Photo by Kevin Westen berg

Arts & Entertainmen

Catch the
folk-pop singer
— looking toward the
future through her
cat-eye glasses
at the Ark
in Ann Arbor.

Lisa Loeb: "I wanted to find out

what it all really means, instead

of just going through the

motions," she says of her explo-

ration of Judaism.

Naomi Pfefferman

Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles

hen songstress Lisa Loeb is on the
stage, oftentimes her thoughts wan-
der to ... Bill Cosby.
"I've met him once or twice, and I've found
him to be such an inspiration. He sees the
humanity and humor in things in everyday
life,' says the 37-year-old famously bespecta-
cled Loeb. "He reminds me that having your
own perspective is what makes you unique. He
tells about ordinary things, but tells them
from his perspective'
This is something Loeb can relate to.
A storyteller who happens to spin her yarns
into lovely, lilting folk-pop songs, Loeb began
her musical career in an everyday fashion: Her
debut performance was in You're a Good Man,

IN

October 6 . 2005

Charlie Brown at the Jewish
Community Center in her native Dallas. By
1993, she was temping by day and working
New York clubs by night, all without a manag-
er or a record deal. But she did have a famous
fan, the actor Ethan Hawke, who lived across
the street from her Greenwich Village apart-
ment (he used to call down to her from his
second-floor window).
When the fetchingly rumpled actor suggest-
ed Loeb's ballad "Stay (I Missed You)" for the
soundtrack of his 1994 Gen-X flick, Reality
Bites, the singer suddenly found herself shar-
ing album space with U2. She also starred in a
coy music video, directed by Hawke, which
appealed to MTV viewers burned out on
gloomy grunge rock.
Loeb became the first unsigned artist to
have a No. 1 single, making her one of the first
female folk-rock musicians to emerge in a

trend that would later include Jewel and Alanis
Morrisette. Six major record labels vied for her
services; a Grammy nomination ensued.
"It was a bit overwhelming; concedes Loeb,
who also had to deal with critics who ques-
tioned whether she was a one-hit wonder.
"Some of my friends and family thought I was
changing, but I was just busy. I was managing
myself, as well as [doing] just basic things, like
making sure my hair looked good on TV'
But this is one part of a distinct duality to
Loeb — and it's not just the contrast between
her perky, retro-'60s look and her melancholy
lyrics about ambivalent lovers. She's cerebral
and girlish and witty. She's a pop-culture diva
who loves opera and has a comparative liter-
ature degree from Brown University in
Providence, R.I.

Sweet & Loeb on page 54

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