Music has always had the power to heal. It uplifts the spirit and soothes the soul. It reminds us that even in the toughest times, life will go on.
But sometimes it is the musician and not the audience that needs that healing power. Such is the case of longtime “anti-folk” singer/songwriter Cindy Lee Berryhill. Miss Berryhill has released seven albums of critically acclaimed acoustic tinged rock since coming up in the 1980s. All was as it should be until her husband, respected “Crawdaddy” writer Paul Williams, suffered a brain injury in a biking accident that later triggered dementia. Miss Berryhill left music behind and became a full-time caregiver to both the couple’s young son and Williams until his death in 2013.
They say out of pain comes art, so maybe that is what makes her latest CD, “The Adventurist,” such a revelation. In advance of her Sunday gig at the District’s OStreet Museum, Miss Berryhill discussed her life’s adventures and misadventures.
Question: As you a songwriter, are you inspired by where you live?
Answer: Nature does inspire me, but it doesn’t have to be the place I’m living in. I would say more so than the place, what affects me most are the things that I’m going through.
Q: When you started, you were lumped into the anti-folk music movement. Why was that?
A: I wasn’t really lumped into it because I made up the word “anti-folk.” It was a group of us folk musicians that were as equally affected by traditional folk music as we were pop rock.
We were trying to play in some of the New York City club and play festivals, and they would turn a number of us down because we were young upstarts. We just started to do our own thing. I suggested the name “anti-folk,” and it sort of stuck. It would have been boring to call it “new folk.”
Beck came out of that movement.
Q: Do you miss anything about the old music business?
A: I never was a major label artist, so I never got to be escorted into a place where everything was taken care of. It was always sort of by the seat of the pants.
Q: Is the song “Trump” on your second album, “Naked Movie Star,” about our current president?
A: I did have a song on there called “Trump.” It was 1989. But I lived in New York City, so it was a reaction to the Trump of New York City.
Q: Do you perform it now?
A: When I play solo or as a duo, I don’t. But last month, when I was touring with a full band, we did it at the very end of the night.
To be honest, the new album “The Adventurist” is apolitical. I didn’t really want to infect anybody with different points of view, so I waited to the very last song. The job as musicians and artists is to create a safe space where people and you can go into and create a communal experience regardless of points of view. To me, this album is that ginger you eat before you have the sushi.
Q: Are you saying “The Adventurist” is a palate cleanser?
A: Yes, it’s a palate cleanser! (Laughs)
I went through a lot of stuff on a personal level. I needed a place I could go to artistically that was above and beyond all the heaviness of all the things I was dealing with. What better place to go to than sort of tone poems about love and desire?
Q: Why is the new album called “The Adventurist”?
A: Because [of] when [I went] through a huge life passage, like I did losing my husband. I was a full-time caregiver for him for many years. When that time ends, you are starting a new phase of your life. That new time brings a sense of adventure. It may not be a mantle that you hoped to take up. but it’s the one that has been granted you.
Q: For those unaware, tell us what happened to your husband.
A: His bike accident happened in 1995, and he recovered from that. He was back to writing books and doing lecture tours. He continued writing and editing “Crawdaddy.” Seven years later, he started to descend into something that we couldn’t figure out what was wrong. They didn’t really know about CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) until 2009.
What happened with Paul is he recovered from his brain injury but years later started to descend into dementia.
Q: Is the album a tribute to him?
A: Honestly, very little confessional songwriting is happening on the album. The closest you might get to it is the song “Somebody’s Angel” because it’s talking about a woman taking care of her husband. My friend Dave Alvin said to me, “The stuff that you’ve been through, there is a song in there that only you can write.” But in order for me to write it, I put it in the guise of a woman whose husband comes home from war.
Other than that, the album and songs touched on feelings I had, but the songs were not specific to Paul. I wanted it to come from this muse-inspired place that was above and beyond my personal experience.
Q: What can people expect when they see you live in D.C.?
A: The show is me playing solo. You’re gonna hear a lot of the songs from the new album. I’ll be able to tell the stories that go around them as well. Even someone who has heard the album with all the orchestration will be surprised to hear how well they work with just a guitar and a voice.
Cindy Lee Berryhill plays the District’s O Street Museum Sunday. Tickets are available by going to Omuseum.org.
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