Boister

Goddess of The Baltimore in Your Mind

In Baltimore music history, there have been many leading ladies, and one of the most inimitable over the past two decades has been Anne Watts. With her seven bandmates, the frontwoman of art-rock collective Boister makes eclectic, transcendent, imaginative music—yes, boisterous music—for the music’s sake, tackling heady themes such as life, death, war, peace, and love along the way. Now, this ninth album is about, for, and, in large part, by women, with Watts writing the timely, poetic lyrics and enlisting backup vocals from the likes of her own daughter and Shawna Potter of Baltimore punk band War On Women. These eight tracks are odes, anthems, eulogies, and rallying cries for girls and women, past and present, fueled by powerful, moody melodies, especially fitting of the current conversations surrounding women’s rights. The singer’s haunt- ing vocals evoke a sort of catharsis, assuring each listener she, or he, contains an inner goddess—one as potent and resilient as Baltimore. All we have to do is find her.

Mary Prankster

Thickly Settled

In the 1990s, Mary Prankster gained a regional cult following for her spunky alt-rock ‘n’ roll, mischievous lyrics, and rebellious spirit that felt, even originally based out of Annapolis, oh-so Baltimore. (“Blue Skies Over Dundalk” forever.) To fans’ dismay, she retired in 2005 and relocated to New England, but now, after more than a decade, the singer-songwriter is back and better than ever, as this comeback record, with its fresh-faced energy, reveals. As in the past, she presents 10 eclectic tracks, through which we see the many faces of her apt moniker—raw, rollicking punk; twangy country; swooning, crooning jazz. The first single, “Local Honey,” combines the golden trappings of girl-group harmonies and the reverberating guitar of surf rock. A bonafide chameleon, she excels at each genre and every creative fusion, her compelling presence and confident vocals commanding every verse. Fearless, playful, with her whole heart in it, she evokes Charm City at its best. For that, we say, welcome back, Mary. Listening to Thickly Settled, it sounds like she never left.

Though Anne Watts mostly finds herself on the Eastern Shore these days, there’s no denying that the Cambridge-based artist is a daughter of Baltimore, beginning to end.

For starters, she was born here, to a family of artistic greats, before becoming a part of the city’s art scene herself in the 1980s, ultimately launching her veteran art-rock band Boister, which is now in its second decade. You can often catch her and her Baltimore-based bandmates at local venues such as Creative Alliance, An Die Musik, or Fells Point bar 1919, which is owned by a good friend of hers (more on that later).

And so it’s no wonder that the title of Boister’s new, ninth record would honor the city that helped shape the woman she is today. Watts has tackled heady themes in the past as the band’s primary songwriter, but for the first time, she and her six bandmates—Warren Boes on guitar, Craig Considine on trombone, John Dierker on bass clarinet, Jim Hannah on percussion, Lyle Kissack on drums, Chas Marsh on bass, and Glenn Workman on keys—have made songs that are especially for, about, and, in large part, by women. Watts’ own daughter, Posie, her friend Laura Leigh Todd, and War On Women’s Shawna Potter join on vocals.

Inspired in part by the 2016 election and the #MeToo movement, Goddess of The Baltimore in Your Mind is a timely, poetic, at-times prophetic album, inspiring all listeners to embrace their feminine energy and affect change.

On the heels of its release, we sat down with Watts to talk about her Baltimore roots, celebrating her bandmates, and being inspired by other women.

You recently wrote about how parts of your childhood influenced this record—an old friend, your father playing classical music around the house when you were a kid. Do you feel like this record was a long time in the making?
It’s weird you mention my dad, because I was just thinking about him this morning. My sister was reading about this production of Death of a Salesman in London with Wendel Pierce and Clark Peters from The Wire—all black cast. She was like, they don’t realize that Baltimore did it at Center Stage so many years ago [in 1972].

Our dad was the head of the board at Center Stage at the time. He was a right-wing Republican and we did not see eye to eye politically, but he was so passionate about the theater as an instrument of social change, and he was passionate about Baltimore. He instilled those things in me—Beethoven, Shakespeare, Baltimore, over and over and over, and it just got into me. Like oh, we’re supposed to make art to facilitate change and to celebrate where we come from. He always talked about giving back.

I still always wonder, is it in the water in Baltimore? You think about all the people who are our predecessors. They didn’t care that they didn’t sound like anybody else.

