Catie Curtis Reconnects
by Shauna Swartz, October 19, 2006
Catie Curtis was first signed to a major label 11 years ago and has been touring and playing for more than 15, and though she hasn't become a household name like Shawn Colvin or Paula Cole, she has quite a following among lesbian fans of folk-rock. Earlier this year, she and Mark Erelli won the grand prize at this year's prestigious International Songwriting Competition for co-writing the song “People Look Around,” which appears on her latest album, Long Night Moon.
Now 41, she lives outside of Boston with her partner of 10 years, Liz, whom she married last year. They have two daughters: Lucy, 4, and Celia, 2. Last December the couple was awaiting Celia's arrival via an international adoption, a complicated process with a timeline over which they had little control. “That kind of passive waiting and longing is a hard thing for me, and unfamiliar,” Curtis says.
That experience was the basis for the title of Curtis' recently released 10th album, Long Night Moon. The phrase designates the time of year when nights are at their longest and darkest — a lunar calendar reference roughly corresponding to the month of December.
“It's the month that's almost completely dark, and then when you have this full, bright moon, it offers a little bit of hope,” Curtis says. Patience versus frustration and longing, she adds, are running themes on Long Night Moon.
The album as a whole reflects an outlook that Curtis attributes to being a parent. “I've always been a realistic, practical optimist,” she says, “but I think before I had kids it was really OK with me to accept that, possibly sooner than later, humankind was destined to destroy itself. Having kids has made me more invested in trying to prevent that from happening.”
She continues: “People can be so greedy, but I also think there's potential for the world to become a more sustainable place to live in if enough people get on board with that. And I have more hope that that's possible now, simply because I want it more and I care about it more now that I have these kids in my life.”
The album's songs address the urge to reconnect — whether with a partner or the world — in a better way. A good example of this is “People Look Around,” which was written in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“It came out of an intense frustration with the political process,” Curtis says of the song, which includes the lines: “If they can keep us fighting about marriage and God/There'll be no one left to notice if our leaders do their jobs.”
“At the time,” Curtis recalls, “I thought, maybe this will be a galvanizing moment when people understand that the government is too distracted by things like gay marriage and war to be taking care of people, which really is the job of government.”
Curtis and Mark Erelli, with whom she co-wrote the song, shot video for it on location in New Orleans, and it is available on Curtis' website and MySpace page, and on YouTube. Erelli also sings harmony and plays acoustic and electric guitar throughout the album.
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