Singer-songwriter Erica Wheeler likes her songs to be filled with meaning, unlike some popular music today. The folk musician will be playing at Concerts at the Crossing Saturday in Titusville.
By: Susan Van Dongen
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| Folk musician Erica Wheeler will be performing in Titusville this weekend. |
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP It isn’t the anger in today’s pop music that disturbs singer-songwriter Erica Wheeler. It’s the emptiness. Sappy, slick, pop packages like Britney Spears and so many of the boy bands are harder for her to take thanEminem’s rap psychoses.
"I listen to a lot of contemporary singer-songwriters, including Mary Chapin Carpenter," Ms. Wheeler says. "She’s a big influence because she has these impeccably written lyrics that actually have content to them, unlike a lot of mainstream, slick commercial stuff.
"Every culture has stories, and in the early times, stories were told to teach about the world, not whine and complain."
Ms. Wheeler studied and taught in a special "bard" program in music and songwriting at the Omega Institute for Holistic Healing in Upstate New York.
"I figure I have a responsibility as a storyteller to uphold this tradition," she says. "That’s what I want to bring to my songwriting. I want to show something more positive in the world."
Ms. Wheeler will visit Concerts at the Crossing inTitusville on March 10, along with singer-songwriterTanya Savory. With an overall sound as natural as the rain and a voice reminiscent of Bonnie Raitt, Nancy Griffith and maybe even Carole King, Ms. Wheeler’s latest CD is titled Three Wishes (Signature Sounds).
"This one I did in New York City," says Ms. Wheeler, just back from a dolphin-watching excursion off Beaufort, S.C. "It’s a blend of ballads and upbeat songs, edgier and different from the last album, which was heavily bluegrass. But I’ll be playing music from all my CDs at the concert."
Steven Miller produced the new disc. Wheeler is quick to point out that this is not the rock musician responsible for such ’70s hits as "Fly Like an Eagle," but a studio wizard who has helped to refresh and update fellow singer-songwriters like Dar Williams. Miller helped gather an extraordinary group of musicians for Three Wishes, including guitarist Larry Campbell, keyboardist Steve Gaboury and drummer Billy Ward.
"It’s actually Bob Dylan’s road band," she says. "It’s great that when you hire a producer, you’re hiring that person’s connections as well. But I’ve been fortunate to work with a number of very fine musicians on all my projects."
Those projects include her self-released 1989 recording, Strong Heart, 1992’s folksy From That Far, and The Harvest, released in 1996. That recording caught the attention of National Public Radio’s Korva Coleman, who liked it so much she summoned Ms. Wheeler for an extensive interview on NPR’s All Things Considered.
"Korva got the CD and really liked it," she says. "Also, one of the assistants on ATC was from Northampton, Massachusetts where I’m from and the music reminded him of his hometown. Being on ATC really got me to a new level, though."
Although Ms. Wheeler calls the Northampton area her home now, she grew up in Chevy Chase, Md., just outside Washington, D.C. She began writing "teenage angst" songs while preparing to major in environmental studies at Hampshire College in Massachusetts. She always had a special love for nature, but it was at the school’s English department where she discovered a course that stirred her sensibilities.
"It was called ‘American Landscapes,’ and it was the literature of the natural world, writings about the wilderness in America, how it affects us and how we effect it," she says.
Ms. Wheeler’s studies expanded to include writings about the human spirit. An avid reader and outdoor enthusiast, she names Barbara Kingsolver and Annie Dillard as literary influences.
She is also a great believer in the mind-body health connection and has taught and performed at the Omega Institute, as well as the world-renowned Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Calif., a mecca for holistic and spiritual studies since the ’60s.
"I just like to go to places like Esalen," she says. "I’m into holistic healing, but it’s totally hard (to stay with it) when you’re on the road."
Songs like "Onward From Here" and "Solace of a Prayer" are laced with a sense of holistic spirituality. The latter is reflective and uplifting, but not preachy: May you find the love you’re seeking/May you recognize its face/May you notice every moment/You’ve walked with in a state of grace.
The song "Saturday," which closes the album, reminds listeners of the subtle things that seem sweeter with maturity, like enjoying an easy-going weekend morning with a friend or lover.
"In my songs, it’s like I take out a video camera out and show what I see," she says. "People have said my songwriting is very cinematic. Most of my songs are autobiographical, and sometimes I’ll get an idea from a newspaper article. But I have a hard time writing fiction."
She does admit to writing some "angry" songs, but not just to strike a pose.
"If I write an angry song it’s how I feel, for example, about the destruction of the environment," she says. "The ‘angry’ music today just sounds really whiny to me. In the ’60s and ’70s, the protest songs offered solutions about how we could change the world. Now, there’s a lot of complaining about society, but none of the songwriters seem to be offering any solutions."
Although Ms. Wheeler has played the acoustic folk circuit from Maine to Manitoba, she especially likes to perform in the American West and Pacific Northwest.
"I play a lot out there because the majority of people resonate with what I’m doing," she says. "It seems like quite a few people I’ve met have moved from the Eastern cities and out West because they appreciate the natural beauty, but they’re also hungry for good writing.
"My spirit has always been connected with the natural world. I’ve always felt that way, from when I was little and my family would go camping, to watching the sunsets in the Southwest on tour. Nature is where I find inspiration and rejuvenation."
Erica Wheeler and Tanya Savory play the United Universalist Church, 248 Washington Crossing-Pennington Road, Titusville, March 10 at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $12. For information, call (215) 862-1917.
For directions to the United Universalist Church in Titusville, click here.