Were you aware of that special quality of the city as a kid, or did it come later with time?
My grandad was a theater producer in New York, fighting Joe McCarthy and producing shows Off-Broadway. He gave Meryl Streep one of her first jobs. A lot of the actors fleeing Los Angeles [because of the Hollywood blacklist] were coming to the East Coast and ending up in theater, and some of these people would come summer at his house in Timonium.

I was just a little kid, but I was picking up on all this stuff. Somehow there was this element of danger and seriousness, but my family was singing and dancing. And my grandfather was fighting. And then my dad was at Center Stage and my mom was at the Baltimore Symphony trying to create programming for kids. Perhaps it wasn’t so much being in Baltimore as it was being in that family. It gave me this idea from a young age that you were supposed to try to create change if you had any skill at all. And everybody does.

You left Baltimore for a few years to attend college in New England but returned afterwards?
I could just tell something was going on here. It was the early days of the Ad Hoc Fiasco movement, made up of a lot of angry artists on the fringe that were rebelling against the mainstream art institutions, which fed into the birth of Artscape. I don’t know how I picked up on it, but I came back and fell right into it, and now you just feel such enormous pride in what’s happened at the BMA, and Center Stage. Not to mention Everyman. Theatre Project. Single Carrot. Baltimore is a theater town! It is so exciting just to consider that one thread of Death of a Salesman. Who had that idea at the time? And who stood behind them and said let’s go with it?

What was the genesis of Goddess of The Baltimore in Your Mind?
It harkens back to my childhood friend Sally Hutchins, who owns 1919 in Fells Point. She wanted me to write something that would make her laugh, because I’m really good at making her cry. Sad songs are my forte. So I wrote her the title song in 2014. Obama was in office. It was before Freddie Gray. I was just trying to do something like, “Ahhh! Look at us!” And oh man, the longer it took for this record to reach its fruition, the more profound it became.

How soon after did the other songs come?
Well, then I was stuck. I was totally stuck. And then the 2016 election happened. I went outside the next morning, and it was so wet and ugly, it seemed like for a long time, but I saw this Lenten rose, blooming in the garden, in the cold. I went back inside and immediately wrote a song. . . . It was the current situation that provoked these songs. And my daughter leaving for college. And my aunt dying. And my friend Laura Leigh Todd being this incredible theatrical force in Cambridge. We’re kindred, and then she came to be on this record, which was powerful.

When did you realize this was a record for and about women?
I didn’t realize it until it was finished. Isn’t that so weird? You’re just like a spider, weaving your web. You can’t think about the pattern.

All of your bandmates are male. What was their reaction?
I didn’t tell them, “Wow, we just made something for the feminine spirit,” but I think they knew all along. They’ve known for years, that they’re dancing with the feminine, and I think they get energy from that. I want to dance with them, and I want to celebrate them. For years, I’ve wanted to people to realize these guys are just not ordinary players. And by lifting them, I’ve been lifted along with them. And from that place comes the idea, like, let’s see who else we can bring along.

How would you define a goddess of Baltimore?
Oh, at first, it’s so easy. That’s Lea Gilmore. That’s Maria Broom. That’s Joyce Scott. That’s Bea Gaddy. And then all the other women that you know in Baltimore, of Baltimore, from Baltimore, there becomes this huge mural of their faces in your mind, this incredible garden of fertility and imagination and fortitude, and you’re like, wow, which one is not a goddess?

Does that inner goddess exist for men, too?
Yes. A great man understands the woman in him. And that’s why that first verse mentions Jupiter, which is male. I didn’t want to want to leave any boy out of this conversation. I learned that when my son and I attended the Take Back the Night march [against sexual violence] at UMBC. Many of the people marching were young men. They were not marching for their girlfriends, they were marching for themselves. That was an enormous wakeup for me. Women understand suffering, we’re built for it, we live it. But that doesn’t mean that atrocities don’t happen to boys. They need to be enfolded, too.

What is your hope for people who listen to this record?
That they will get a good cry, and then they’ll get up and dance.

In the latest iteration of The Big Baltimore Playlist, we found five local songs to listen to now, ranging from eclectic art rock and anthemic rap to a catchy surf-infused tune. Check back each month for new top tracks of the moment, and follow our Spotify playlist as we continue to build a soundtrack for our city.

