Do you ever get the feeling that actress-singer Mandy Moore is one of the few celebrities who might throw your compass totally out of whack if you met her? You know. One of those stars who’s so luminous yet so grounded you might never again be able to tell which end is up?
Well, singer-songwriter Rachael Yamagata has become fast friends with Miss Moore in addition to writing and touring with her and says it’s all true: “She’s the most down-to-earth, inclusive person who is very focused and very driven, but as sweet as everybody always says she is.”
Darn. How much closer to perfect could a girl get?
Then again, the gorgeous Miss Yamagata — a fierce talent in her own right and someone who oh-so-modestly asked this interviewer if it was “a good time to talk” — falls into that very same category.
While in college, the smoldery-voiced Miss Yamagata practically willed her way into her first band, the funk collective Bumpus. After logging six years with the group, she split to write songs her own way. A record deal wasn’t far behind.
It’s been one amazing “Happenstance” after another since then. Funny — because that’s the title of her feted 2004 debut marking the arrival of a mature, piano-tickling songwriter who’s often compared to Fiona Apple and Norah Jones but clearly has her own haunting take on relationships.
Jason Mraz, Ray LaMontagne, Ryan Adams, Toots and the Maytals and … well, a lot of other heavy hitters have enlisted her skills on albums and tours. Her songs keep slipping into movies and TV shows, too.
Lately, Miss Yamagata has been killing time, waiting for her album to come out. (She’s predicting late 2007 or early 2008.) Some of the ways she has distracted herself have been with a headlining gig in March at Singapore’s Mosaic Music Festival, an opening spot on Miss Moore’s current tour and a hobby or two.
“I’ve started gardening to keep myself busy,” the singer says with a giggle.
Miss Yamagata explains that the tracks on the forthcoming record were selected from about 160 she had penned (wow) and that the album is “darker, lyrically more poetic and probably more lush” than its predecessor.
We’re waiting — with busted compasses in hand.
Miss Yamagata plays with Miss Moore at Alexandria’s Birchmere (www.birchmere.com) Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
King is Texas’ queen
Shelley King first heard she had been named the 2008 Texas State Musician when an e-mail popped into her in-box at a particularly suspicious time this year.
“At first I thought it was an April Fools’ joke,” the artist says, speaking on the phone from her home in Austin.
After contacting the Texas Commission on the Arts, which hands out the honors, she discovered it wasn’t a prank but, rather, a huge honor. Created by the state legislature in 2001, the appointment recognizes “high levels of excellence and success,” and of all the musicians who have filled the one-year role, Miss King is not only the youngest but the first woman.
“It is very, very exciting,” Miss King says. “There are so many amazing woman artists in the state. … I know I’m going to be the first in a long line.”
In a press release announcing the state artist appointments, Texas state Rep. Harvey Hilderbran said, “State artists demonstrate the essence of what art in Texas is all about.”
Miss King certainly fits the bill. She grew up in the foothills of the Arkansas Ozarks, where she sang in a small church, admired rock ’n’ roll, and “heard a lot of bluegrass music and acoustic guitar picking.”
It wasn’t until she moved to Texas, however, that she would form her first band (in Houston) and learn how to sew together all her musical influences (in Austin).
Since then, Miss King and her band have been peddling a rootsy, rollicking mix of blues, rock, folk and country that has been known to incorporate a woman-powered theme or two. Her songs have been recorded by renowned artists including the late Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra (“Texas Blue Moon”) and Toni Price (“Call of My Heart”) and her live shows — which sometimes stretch past the four-hour mark — have earned additional praise.
Miss King tries to break out of Texas at least once or twice a year for an East Coast run, but, she says, “Texas is so large, and just touring it is very consuming. It’s actually kind of hard to leave the state.”
Her duties as State Musician in 2008 will keep her tied to Texas even more than usual as she hits “every country fair and rodeo and festival just to try to get to the people.”
Washingtonians: Enjoy her while you still can. Miss King and crew perform tonight at 8 at Madam’s Organ (www.madamsorgan.com) in Adams Morgan.
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