Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Posted: 05 Nov 2011
Janis Ian
Stockton ARC
1 November 2011
Once described as ‘America’s best singer’ by Ella Fitzgerald, Grammy Award winner Janis Ian’s singing is indeed superb but it’s perhaps secondary to her talents as a songwriter. On her own career Ian said: “I wrote my first song when I was 12, had it published at 13, made my first record when I was 14, had a hit at 15 and was a ‘has been’ by the time I was 16.”
Now 60, Janis has a firm following of people who have admired her work since the decade she has now reached in age. Having once toured with Jimi Hendrix, Janis relayed the tale of how a radio station was burned down after playing her song ‘Society’s Child’ at the height of the Civil Rights campaign. Her songs deal with love – every kind of love: love of life, unrequited love and love between mother and daughter just for starters.
While many of Ian’s songs are deeply serious, she’s not averse to spicing them with humour, not least in the tale of her marriage in Canada to her long-term female partner and the fact that once the couple returned to their home in Nashville they found themselves ‘living in sin’ despite being married.
Finishing with the classic ‘At 17’ an appreciative audience at Stockton’s excellent ARC Arts Centre brought Janis back for two encores, the latter being the much-loved ‘Fly Too High.’
A storyteller who leads seamlessly into her songs, Janis Ian invariably in my experience has her audience in the palm of her hand. Her material is designed to make you think. The fact that a 60-year-old who in her own words was a ‘has been’ at 16 has continued to write and perform despite rarely registering highly on a mass market audience shouldn’t surprise you. Like all great artists Janis Ian really means what she does.
Rob Mason
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