IN OTHER A&E:
Second B.F.A. Exhibit: Probing the spaces, between language, life, and art

Why T Bone Burnett kicked butt last Friday

Wilco: ‘the best-kept secret of Americana’

www.lizphair.com

Six years after her devut album “Exile in Guyville,” Liz Phair graces Calvin’s stage for the first time. For those of you who don’t know, she is a performer of tremendous honesty who paved the way for the perpetual “Year of the woman” the music industry seems to be living in. I was fortunate enough to see her last summer at the Austin date of the Lilith Fair, where she was the first mainstage act to go on.

Extreme candor is a mark of her earlier songs, and to some extent it’s still present on Phair’s most recent CD, “Whitechocolatespaceegg.” While her previous albums, “Exile in Guyville” and “Whip-Smart,” occasionally stretched the boundaries of this listener’s taste, especially regarding her take on relationships, the new album finds her at a more mature point in her life, and responding accordingly (a la Tori Amos between “Boys for Pele” and “from the choirgirl hotel”). In between 1994’s “Whip-Smart” and 1998’s “Whitechocolatespacegg”, she got married, got over the stage fright that had plagued her earlier in her career, and had a child.

Liz Phair was one of the first female artists to deal with matters of a sexual nature in a way that was not manufactured, or calculated, but as opinionated tales full of genuine expression. She has already outlasted those spawned to replace her in her absence (remember Meredith Brooks?), despite critical backlash and a lack of respect from the industry at large (for example, Phair lost Grammys to Alanis Morrisette, whose success stemming from “Jagged Little Pill” was a direct benefit of the pioneering stance Phair took on male-female relationships).

Not by any means was Liz Phair the first performer to discuss female sexuality with frankness; it’s just that she took that explicitness to a new level, and with a good deal more media coverage than past exemplars like the Raincoats or Au Pairs. Phair, along with Tori Amos, helped put real, unforced (and un-sublimated) female sexuality on the charts.

This is one of the bigger things Calvin has surprised me with in the eight months I’ve been here. So, since she’s here, she puts on a good show, and while much has been made of her vocal limitations in the past, her voice has improved with age, and has a mesmerizing quality. Liz Phair’s live act is an entertaining event, well worth the price of admission.

To hell with Sarah McLachlan; between Liz and Erykah Badu at Lilith Fair the money spent was justified. That was $35. This is only $7. How can you lose?