your past, how that affects music," Ms. Ian said. "It's an interesting thought because we all have a past - there's no getting around that."</div> <bR> <div> Ms. Ian's past has not always been easy. After a period of high-profile success with Society's Child, At Seventeen (which won her first Grammy award and sold more than a million copies), Aftertones and Night Rains, Ms. Ian disappeared for about 10 years to study acting and get married.</div> <bR> <div> But her marriage ended in divorce, and her accountant deceived her - causing the IRS to go after her for seven years of unpaid taxes. Ms. Ian hit a low, having to sell everything and move to Nashville with only her guitar and the clothes on her back.</div> <bR> <div> To survive the ordeal, Ms. Ian found strength in what she calls "sheer stubbornness."</div> <bR> <div> "There was nothing else I could do," Ms. Ian said. "There's a point where things are going bad, (when) you can either roll over and play dead, or you can say, 'Well, OK, I'm going to live my life anyway.' That's really all you can do. You don't have a lot of options when you're that down."</div> <bR> <div> The struggles helped Ms. Ian "reinvent" herself as a better songwriter, she said. She made a comeback in 1993 with Breaking Silence that earned her another Grammy nomination.</div> <bR> <div> Ms. Ian also faced an inner truth that year - publicly announcing she was gay. Good things seemed to follow - she found a new record label, met her new partner and bought a new home.</div> <bR> <div> Today, Ms. Ian is finding inspiration in being at home and leading a day-to-day life.</div> <bR> <div> She plans to release a double live album in August and her next studio album in March of next year, she said.</div> <bR> <div> An award-winning musician and songwriter, poet, writer and true artist at heart, Ms. Ian can't really put her finger on what continues to inspire her daily to be such a creative force.</div> <bR> <div> "If I knew that I would bottle it," Ms. Ian said. "I really don't know. It's hard for me to not work because so much of what I do doesn't feel like work. I'm so lucky that someone would pay me to do something I would do anyway."</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>