TRANSVOCALIZERS — Beth Isbell, Part 1

Beth Isbell is a singer/songwriter who has been musically active for many years, but who will no doubt be a new name to TGForum readers. She lives in Oklahoma, and is originally from Georgia. Her father was in the military, which means the family moved all over the U.S. and even lived in Germany for a while.

Ms. Isbell is best known as a solo artist, but has performed with bands, most notably The Dead Prophets, in the past. Beth has recently released a new album entitled Aardvark. Previous projects include The Good Woman Waltz (2005); Live @ Blue Moon (2008); The Awakening (2008); and the previously mentioned band, The Dead Prophets Live (2008). She also has recordings available from her first two bands: The Flying Lennys Live (2002), and Live Bootleg Recordings from the band Ed (2002).

Beth is also an attorney, whose practice deals with gender rights issues. More on this, along with some great insights, from a very talented and community minded individual who has been gracious enough to submit to our request for an interview. Because of Ms. Isbell’s extensive background as both a singer/songwriter and an attorney, our interview with her will be presented in two parts.

TGForum: When did you first start playing music? Who were your earliest musical influences? And, do you have any formal training?

Beth Isbell: I sort of came at music late in my life. I did pick up a guitar in high school, but quickly lost interest. had college, law school, and a civil rights attorney career to focus on. I really didn’t pick up a guitar again until shortly before I got divorced in the mid ’90s.

I remember my mom and dad giving me and my sister some money to go pick out a record at the PX. My first record. I decided on Neil Diamond’s Hot August NIghts — I liked the picture. My sister suggested that I trade it in for some Beatles. I heard some things on the radio and opted to with Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies, then on to Kiss mania. Eventually after getting to college and regaining my senses, I focused on Led Zeppelin and a lot of what is now classic rock. My guitar playing eventually led me to a love of the blues. So today, I would have to say my favorites are still Led Zeppelin, Clapton, SRV, Buddy Guy, Pink Floyd, System Of A Down, and the other artists listed on my website. It’s funny, looking at it as a guitar player, all of my most favorite bands are ones that re extremely hard to play well. But you do what you can do, so as an artist, I think my style is closer to Lou Reed, David Bowie, or even Neil Young, but I also like to play folk,and love to play the blues.

TGF: Talk a bit about your new release, Aardvark.

BI: I released the Aardvark EP in August, 2009. It’s a collection of six acoustic rock tunes. Five originals and a nice cover of Radiohead’s Creep. I received a very nice review by L.A. based Music Connection magazine. My Texas Music review calls it “…alternative art at its best.” I don’t know about all that, but I do like these songs.

TGF: How old were you when you first started dealing with your gender issues?

BI: I was about 3 or 4. I was taking a bath with my sister and upset that I had different equipment than she had. I remember being taken to a doctor for bed-wetting which was resulting from my urethra exiting partly like a female, and the doctor having to do a minor procedure to correct this. He asked me if I’d rather be a girl. I’m still not sure if this memory is real. I liked dressing up as a girl and even did so for Halloween a few years before my parents decided not to let me do that anymore. I’ve always felt female in many ways, but never have considered myself gay. Is that a bit weird? I do consider myself, even now after my transition, to be bi-sexual.

I tried, like a lot of later developing MtFs to put all this aside, and focus on my school, career, and even getting married. But in my 30s, all that changed when a psychiatrist asked me about these issues and diagnosed me as having gender identity disorder. After that, I began to gradually transition.

TGF: In the long run, how has being transgendered (and transitioning for that matter…) affected your music?

BI: Well, it has definitely made the journey more difficult. It’s harder to find good musicians willing to play with you and initially for fans to accept. All of which just makes me work harder and harder on getting so good, so that eventually it won’t matter. What I’ve noticed about society is that people are willing to overlook differences, even ones they don’t accept, if the work is brilliant. So that’s my focus. Long way to go, but getting closer.

TGF: There’s this great quote on your website: “I am the bastard love child of Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison, except that one day while Jimbo took a trip in the dessert, Janis was in NYC banging Lou Reed. It’s all a little bit fuzzy from there…and yes, I’m definitely a girl..well, currently.” There’s also this: “I’m sort of like Neil Young with female parts”. Your influences seem varied a great deal.

BI: I respect good singers. Some of them have a natural, amazing talent. But you can work on and develop your voice. So there is hope. Joe Cocker is an example. What folks in the audience want more than talent is passion. They want to experience your soul.

I suppose that my musicial tasttes very so dramatically because I think of myself as a songwriter. Great songs draw me in, whatever their genre’. There are a lot of famous artist that would never have been famous if not for the songwriter that wrote their bigtest hit. It’s a passion and obsession.

TGF: I listened to some of your videos. Your voice reminds me of Lou Reed by way of Bob Dylan. Do you have a favorite vocalist? Any favorite female vocalists, besides Janis Joplin?

BI: My voice gets compared to David Bowie and Lou Reed a lot. Some folks that have seen me do blues-rock at live shows, make comparisons to Janis Joplin or Jim Morrison. I guess that’s because I take it another gear sometimes when I’m a full band that’s really rocking and the crowd gets into the mix.

I’ve getting a lot of requests for Janis Joplin tunes lately, so I guess I shold start working on some of her material. Singer-wise, there are so many great ones to pick from, but lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Nina Simone. I also like Nancy Wilson from Heart. Her sister gets all the vocal attention, but Nancy’s a great singer and songwriter, and a really underrated guitar player. I like her style a lot.

TGF: You have another great quote that I like: “…everybody only wants overproduced static perfection…” I love that. It seems to me that for rock at least, most bands are nothing more than a singer/songwriter with a rhythm section. Musicianship doesn’t seem to matter any more. If you want to hear some chops, you’ll have to go to blues or jazz.

BI: Yeah, you see a lot of that. I think what matters is a good song and good delivery of it. Hopefully, with a lot of passion and soul. I don’t agree that good musicianship doesn’t seem to matter anymore. At least where I live, there are way too many really good musicians compared to good venues. The art of the truly good and memorable solo is not nearly as common, except as you say in blues or jazz, but there is still a hook, beat, drive, or something else catchy going on that is making a particular song popular.

But I do worry that the industry doesn’t seem to want to do any hard work anymore. Artist development is largely dead. Now, they want perfection handed to them on a silver platter. If you’re demo is not state of the art, don’t bother. Unless you have 10,000 or more fans who will actually come to a show or buy your latest release, don’t waste our time. The other side of that view is that if we already have that, who needs you? There are very few A&R folks left who have the vision to see beyond the demo packaging.

Part 2 next month. Check out Beth on MySpace.

Category: Music