Phoebe Legere
Phoebe Legere is a multi-instrumentalist - singer/songwriter who resides in New York City. Having lineage of Acadian and Native American descent, Phoebe comes from a musical family that carries old traditions back many centuries. As a young girl, she started playing musical beats with spoons and soon moved on to the piano, accordion and the guitar. Her repertoire encompasses thousands of songs and can keep audiences entertained - just like a multi-genre public radio station. She has performed in many prestigious theater venues and top music clubs throughout her career. Her parents were involved in the visual art industry so she is also a very accomplished and talented artist. Phoebe believes in helping underprivileged kids and gives back to community through an organization she founded called the Foundation for New American Art. She has just released a new CD entitled "Heart of Love" which brings her back to her acoustic Americana roots. I talked with Phoebe about the new collection of songs and her colorful life experiences.
R.V.B. - Hello Phoebe. What a nice voice you have.
P.L. - Thank you. I like your voice too.
R.V.B. - How are you enjoying this wonderful weather that we're having in the northeast?
P.L. - It's gorgeous. I love it.
R.V.B. - Where do you live?
P.L. - I'm in the east village. Where do you live Rob?
R.V.B. - I'm right outside Port Jefferson.
P.L. - I love that town. It's very unspoiled. I know a lot of musicians that live there. I used to do quite a bit of recording there. I recorded some jingles there.
R.V.B. - It is a very nice town. I was looking at your resume and I was impressed on how diverse you are in the arts.
P.L. - Thank you.
R.V.B. - You have a new album out "Heart of Love". I loved the style and feel of it. It had an Americana feel. I listened to all of the songs. You play a lot of different instruments on it.
P.L. - That's right. I play seven instruments.
R.V.B. - How did you come to get the title of the album?
P.L. - The song that I wrote called "Heart of love" is the opening track. I spend a lot of time touring now. I used to make a very good living... I was eating and had a roof over my head. I used to make this living playing the piano in the different restaurants of New York. I play by ear and I know thousands of songs, from all different era's. I used to be able to eat for free and people would buy me drinks and throw money at me. Then suddenly the real estate in New York became so pricy. Every inch was so valuable and they took the grand pianos out of the restaurants. Then I began to carry my own keyboards and I'd bring in some other instruments as well… But now it sounded different because it wasn't a singer- grand pianist. Everybody still loved it and because of this change, people began to invite me to play in other places... bigger places. It grew and grew, and is still growing. The circle of people that know me is getting wider and wider. This CD is very much a return to the acoustic music that I love. It's not that I don't love rock and roll. I can play pretty tough rock and roll guitar, and I've have had punk bands. For someone who truly loves music, when you can hear every part and hear the virtuosity and the skill of the players - other than just volume - It's beautiful... almost like chamber music. You're able to hear all of the parts. You have to listen again and again to hear what different people are playing.
R.V.B. - You can never really get the total feeling of an album by only listening to it once. I only had a chance to listen to your once so far.
P.L. - At least you listened. Very often people look at pictures of me and think that they understand who I am... just by looking at the photographs. Of course, your physical appearance has nothing to do with what's going on - on the inside. Thank you for listening.
R.V.B. - No problem. I like the Americana style of music and I know where you were coming from with your album. Your name is from French descent...
P.L. - We came from France 400 years ago. I descended from a guy that was a drummer who worked for Louis the XIV. He worked there right in Versailles…next thing we know, he was in Canada. I am also part Native American.
R.V.B. - Your first exposure to music in sure was through your family. What instrument did you start off with?
P.L. - I started off playing the spoons. Then I also started playing the accordion. It wasn't common at all. It was like a musical pariah. I loved the sound of the accordion. I also started off playing the piano. As soon as I could reach up and touch the keys... when I was three years old.
R.V.B. - Did you grow up in the north?
