For Caine, a second verse

David Maurer

Nov. 8, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- A decade or so ago a willowy strawberry blonde named Kathryn Caine arrived in Charlottesville and started landing singing gigs at venues like Trax, Starr Hill, Durty Nelly's Pub and Fridays After Five.

The new performer in town had a memorable singing voice that could move effortlessly from a rocking rasp to an aching softness. Her fan base quickly expanded like an incoming tide.

When people got their hands on her CDs, "Whiteville" and "Kathryn Caine Band," they often noticed something. This singer who could pound out a song on a piano or guitar and sing everything from blues to rock had written nearly all the songs she was performing.

The discovery made many folks really take notice, and they started marking dates for upcoming Caine performances on their calendars. Then, seemingly overnight, the singer-songwriter appeared to vanish as quickly as she had arrived.

"What happened was I had my two little ones, who aren't so little anymore," Caine said as she relaxed in her Albemarle County home. "I basically took a break to take care of family.

"But during the eight years I've been away from performing live, I didn't stop writing songs or even recording. If I thought I had written something really good, I'd go in, record it and give it to family members.

"But I love to get out there, perform and play for people. I just love that. Now that my kids are older, seven and six, I feel I can do that again."

Caine will be performing Nov. 18 at the Southern Cafe and Music Hall, just off the Downtown Mall. Accompanying her will be the musicians who performed on her just-released album, "Down Home Girl."

Stuart Holme plays electric bass, and James McLaughlin plays drums and provides backup vocals. Darrell Muller plays acoustic bass, Nick Reeb is on fiddle and Andy Thacker plays guitar and mandolin.

A series of serendipitous happenstances led to the creation of the new CD and Caine's return to the musical mainstream. The awakening happened two years ago, when she recorded a CD titled "Better."

The album consisted of four rerecorded songs and four new ones. Despite the title, Caine wasn't completely satisfied with the effort.

"It was good, but I just wasn't very happy with it," Caine said. "It didn't click with me, and I kind of felt like I failed.

"There's nothing like a good failure to get you inspired, but I didn't know what I was going to do. Then one of my most favorite people on Earth -- Stuart Holme, who has played bass for me for years -- told me I needed to meet James McLaughlin.

"Stuart said James was a really good sound engineer, and at the time he owned Mountainside Studio just outside Charlottesville. I met James and really liked him, and we decided to record one song."

The song Caine selected is "For You." The tune sprouted anew from a song she had written years ago for a theater production when she was attending North Carolina School of the Arts.

"The song I wrote for the school play was about two women who fell in love with the same guy," said Caine, who makes her living as a portrait artist. "I was sitting at the piano around Christmas time last year, just messing around, and this song just popped out.

"What I did was kind of turn it inside out. I thought, 'What about a girl who is in love with so-and-so, but is with this other guy?' When I did the song at James' studio with Stuart playing bass, it sounded so good.

"Then everything sort of evolved, and I met Andy Thacker. When I met Andy, I quickly realized he could play what I write, and I got inspired. Truthfully, I got inspired by all the guys I was playing with, and I wrote a bunch of songs. What started out as one song turned into eleven."

Caine comes from a musical family, and she has been singing for as long as she can remember. Her father is an accomplished banjo player, and she grew up watching him perform on stage.

After spending her childhood growing up in Danville and Whiteville, N.C., Caine attended the College of Charleston and the North Carolina School of the Arts, where she studied painting and art history.

The mother of two said painting is what she enjoys doing during quiet times. When the songwriting muse comes calling, she happily exchanges brush for pen.

"I wrote my first official song when I was around 17, and had a band in college," Caine said. "After college I decided to move to Nashville and go at it more from a songwriter's perspective.

"But instead of getting the songwriting jobs I wanted, I got singing jobs. I got a lot of studio work there singing other people's music and singing background vocals.

"The thing with my songwriting is that it just happens, and then it dies down for a little bit. It comes in waves."

When Caine sang and recorded the hauntingly beautiful song "For You," McLaughlin sensed something special had just happened. When the album started to come alive almost by itself, he was convinced.

"This CD was an absolute pleasure to work on," said McLaughlin, who has recorded local groups such as Sons of Bill, Old School Freight Train and Kings of Belmont. "She writes as good a song as anybody in Nashville, and from a vocal perspective, her voice is as good or better then anything you'll hear on the radio.

"From a recording perspective, it was a fun and fairly hands-off process for me. I've done all kinds of different music, and a lot of times with electronic or pop music, there's an awful lot of editing, redoing and fixing.

"With this, we just let it happen. I've worked so much with Andy, Stuart and the other guys on various projects that when they come into the studio they're very relaxed and enjoy themselves. In my opinion, that's how you get the best performances."

The CD heralds Caine's return to her professional music career. It also marks the transition from McLaughlin's home studio to his new state-of-the-art recording studio in Charlottesville called the Sound.

"We initially began recording the basic tracks at Mountainside and then finished it up here," McLaughlin said of the new studio, which is in the former Monticello Dairy building.

"The album really sort of made itself in a lot of ways. The original plan was to keep the orchestration to a minimum, but things just happened. Andy was one of the main ingredients.

"He's known around town as this wonderful mandolin player, but he actually played a bunch of the acoustic guitar on the record and did some great picking. That was really a nice surprise, as was the whole project."

Thacker's picking on the CD's lead-in song, "Wheels," will likely make a lot of guitarists grin with admiration. Caine's accompanying vocals reveal her rocking heart is as strong as her songwriting talents.

"When Andy and I were first in the studio the music just flowed out of him," Caine said. "I didn't have to tell him what to do. I'd just show him the chords, and he'd start picking and tearing it up.

"I wrote the words to 'Wheels' a long time ago, before I got married. I used it because I wanted the first song on the CD to be driving, fast and full of energy. Andy did some of the arrangements on it.

"The song just evolved into what it became. I really want people to know that this CD is

not only good because of me. It's good because of everybody who contributed to it. I've played with so many good musicians, but this particular group of guys are great."

Thacker feels that Caine's teamwork approach to the project really helped it blossom.

"Kathryn gave me all the creative freedom I could want," Thacker said. "I did a lot of experimentation.

"I'd throw things out there to see what she'd like best. I think it was the freedom that really helped it become what it is."

Caine said "Down Home Girl" comes the closest to who she is. It's filled with song sketches straight from her life -- both bitter and sweet.

The song "Honey Hill" is a rocking country-style ode to the North Carolina farm where Caine did much of her growing up. The last song on the album, "The Dream," relates to the tragedy of losing her only brother in a car crash.

One reviewer said that if a person doesn't have a tear in his eye by the end of "The Dream," he probably wasn't listening.

Now, for the first time in a long while, people can start scribbling dates for upcoming Kathryn Caine performances on their calendars again. And soon-to-be fans can discover why they'll want to do it, too.

"Singing is an emotional thing for me, as opposed to a technical thing," Caine said. "I love singing for people, and I think when you love what you're doing it comes across.

"Singing for me is one of those things you crave, like chocolate. Every time I sing a song, I want to sing another one."

Kathryn Caine will be performing on Nov. 18, at the Southern Cafe and Music Hall at 103 S. First St., just off the Downtown Mall.

Peyton Tochterman will open at 8 p.m. Cover is $6 advance, $8 at the door.

Caine also plays piano for the 9 a.m. Sunday service at Christ Episcopal Church on High Street, and occasionally will sing an offertory.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0296-39557548