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Music Preview: Indiegrrl musicians connect through music and Internet
Wednesday, September 15, 1999 By Scott Mervis, Weekend Editor, Post-Gazette
Spell the word girl with two "Rs" -- as in grrl -- and you haven't made a typo. You've conjured the image of pierced noses, wacky dye jobs and a fiercely feminist attitude. Throw the word "indie" in front of it, and the idea starts to sound even more exclusive.
But Indiegrrl, a group of artists linked through the Internet, is quite the opposite. Otherwise, it probably wouldn't include Bloomington, Ind., singer-songwriter Beth Lodge-Rigal.
For starters, she's an indie-mom with two young grrls of her own. Secondly, there's nothing particularly aggressive or political about her music. In fact, it's purely pretty, landing somewhere between the meditative folk of Ferron and the melodic pop of Suzanne Vega.
Lodge-Rigal arrives tonight at the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern as part of the Midwest Indiegrrl tour with comrades Pepper McGowan, Leah Carla-Gordone and Sue Jeffers. Formed in 1998 by bluesy Seattle singer Holly Figueroa, Indiegrrl is a nonprofit network that links more than 200 artists working in genres from folk to punk. Members are offered help with media contacts and Web site design and are considered for Indiegrrl's compilation CDs.
Lodge-Rigal, who just released her second record, "Dreamtable," joined four months ago after hearing about it from a friend.
"It's a wonderful effort to try to connect us to one another," she says. "In one way, it's like this big gig swap. ... It gives people the ability to get the exposure we haven't gotten."
Lodge-Rigal doesn't know many of the other women in Indiegrrl, but she senses that they value their independent status.
"There are indie organizations forming all over the place," she says, "loose- or tight-knit groups of people that are determined to stay independent, not go the label route. It is the wave of the future, and it is proving to be a threat to the majors because people are doing it themselves. This is just a really great vehicle to help women broaden their network."
Lodge-Rigal's 1997 debut CD, "Follow Me," which featured a hand from her friend Carrie Newcomer and band, drew positive reviews from magazines like Sing Out! and Dirty Linen. It was something of a comeback for Lodge-Rigal who started performing in the late '80s in western Massachusetts during the Tracy Chapman-inspired new folk movement but then took time off to raise her daughters.
"I was not a comfortable performer then," she says. "So when I got married and had kids, it was very comfortable for me to say, 'Oh, I'll just write songs and get publishing deals.' I was resistant to doing the performer thing. Something about having those kids and being home all the time really lit a fire under me, and I was writing a lot. I got such great response whenever I did perform that I finally just did a turn-around and decided that I was going to do it."
Lodge-Rigal says that while some songwriters are able to articulate their feelings best at a younger age, she's more of a late bloomer. After she had children, she says, "my perspective was different. I don't know that the music has changed drastically. I just think that as you mature and you have life experiences, your take on things gets richer. So, as I've gotten older I've had more stuff to say."
Before we go, there's only one question you've got to ask a singer-songwriter working in Bloomington: Do you ever run into John Mellencamp?
"Yeah," she says, laughing. "I've seen him at the Jiffy Treat."
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