P.L. - I grew up in the north but I had a lot of family in the country part of Louisiana... Crowley. It was just outside of Lafayette. There was always Legere's there. We would go down and stay with our cousins in the summer. We would also go up to Canada and stay with our cousins in New Brunswick. The Acadian center was a very poor part of New Brunswick.
R.V.B. - It still must have been a wonderful place to visit as a child.
P.L. - I feel so blessed. But in those days we were considered to be the lower class - - by the high class people in Quebec. They looked down on the Acadians. People in France looked down on the Cajuns. They called them "coonass", which is French slang for degolasse. They heard them speaking this French that sounded so different from Parisian French In Canada we call it Chiac. It’s actually very beautiful. But, socially, we were on the bottom. This is what happens Rob. Thank God with the embrace of cultural diversity, people now realize how cool we are and everyone now loves us.
R.V.B. - In the past people didn't understand the way other people lived. Once they do figure it out, they learn to embrace it and like it. Being that your family was talented, I'm sure that helped.
P.L. - Everywhere I go Rob they have all kinds of pre-conceived misogynist ideas about me. I just read an article in Forbes magazine that people judge you in .019 percentages of a nanosecond. A nanosecond is so short, you don't even know what it is. It's less than a moment. When they see that I have long blonde hair... they see that I have long legs... all that physical stuff. They just assume that I'm dumb and they're mean to me.
R.V.B. - That's not very nice.
P.L. - That's not very nice but people have been mean to women for a very long time... many thousands of years. They treated us as "less than”...being a girly girl brings a stigma. Then when they hear me play the piano and sing, they want to be my friend.
R.V.B. - That's what the arts do.
P.L. - Yes. The arts show what's on the inside of the human.
R.V.B. - So as you were learning your instruments as a young girl, did you have any particular style of music that you liked?
P.L. - Oh yes Rob, I liked African-American funk... blues... hip hop... I loved the groove... Rob. I descended from that French drummer. I like Native American drum circles too... pow wow drums. There's a lot of rip off in the culture these days. Nobody's got any ideas. I'll come right out and say "I learned everything from other people". I learned everything from my family, the Acadians... my family the native Americans... and black people who were very much a part of our Native American community. We mixed in with them. We were all on the same lower rungs on the social ladder.
R.V.B. - American people didn't handle this situation very well but the African American community really contributed to the art community.
P.L. - Their contribution is what makes American music one of the greatest cultural treasures. I did some paintings for Presidents day of American presidents and their African-American girlfriends that they owned.
R.V.B. - I looked at them and saw some of your other pieces of art and it appears that you're not afraid to take chances.
P.L. - I'm fearless Rob. Fearless and funky.
R.V.B. - You aren't afraid to take chances with your music either.
P.L. - I'm playing a gig in Teaneck on March 5th. It's a benefit for the sacred Lenape cliffs of the Palisades. They are threatened by development. The names of the cliffs was called "Weehawken". Of course, it's now the name of a town but the meaning is cliffs that look like trees.
R.V.B. - They are beautiful. I make a point to stop sometimes when I'm driving on the Palisades parkway.
P.L. - It was a haven for people traveling up and down the Hudson for 10,000 years. You can live - I mean be naturally sheltered from the elements all in and around the palisades. There are people who live in there, in the caves and nooks and crannies all summer long and there are very good places to dock your canoe. See? you can get shelter from the rain there.
R.V.B. - The north shore of Long Island has some cliffs on the Long Island Sound.
P.L. - I wrote a song called "Long Island Sound". It was with my band Monad. We used to play at Deks in Shoreham, when we were 15 years old.
R.V.B. - Oh Deks. It's still there and I actually played there myself recently.
P.L. - You did?. We would drive out there and they loved us. That was when the nuclear reactor was there. I wrote this environmental song "Long Island Sound". I have been very influenced by the Long Island Sound. I lived in Greenport for a couple of years.
R.V.B. - What a beautiful town that is.
P.L. - I just loved it. I love the North Fork.
R.V.B. - Sound Avenue is one of the most beautiful roads on the planet.
P.L. - Yes. The farms going right down to the water.
