Reprinted from the Rockville Gazette, October 14, 1998

Bernice Lewis infuses folk with terse, melodic style

Folk singer-songwriter Bernice Lewis always warms up her voice with the jazz ballad "My Funny Valentine."

Lewis, performing Saturday night at a Rockville house concert, said it's not just that Rodgers and Hart tune she admires.

"It took me until just recently, in the last five years, to start writing about childhood," she said. "I know that's where lots of writers go automatically, but between [her parent's messy] divorce and the legacy of [relatives in the] Holocaust, I just didn't want to go there.

"So I tended to write about romantic relationships and my travel, which has been quite extensive," she added.

Her most recent of four releases is "Isle of Spirit" (1996, Sanctuary Records). That collection showcases Lewis' peripatetic style, a willingness to sample all kinds of musical genres.

"Soon as it Stops Raining" is a whimsical, up-tempo salute to procrastination.

I will work for peace and equality,
Pay my taxes - sell my TV,
Save the whales - finish school,
Learn to live by the golden rule,
Leave my husband and lose some weight,
Plant a garden and meditate,
All the things I mean to do,
Soon as it stops rainin',
Soon as it stops rainin'.

Lewis' musical career was put off for several years, while she supported herself in other fields.

The Quincy, Mass., native earned separate degrees in retail management, creative writing and education.

She said the first diploma, in business, was a "practical degree I could use to find employment. And then I wanted to be impractical and study poetry, which I'd been writing since childhood."

Lewis spent several years in Arizona, teaching, working for an airline as a ticket agent and other jobs.

During her late 20s, she started singing, eventually her own material, at local open mike nights. Performing was a talent the self-taught guitarist from a nonmusical family had repressed since her teens.

"I hit adolescence, and it's suddenly not cool to sing," she said. "Even though I knew I had a good voice, I succumbed to peer pressure."

Complementing her guitar work is Lewis' dulcet voice, which in mid-register verses bears a slight huskiness but sounds like a smooth alto saxophone when interpreting higher ranges.

On the subject of ranges, it's the open land of the West that most inspires her songwriting, she said. New England's geography may be "lovely and gentle and pretty," but that can't compare with the West's "exotic grandeur."

She recently completed a new song honoring the West. Called "Bright Angel Creek," it will go on her next CD, due out sometime next year.

God's bedroom is in the desert by the Bright Angel Creek,
He takes a brush of pink and streaks it across the sky every night before he goes to sleep,
And then he covers himself up with a piece of Arizona and lets us all just dream of the Bright Angel Creek.

Lewis moved back to New England 15 years ago with her husband. She also formed Sanctuary Records. She finds her management degree useful in running a business, even if she is her only client.

"You might not want to print that," she said. "If people find you own your own [company], they think less of you. Unless of course you're Ani DiFranco, and then they think you're entrepreneurial."

Lewis' education degree also is handy for her nowadays. She teaches a class at Williams College called "The Contemporary Singer-Songwriter," a subject for which her 100 to 150 annual gigs make her more than qualified.

At the same time, Lewis disdains the moniker singer-songwriter, saying that doesn't adequately portray her complete personality.

By her lights, she is a poet, musician, healer, woman of letters and yoga enthusiast.

Lewis has studied yoga for 25 years. "It's an integral part of who I am," she said. "It's a huge component of how I stay sane."

Performing onstage also can be a form of meditative self-scrutiny.

"The attention you get from saying what you believe and speaking your thoughts, whether through song or story, is very nurturing," Lewis said. "And it can be devastating, too."

Bernice Lewis will play Saturday at 8 p.m. for the Moore Music (in the House) house concert series in Rockville. Local musician David A. Alberding will open for her. Seating is limited. Suggested donation is $8 per person. For directions and reservations, call 301-309-0983.