The following article appears in the June - August '97 issue of FolkNotes.

Conversation with Karen Savoca: Special Sound

By Julia Kril

If you ask anyone who has ever had the chance to watch Karen Savoca and Pete Heitzman perform to describe the experience, they will smile and their face will take on a mysterious radiance. Words may not come to them immediately, because they will want to get them just right. Finally, the standard cliches emerge: "brilliant," "wonderful," "magical," "blew me away," "they made me want to dance". . . and, perhaps most accurately, "they made me feel happy."

During their performance at Happy Endings in Syracuse a few months ago, this musical team demonstrated their mastery of their craft once again. I watched people's heads tilt to one side, their eyes closing, feet tapping, heads nodding. Karen is a magical pixie with a voice that sounds as if it should be coming from the inside of a birch tree in full bloom, and Pete somehow manages to make to make one guitar sound like two. As they play together, you come to know that these two people love what they do, and this is why people leave their performances with their faces glowing.

But perhaps the best description of this group's magic comes from Karen Savoca herself, who graciously took the time to answer some of my questions.

Q: When did you begin writing music, and what were your most common themes?

KS: I've been writing poetry since I was a kid, and that led me to writing songs. The first song I ever wrote was called "Who Am I?". It was your usual pre-teen "what am I doing here?" stuff, with a little bit of unrequited love thrown in. The second song was "Monday Night Football Blues." The piano in our house was in a really bad place, right next to the television. One night my Dad was watching a game, and I was dying to play, so he agreed to let me during the commercial breaks!

Q: Have those themes changed over the years? What do you find yourselves writing about now?

KS: I don't think my themes have changed all that much over the years, they've probably just gotten a little more experienced. I'm totally fascinated by how many ways a song can be interpreted, so I don't like to limit that by getting into what they're "about." Songs are such elusive things, and even the "meaning" of my own songs changes with time.

Q: What do you think folk music is?! How would you classify what you do?

KS: Folk, by definition, simply means "music of the people". To me it implies some level of story telling, but I certainly don't think that only folk singers tell stories. Some of my favorites — James Taylor, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan — were once considered folk, but aren't any more. I don't know why that is. Because Pete and I are a duo now, we get classified as folk. After people hear us, they're not sure what we are. When we had the band it was the same, people didn't know how to categorize us. Actually, we kinda like it!

Q: What is/are some of your favorite performance experiences, and where did they happen?

KS: I've had lots of great performance experiences, playing with Pete they happen all the time! We rarely rehearse (unless we're learning a new song) and we don't play anything the same way twice, so every night is exciting for us. A few most recent highlights would be The Bottom Line in NYC. What a fabulous club that is. I played a song on the piano Laura Nyro used to play, and had all I could do to keep from crying. Another great room is The Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan. And of course, sitting in with Little Feat at the Landmark [Theatre] is something I'll never forget. That was a dream!

Q: What are your most recent accolades/awards/honors?

KS: It was great to receive a SAMMY for songwriting last year, and winning Musician Magazine's Best Unsigned Band contest in '95 was a thrill. Most recently, we're honored to have been asked back to Falcon Ridge this July. That's a great festival, and we're really looking forward to it.

Q: Could you see yourselves moving to New York or Boston or some other city to immerse yourselves in an urban music scene, or do you like where you are?

KS: Ah, the question of where to plant roots. Pete and I live out in the country, and we love it. We lived in NYC for almost four years, and couldn't wait to come back to this area. We did very well, we just got tired of being in a place where so many people wanted to be something else . . . a musician, an actor, a writer. We were just in Boston, and it seemed like every other person was carrying a gig bag. I like living next to farmers and carpenters. Nobody in NYC ever says, "I wait tables, but I really wanna be a stone mason!"

The only frustrating aspect of living here is that Syracuse has been very slow to honor songwriting and original music. It's a city in the throes of a cover band mentality, and has been for a very long time. We also need some more good venues, not just bars that hire music to pack the drinkers in. We don't have a decent 300-400 seater [theatre], so lots of great touring musicians don't ever stop here, and that's a real shame.

Still, Pete and I are optimistic. We hope that with the help of Friends of Folk, this newsletter, and the great people at Happy Endings, we'll see lots of great changes in the future.

This page maintained by Dana Cooke. E-mail me at djcooke@aiusa.com.