R.V.B. - It's filled with wineries now and still has that New England charm.
P.L. Those people are very nice to keep those wineries rather than develop the land. Organic wine is the way to go though. I wrote a song called "I'm getting high on local wine". It is about the Long Island Wineries and the sexy Long Island boys.
R.V.B. - I understand you played at Stephen Talkhouse last year in Southampton.
P.L. - I did. They are begging me to come back because I bring in the crowds. They did such good business. Folks were swinging from the rafters. When I sang "I'm getting high on local wine", people went crazy. People love my on Long Island. That is because there has always been a strong live music culture on Long Island tied to the many immigrant populations that settled there…I’m talking about beautiful Polish, Italian, Greek and Spanish sea loving, nature loving music loving people.
R.V.B. - One thing about the new album I noticed was that you are basically a songster. You tell stories in your songs.
P.L. - Thank you Rob. That's absolutely true. It's a huge part of my Acadian country background. My father was a great story teller. We are descendants from the Abenaki tribe of Maine, on both sides of the family. They're great story tellers. We're descended from Madakwando…a famous Abenaki Shaman. We heal through stories. Imagine being in Maine and you're very cold. You're living in a wigwam that is covered with snow, and is made of bark. You're in there all winter long. You hop out in your snow shoes every once in a while to catch a rabbit. You have no TV... you have no radio. "You tell stories". It's a huge part of who I am.
R.V.B. - I made a note on some of the songs that stood out to me - on your CD - on my first listen. The first one that I checked off was "Mama". I thought that had a very nice story.
P.L. - Ohhhh... that was a true story. It's very strong. If I had $100,000 for production I could tear your heart out with that take. It's just me playing an accordion and a little guitar. I just turned on the tape recorder and sang it. A simple homemade production of a song about home.
R.V.B. - The words got into me.
P.L. - I mean it.
R.V.B. - The second one that I checked was a track that seemed to take a different perspective on a Honky Tonk Bar.
P.L. - (Hahaha) "Wrong Honky Tonk" A lot of people are starting to spin this song. They're comparing it to "Achy Breaky Heart", which I think is insane. People are starting to spin it. The Hells Angels are picking up on it…
R.V.B. - Well they have good taste.
P.L. - Hahaha. I was sitting here and the word just popped into my head. I was playing my guitar and it just came to me hook, line, and sinker. "My heart was broken but my truck still worked. I drove away in a cloud of dirt." I have an old 150 Ford truck. There are a lot more verses that didn't make it on there, and a lot of swears that I do in public. I wanted to get a clean rating with no expletives. I If you want to go to the big time, you can't talk that way that you talk on the street.
R.V.B. - Swearing in music attracts the 18 to 24 year old crowd.
P.L. - Yes. But then again….There are people in the 18 to 24 year old group that are loving Americana. They are growing beyond machine made hip hop and house music. They are now appreciating stories, playing and singing. That is why Americana is gaining traction. It is because of this younger audience getting into it.
R.V.B. - You would think that it's an American heartland type of music but it's popular everywhere... even in Brooklyn.
P.L. - That's right. That's the way music is, it grows and it changes. Hip hop came in and it was huge because people craved deep groove. In heavy metal, you had everything on the top: the incredible guitar playing, the unbelievable costumes, and the incredible high tenor singing. But you didn't have that deep relaxed groove that humans need - going at the heart beat rate - 90BPM. Hip hop and house music took over and have ruled basically for my whole adult life... most of my childhood also. It's like fashion, one minute the décolletage... cleavage is in. One minute the girls are wearing skirts way up to their genitals. Then presto-change-o: Now they're going to show another body part. They're bringing the skirts long and they show the tits again. There is a little bit of a move to show the behind. Times change and it's just fashion. So I'm telling you, right now Americana is hot.
R.V.B. - It is! Getting back to my number three choice on the album. I am a big Hank Williams fan and I noticed from your heritage that it would be a perfect cover song to mix in on an album like this. I enjoyed your version of "Jambalaya".
