>>PREVIEW
SAFFIRE: THE UPPITY BLUES WOMEN
Friday, April 7
Dalhousie Community Centre
Saturday, April 8
Braeside Community Centre
Sunday, April 9
Banff Centre
At first glance, Andra Faye’s career seems like any other in the music business – you excel on your instrument, you’ve learned from some of the greats in the business, and now you play with one of the most popular bands in the industry. That, however, is where the "usual" story ends. Faye has many other interests in her life, and though they seem disparate, this member of the musical group Saffire: The Uppity Blues Women, makes it all gel.
Take, for example, that Faye was trained as a registered nurse and she holds a current nursing license. What’s that got to do with music?
"I do think that music for me is definitely an outlet for finding the beauty in life," says Faye. "Especially when I was working day to day as a nurse, it was so nice to have something where people were happy, people weren’t sick. In fact, I really do think that music for me, especially as part of Saffire, is certainly a part of that healing process because people come up to us all the time and say that our music has gotten them over horrible, horrible things in their lives. It is really true, so I do get that same sense of helping people."
Faye laughs as she continues, "Nobody yet, you know, has gotten sick or died at a concert, so that’s a wonderful thing."
The creative outlets Faye refers to could easily be interpreted as an understatement. Since joining Saffire in 1992, and playing fiddle, bass, mandolin and guitar for the band, this Indianapolis native has continued to pursue other talents. Faye is well-known for her skills as a watercolour painter and stained glass artist. These, like nursing, have grown through and because of the music.
"There was a time in my life," says Faye, "when we were touring so much that I’d come home and I just wouldn’t feel like playing. You know, your fingers are sore, you’re just kinda tapped out, so that’s when I found a little space of time to learn to do stained glass…. It was really nice to be able to create something not musical and also just to be able to enjoy listening to music while you’re doing it. I think it taps into that and it was just so nice to you know feel like, ‘Oh yeah, there are other pieces in me that are creative, too.’"
Add these pursuits to Faye’s current interest in songwriting and you have a full plate. In a group where most of the songs are written by Gaye Adegabalola and the rest by Anne Rabson, Faye’s songwriting has only been occasional. That’s something she wants to change.
"I actually released just a solo project, a six-song CD and it had four originals on it. For me, that’s pretty good, you know," she says. "They sit and simmer a long time for me, they don’t just pour out. I try to remind myself to keep writing and not just wait for it to come because sometimes you have to nudge it along."
Laughter is also a prerequisite for membership in Saffire, which is legendary for its raunchy and double-entendre songs.
"We choose obscure things, or things that we can make sound different, like Gaye recorded a popular country song ‘Prop me up Beside the Jukebox.’ Yeah, things that make you go ‘Huh, are they doing that?’ We like to make people, you know, turn their heads."
Now celebrating Saffire’s almost 20 years in the business, Alligator Records has just released a deluxe edition of their "greatest hits." It’s certain that with talent like this, they’ll continue to turn heads. |
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