Performers Find Going Solo Has Its Rewards

This isn’t a culture that puts a high premium on solitude. Solitary pursuits are considered to be much like solitary confinement--for the weird, the bad or the failed.

And it isn’t just the unmarried who are treated like social pariahs. In general, we tend to see going solo as what’s left to do when you don’t have a date. And yet, there are plenty of people who embrace their solitude. Cross-country skiers. Long-distance runners. Balloonists. And then there are local singer-songwriters.

Members of the last group, the singer-songwriters, enjoy going it alone for a number of reasons. 1) They don’t have to divide the nightly take, which is good, since there usually isn’t much; 2) they don’t have to carry much equipment, which is good, since they usually don’t have much; and 3) they get all of whatever glory there is, which is good, since that too is in short supply. (Especially considering that most gigs are at coffeehouses, and performers are competing for attention with the steam arm on the cappuccino machine.

“Actually, some of them have big enough voices that they can easily sing above the cappuccino machines,” insists Bill Locey, who wrote this week’s Centerpiece story on local singer-songwriters. (Page 38)

And anyone who sings that loud is certainly not cowering in the face of isolation. Clearly, these performers take pride in their situation.

“Actually,” said Locey, “a lot appear solo when they aren’t performing with their bands. But there are a few who are so introverted, they have no choice but to appear alone. They couldn’t get bandmates if they wanted them.”

Also in today’s section: Josef Woodard writes in his Sights column about exhibits at the Bagier Gallery in Ojai. And those who have been captivated by the movie “Titanic,” should read Jane Hulse’s Jaunts column. It’s about the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum in Santa Barbara, where visitors can peruse, among thousands of historical documents, one by a British official, who just hours before the doomed ship left port, declared the Titanic “seaworthy” and “fit for her intended voyage.”