P.L. - Thank you very much. That was recorded at Tony Bennett's son's studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. The band that was with me on that is basically Shania Twain's band. We were in there recording something for another artist... I was just a side man. This girl left, and we just started to jam on Jambalaya for fun. It was spontaneous. Dae Bennett pressed record. He's singing on that too. Dae is a great talent.
R.V.B. - For something that was just a jam, you put a very unique take on it.
P.L. - Hank Williams was such an incredible person and spellbinding performer. He and his publisher Mr. Rose, used to rip off old Cajun tunes and old gospel tunes, to make Hank's songs. Not that Hank needed to do that, but to sell millions of records it's got to sound like something else. For Jambalaya they ripped off a great song called "Grand Texas", which means big Texas. A lot of the Cajun's at that time went to Texas to work in the oil fields. The Hackberry Ramblers had a little hit in French called "Grand Texas". That is the original song….I’m singing some of that over Jambalaya which is the “Copy cat brand.” I didn't know that Dave was recording us so I was just having fun. They're spinning that version on a station called "H.A.N.K.", out of Bishopville South Carolina. That's the heart of the deep south. The guy called me up and said "I usually don't play anything but vintage country but I loved this so much that I'm adding it to my playlist." I was so honored.
R.V.B. - On my next choice, I was a little taken back and maybe slightly confused by "New York Nightmare".
P.L. - Hahaha. For some people this song is a great favorite. I put it deep in the album because it may not be as accessible at first listen. I did go to Juilliard, and you really hear me playing the piano and singing on that track. I live on the 6th floor in a slum. I'm looking over at the roofs - right now - of New York City. Why am I here? I hate it, but I love it. It is a beautiful Nightmare. I’m totally a country person. I have land in Maine. I think about myself as a country girl. I came to New York City, because in the days before Youtube, you had to come to New York to get the music from the black people. The jazz and funk were huge in New York City. I studied with some of the great teachers such as John Lewis of The Modern Jazz Quartet. I ran away from home and I lived on the street since I was 15. The white musicians would not let me play with them... they put me down. All they wanted was to have sex with me. The black musicians (sigh) taught me. They taught me the secret chords and rhythms that I needed to be funky. You have to have someone show you. You have to have a mentor. You can't get ahead without a mentor. If you don't have a mentor, your music will be forever superficial. You will be in servitude. You will have to let someone who really knows the music deal, take the helm. If you get the secret science of music - which takes years, and years, and years of practice and concentrated discipline - you will never have to be a slave of a producer. So I attached myself to some of the greatest black musicians like: John Lewis, Gil Coggins, Don Cherry, BoBo Shaw…so many brilliant friends - It was an incredible system of jam sessions, and being an acolyte, which is someone who carries the flame for the priest. It's like taking on a Rabbi and learning Judaism. You have to learn Hebrew to really understand the religion. That requires a lot of time. You can do the rituals but you have to learn the sacred language. The spirituality is encoded in those words. It's more than just the surface, it's secret numbers that tell you the laws. There are laws of music just like there are laws of Judaism. I learned that from the black people. The white people would not teach me because I was woman. At that time, female instrumentalists were not welcome... when I was 15. I'm talking about the 80's.
R.V.B. - There were a lot of different types of music going on in the 80's. There was the downtown scene... the funk scene...
P.L. - I was in the downtown scene. Punk had kind of disappeared and CBGB's was taken over by the record companies. The punk years were over. By the time I came in it was called "New Wave". It was a type of dance rock. My first band was Monad. We combined folk music, electronica, funk, jazz and new classical. I was signed to Epic Records at age 16. Monad was New Wave and New Romantic. They didn't know what to do with me. They held me. It was terrible to be in the belly of the beast. They wouldn't let me perform. They held me for three years. I did perform of course. That’s how I made my living. It was just a terrible thing to be in that corporation... the musical and sexual abuse. You can read about the time period in Walter Yetnikoff's book "Howling at the Moon". He's the one who signed me to Epic. It will just curl your teeth... that's what we say in the country. It's just unbelievable. Walter has since gotten sober and he's redeemed himself.
