Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 18, 1993 TAG: 9308250330
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
John McCutcheon can live without it.
Tish Hinojosa had one, but hated it. She's keeping an open mind.
The three musical performers have different opinions of the major recording deals they all lack.
If a big-label contract guaranteed his artistic freedom and paid him decently, Hersch, a jazz pianist, would grab it.
If it threatened to jeopardize his musical and living styles to appeal to a broader audience, McCutcheon, an expert in traditional American music, would not.
If she could avoid a ``frustrating roller coaster ride'' like the one she had with A&M Records in 1989, Hinojosa, a country-folk artist with a Tex-Mex influence, might.
All three of these performers, plus the Lark Quartet, an acclaimed chamber group, will appear at the Blue Ridge Music Festival, which starts Saturday at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg. All three have won praise for their work, and yet all three are far from household names, mainly because of the genres they pursue.
They are, to use McCutcheon's phrase, ``musical gender-benders.''
Hersch has two new CDs in circulation. One is ``Dancing in the Dark,'' a trio album of classic jazz standards. The other is ``Red Square Blue,'' on which he has arranged Russian classics by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin for jazz trio. He also has issued a disc of his own compositions, performed by a quintet including saxophone and cello.
McCutcheon mixes folk songs, mountain ballads, gospel numbers and political action anthems with his hammer dulcimer and a half-dozen other instruments to present wide-ranging programs that are wholly American in form and content. He also writes a lot of songs.
Hinojosa, winner of the Best New Artist competition at the 1979 Kerrville Folk Festival, sings and writes about South Texas life from the perspective of a first-generation American who happens to be the youngest of 13 children.
More than cult figures, less than superstars, they are admired, even loved, by fans and critics. They play all over the world, but still they struggle as people and as artists. It's the price they pay for staying true to themselves in the highly commercial recording business.
``Fame doesn't really interest me, only in that you get better offers for engagements,'' Hersch, an honors graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, says. ``The better-known you are, the easier it is to live as an artist. It gives you more choices.''
McCutcheon says his career is crazy enough without the hassles of the big-time entertainer.
``I never got into this line of work - I stumbled into it,'' he says. ``I was so happy to be able to play music as much as I wanted to play and not have a job that I didn't come into it saying `I've got to get a big label contract, a Top 10 hit and play before thousands every night.' It's never been what's driven me.''
While other folk performers work extensively in summer at major outdoor festivals, he cuts back on his schedule so he can be in Charlottesville with his wife and watch his boys, ages 8 and 10, play sandlot baseball.
Hinojosa would love for her music to receive a wider hearing than Rounder Records, an independent label, can provide. Craig, her husband, who is a lawyer and her manager, and their children, Adam, 9, and Nina, 5, would like that, too, she says.
But her earlier exposure to the big time left her shellshocked, her creativity stifled. ``It was like being let into the store and then you can't touch anything,'' she says.
At Rounder, people care about her projects. They also helped her issue three music videos, something A&M didn't do.
``In a small, agile vehicle, I've been able to scoot around a lot of things that take major labels months to get around,'' she says.
Still, she gets frustrated, and thinks, ``If I had been on a major label, I might have been able to sell a couple of hundred thousand of a record, instead of being really excited if I sell 50,000.''
Ironically, the very thing that keeps these artists from mega-success is what distinguishes them from the crowd. The New Yorker dubbed Hersch ``a poet of a pianist.'' USA Today put him in the front rank.
``I want to create music that has some intellectual challenge but isn't what I call mental,'' he says. The poetry comes from his love of harmony. Never one to practice much, he relies on sensitive sidemen and a good sound system. With those, he says, ``the music just takes care of itself.''
In Lynchburg, he'll be accompanied by longtime associates Tony Martucci on drums and Drew Gress on bass.
To the Washington Post, McCutcheon is ``Virginia's rustic renaissance man.'' The Boston Globe dubbed him ``a stunning performer.'' Years ago, Johnny Cash called him ``the most impressive instrumentalist I've never heard.''
``I just go out and do what I do,'' he says. ``In some respects, I feel it's fun, and my responsibility, to tell people where I've been and select from my experiences, which is what artists have been doing forever. All musicians have that common drive, and the language they use is the only thing that's different.''
Hinojosa's latest disc, ``Culture Swing,'' amply demonstrates why the Los Angeles Times said she ``isn't just any old sweetheart of the rodeo'' but ``a real border-crosser.''
She combines a Nancy Griffith feel for imagery with a sweet voice and arrangements that reflect, but are not overshadowed by, her Mexican heritage.
``I've always believed in a good, varied plate,'' she says. ``I love seeing fusions of things.''
In Lynchburg, she'll be backed by Austin pals Paul Pearcy on percussion and drums and Marvin Dykhuis on guitar and mandolin.
The festival's co-directors, flutist Stephanie Jutt and pianist Ray Luck, will join the Lark Quartet in a mid-week concert. The Lark will play by itself in the opening show.
In its fourth year, the festival brings together musicians from different disciplines and presents them in the intimate settings of the school's Thoreson Theatre, which seats 250, and its Whiteside Amphitheatre, which holds about 500.
Previous guests have included the Cajun band Beausoleil, acoustic country singers Robin and Linda Williams, and classical and neo-classical artists like Gunther Schuller, the Monticello Trio and the Turtle Island String Quartet. John McCutcheon appeared at last year's festival and was brought back by popular demand.
This year, for the first time, the festival will not include workshop instruction for area high school students. Next year, said spokesman Ellen Brunette, a songwriting workshop may be included.
The Lark Quartet will open the event with a concert Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Thoreson Theatre.
The Fred Hersch Trio will play Sunday at 7:30 in Thoreson.
Stephanie Jutt, Ray Luck and the Lark Quartet will perform Thursday night at 7:30 in Thoreson.
Tish Hinojosa will play June 25 at 7 p.m. in Whiteside Amphitheatre, and McCutcheon will play in Whiteside on June 26 at 7 p.m.
Series tickets are $45 for adults and $35 for senior citizens and students. Individual concert tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for seniors, students and children, except for the McCutcheon show. Tickets for that are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and students and $8 for children under 12.
Tickets, brochures and information are available from (804) 947-8146.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***