R.V.B. - The fact that you did do this and you through yourself into this world and with the background of music that you already had, this had to enhance your musical skills.
P.L. - No doubt about it. I learned a tremendous amount from being on the same label with Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, - Cyndi Lauper had just kind of crashed and burned. The whole new wave thing was a very interesting time but the music could have been so much better if they had just let the music and the musicians be who they were, instead of trying to control it. At that time, they'd come in... they'd take someone and try to remove everything that makes them different and then cosmetically reapply some kind of a veneer of originality. Taking something real and then whitewashing it to try to break it down to zero. Then reapply what you think looks cool and original.
R.V.B. - They manipulated a ton of musicians that way. They still do it.
P.L. - They're still at it. I will never mention any names.
R.V.B. - Going down the list further, I couldn't help but like Cajun Moon. It was unusual with the different languages.
P.L. - How about when I change the channel? I start off singing Piaf style as a waltz. Then I change the channel and switch to the Cajun thing. I put it near the end of the album to try and hide it. Hahaha
R.V.B. - It didn't hide from me. I really liked it. Hahaha It had an unusual feel and sound.
P.L. - That's real Cajun drumming. Plus I added spoons and washboard.
R.V.B. - How did you come up with that idea?
P.L - It came about gradually. I had the idea that I was in a hurricane. (Speaks French) I had lost everything. (French) It's black and cold. (French) There's nothing in front of me. I've been in many hurricanes. They're happening more and more. Then I was thinking that I was a single mother, and I had two children. I was imagining that in the dark we all go to the church to be safe - because the mobile home got blown down - and I meet Johnny Boudreaux. He takes us on an alligator ride. I'm bopping up and down on the alligator with Johnny as he's wearing his cowboy hat. We're drinking bourbon out of to-go cup. Then we get married. I speak of the water in the bayou -our kisses are sweet and salty - it's both fresh and salt water. It was kind of an erotic dream that came to me about some of those guys that like wild animals. You know those guys.
R.V.B. - I'm one of them.
P.L. - What do you like?
R.V.B. - I feed the wild birds on a daily basis and there are many varieties species that visit my back deck.
P.L. - What kind of birds come by?
R.V.B. - Well there's starlings, blue jays, junco's, cardinals, sparrows, chickadees, titmice, towhees, robins, mockingbirds, woodpeckers, blackbirds and many other types. I've fox in my back yard. I love wild animals. I have a dog and three cats.
P.L. - What kind of a dog?
R.V.B. - A Dachshund. Heidi is a long hair and a definite head turner.
P.L. - I love them.
R.V.B. - I see that you've performed or shared the stage with artists such as: Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, Steve Martin and David Bowie.
P.L. - I opened for David on his "Sound+Vision" national tour in 1991.
R.V.B. - Very cool. What are some highlights of your performances through the years?
P.L. - I hold the Guinness book of world records for the highest performance of "La Vie en Rose" - which I played in Tibet at 18,000 ft - at one of the most sacred mountains of Tibetan Buddhism. I had to drive for three days on a bad road, hike for three days, and then finally I couldn't breathe, so they put me on a donkey with my accordion. I was visiting a Tibetan Shaman at the time. I was on a National Geographic expedition. I was trying to find out if the rural Tibetan's had songs and iconography was related to my tribe... the Abenaki. We are descended from the Mongolians that came across the Bering Strait and there are many similarities of iconography, music and culture. In the process, I found myself singing La Vie en Rose. I was staying in a yak hut on the side of a mountain at 18,000 ft. In the Tibetan world, at the end of every dinner, everybody sings a song and then dances in a circle... it's just what you do. I sang La Vie En Rose standing on a glacier. It was the highest performance ever of La Vie en Rose.
R.V.B. - Now that's hard to top.
P.L. - Hahaha. It's impossible to top. The Tibetan's were just the nicest people. They have an idea that everyone you meet is the reincarnation of your mother in some past life. So you have to treat everyone with the deference and the kindness that you would treat your mother. That's one of my top experiences-Tibet. Another great experience is that I moved in with Hunter S. Thompson in Woody Creek high in Rockies. He was so fun and such a doll, but he suffered from the disease of very bad alcoholism and addiction. Hunter took me to dinner parties with his friends…all very intelligent Colorado people. He would say "Don't bring your guitar, it'll just get them started." I of course brought the guitar. He seemed to have a love hate thing about music and yet his writing was incredibly musical and he would listen with almost insane intensity whenever I started to sing. Sometimes I played music of his generation because I can be a people pleaser that way. That would be like the Woodstock music and Bob Dylan. He knew all those people..and he was friends with Keith Richards and Lyle Lovett. There is a YouTube video of me singing for Hunter. I consider Hunter to be a peak experience. I just loved him so much. That's what music is for. Music is really a sexual display. If you think that music is spiritual - yeah it is - God's listening. But the reason you practice a million hours is because you're hoping to get laid.
R.V.B. - That's why most every young male starts to play the guitar.
P.L. - They have done scientific studies. A guy shown with a guitar - which is a phallic signifier - in other words, looks like a very big dick sticking out. Women who are shown a picture without a guitar and a guy with a guitar, think that the guy with the guitar is more attractive. Duh!
R.V.B. - We'll that's why us men start playing guitar. From a woman's perspective, why would you be drawn to that?
P.L. - I started playing a number of instruments at the age of three. Infantile sexuality exists but we don't know that much about it. In fact infants are the sexiest people in the world. They always have their legs up in the air and they're smiling. That's the age that I started so I was probably trying to get attention from my parents... which was not too successful. But that's neither here nor there. By the time I realized that I was never going to get their attention, I was off and running. I realized I could get the attention from other people. Men and women. The women like to see me play the guitar... they go nuts. The men - (sigh) - you don't have to do that much to get a man aroused. All you have to do is be the center of attention and the men are aroused. That's the way the male sexuality is wired. Whatever they can't have, they want.
R.V.B. - Well you're obviously a very attractive looking woman, so you attract a lot of men.
P.L. - Why thank you Rob.
R.V.B. - With the fact that as a performer you are the center of attention, does that make you feel good as a performer?
P.L. - That's an interesting question. My mother was a great beauty... unbelievable. Once she met a woman who was supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the world. The woman said to my mother "God, you're beautiful." My mother said "Thank you." I said "Mommy, how does it feel to be so beautiful, walking around the world having everyone tell you how beautiful you are?" She said "It's kinda fun." But I am not a narcissist. I'll tell you what gives me intense pleasure. It's finishing a song and having it reach somebody. Having somebody say "I understand what you're saying." Like you did when you picked the song "Mama" first. When people like one of my songs - it is great…makes you feel like maybe you haven’t wasted your whole life… I've heard from so many people "Wow, you really play your ass off." and that’s cool… but when somebody appreciates a finished artwork... and says like "I understand what you made there." (whispering) That gives me a lot of pleasure.
R.V.B. - It's the best thing in the world.
P.L. - It's the best thing in the world.
R.V.B. - You can play for 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden but if you touch one person in someone's living room and they say I really love that song... that's the best thing in the world. What you said is something that I know but a lot of people don't know that who aren't musicians.
P.L. - They don't really get it, unfortunately. Now that music is not being taught in schools. People don't understand music now as well as we did when we were kids. I had chorus twice a week in my public school.
R.V.B. - The public schools out here still carry music programs.
P.L. - In New York 80 percent of the kids have no music and no art. That's why I founded my organization for New American Art. This is the greatest thing in my life. The kids are no bullshit and they're all brilliant. I don't know how we get these stupid adults because the kids are all phenomenal. Not everybody appreciates all of the kids. What I find is, emotional problems, manic behavior, the craziest kids are the most riveting on stage, and the most fascinated by music. It is the best medicine. I’m sure I would have died a long time ago if I didn't have my art and music keeping me sane.
R.V.B. - Did you teach yourself how to draw and paint?
P.L. - My mother and father were painters. I did my first oil painting before I was 5. My grandparents were musicians and my parents both played but their number one passion was visual art. They were both intensely strong. My mother was a ball busting bitch and I worshiped the ground she walked on. My father was an extremely nice guy. They were both super-talented in drawing. They taught me how to draw. They were very strict with me. I think I developed my music because it was a place where they couldn't really follow me. They couldn't get in there and criticize me or tell me how to do it. I found freedom in my music. They were very controlling. I loved my mother but she wanted it her way at all times. Maybe Aspergers or even a touch of Autism? Very cold. We now know that that thing is not good for children. Children need so much love and so many hugs. So much affirmation... In those days people didn't understand that you gotta love your kids. (haha) I left home at 15 and have been badly abused, beaten and raped... many times. But I found my thing. I found a place that was beautiful, gentle and loving, and that was my artistic community. I made a community of people around me who love what I love... and it keeps me alive.
R.V.B. - Your story is amazing. Your visual art and the paintings that you make have a variety of subjects, including adult material. You have an expressive talent.
P.L. - I think it's very interesting to see people fucking. You can see all the muscles. I can paint and draw the nude bodies of men and women in any position I want. Michelangelo loved to paint and draw people wrestling because it showed the push and pull of the muscles. Men and women screwing is depicted in Indian art on their temples. The Gods are doing it. This is how the world is made. It's only in America where it's a problem. On Facebook, you're not even allowed to show a naked female... the most beautiful thing in the world.
R.V.B. - They'll shut you right down. My point was that you weren't afraid to take chances with your artwork. One thing about the visual arts is you want to make an impression and make the viewer have to take notice.
P.L. - I think that's true in the art world... the blue chip gallery system. I think many artists are trying hard to shock. That would not be true of me. I'm outside the system. I make my living as a musician and not from my visual art. Of course I'm always delighted to make a sale but it's really just a thing to do because I love to do it. I HAVE to do it. (whispering) I love it. I just had a piece selected for the Whitney Houston Biennial. It is 2 nude cowgirls.
R.V.B. - I think your art talent is just as strong as your music.
P.L. - You are absolutely right, these people are doing shocking things just to get attention. I'm doing these nudes because I love the human body. I love the muscles and the bones. I love the female body and when men are young, they look great too. There's a few old people that keep it for a while. David Amram said “You are as old as you make people feel" Don’t you love it? David and I just performed together at the recent Northeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference-NERFA. We performed his song from "Pull my Daisy". The lyrics were written by Jack Kerouac. David was a good friend of Kerouac. We improvised on it. He's like a Rabbi.
R.V.B. - He's a very interesting man. One thing I give him credit for is that he is not a spring chicken and he goes out of it balls to the wall.
P.L. - Yes.
R.V.B. - He's relentless... he doesn't give up.
P.K. - He loves music. The thing about music is... a lot of these musicians keep going to a hundred.
R.V.B - Yes there are no rules to age and there are no rules to what is considered music, like Pauline Oliveros playing an apple crate and calling it music.
P.L. - I love what she did with the Deep Listening. She was a great accordionist too. She was an early female composer that started at the Tape Institute. She was a very close colleague of Morton Subotnick. He was one of my composition teachers.
R.V.B. - You have had a fascinating career up to this point. I'm looking forward to promoting your album.
P.L. - I'm playing The Turning Point in Piedmont New York on May 12th. I'm always coming up with musical thoughts so keep in touch.
R.V.B. - I will. Thank you for your time.
Interview conducted by Robert von Bernewitz
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For more information on Phoebe Legere visit her website www.phoebelegere.org
Special thanks to Anne Leighton
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