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“Goddess of The Baltimore in Your Mind” by Boister*

In the history of Baltimore music, there have been many leading ladies, and one, undeniably, over the last two decades, has been that of Anne Watts. Frontwoman of art rock collective Boister, the singer-songwriter, alongside her seven bandmates, to make eclectic, transcendent music—yes, boisterous, imaginative music—all for music’s sake. Across eight album, she has ruminated on heady themes like life, death, war, peace, and love, while the band’s new ninth, Goddess of The Baltimore in Your Mind, is a timely collection of songs for and about women. With backing vocals by War On Women’s Shawna Potter, this title track is like a Second Line rallying cry for women everywhere to fearlessly come together, find their inner strength, and rise up. Even Baltimore itself is personified as a goddess. We couldn’t agree more.

“Pull Up” by DDm

Beautiful Gowns was definitely one of the most fun records out of Baltimore this year, and local rap star DDm is keeping the party going with a just-launched video for this big, bold song, featuring captivating dance moves by local R&B artist Rovo Monty (see for yourself in the link above). The bouncing, club-ready beat and confident, commanding rhymes are pure swagger, speaking to swatting away haters, playboys, and punks, and never backing down. It’s an infectious anthem that makes one thing clear: in the streets or on the stage, don’t mess with DDm. Oh, and that, as his star continues to rise, the Baltimore-born artist won’t be shying away from his local roots.

“For The Go Go” by Lafayette Gilchrist

Speaking of important figures in Baltimore music history, Lafayette Gilchrist is high up on that list. The piano master is well-known for his iconic compositions as heard as the score of David Simon’s HBO series The Wire, Treme, and The Deuce, but those in the know are also keenly aware that his music runs far deeper in a lively fusion of jazz, blues, and funk with a touch of go-go acting. Earlier this year, the 2018 Baker Artist Award winner released his second solo album, Dark Matter, recorded live and rooted in sense of place for his main cities, his home of Baltimore and his native Washington, D.C. This buoyant track might be about the latter, where the genre was invented, but in the midst of ballads, it is a clear star for its jubilant energy and virtuosic keys.

“Oh No” by The Dune Flowers

New band alert! And just as we discover the catchy tunes of The Dune Flowers, they’ve already up and left us for Nashville, Tennessee. But the Westminster-bred duo makes music that is noteworthy, and also well beyond the twenty-something years of songwriters Tyler Drager and Oscar Schoenfelder. It’s a 1960s-inspired, early-rock-and-roll sound, founded in fuzzed-out surf guitar, steady drums, and vocal play. A perfect example: this mellow melody that evolves into a rollicking, retro first track off their self-titled, second album. Speaking of young love, night drives, and city lights, it’s an addictive song, at any age.

“Fortune” by Wye Oak

And just like that, Wye Oak comes crashing back into our lives with this turbulent standalone single. It’s a moment of reunion after a period of focused energy on the bandmates’ own respective side projects, with drummer Andy Stack releasing his first solo LP as Joyero this summer and frontwoman Jenn Wasner becoming a part of Bon Iver’s live band. After years apart, they also have come together again in the same city—sadly not Baltimore—but Durham, North Carolina. The moody melody builds, churns, and burns out in a fiery blaze, while, as on their last record, The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs, Wasner’s labyrinthine lyrics address change, considering both the joy and the struggle that come with it.

*Not yet on Spotify. We will add when it becomes available.

Boister
Cast a Net (self released)

For nearly 20 years, Boister—often referred to as a “chamber-pop” or “art-rock” band—has been anything but a one-trick pony. Listen to the title track and hear a beautiful, earthy ballad helmed by the ethereal voice of frontwoman Anne Watts (wife of Baltimore editor at large John Lewis). But then try “Lumiere,” a buoyant, clambering beach jam, or “Chlorophyll,” where a dark, plugging bass line and ghostly vocals morph into soulful, Southern Gothic blues. The multi-piece Baltimore mainstay continues to push musical boundaries with avant-garde gumption, yet masterfully remains rooted in traditional instrumentation and compositions that are honest, human, and true.

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Among Wolves
Separation and Other Loves (self released)

Since 2005, this Baltimore-by-way-of-Jersey band has become an alt-rock stalwart, writing dozens of songs, releasing five accomplished albums, and gaining a loyal following from sets at the 8×10, Ottobar, and WTMD’s First Thursdays. The fivesome uses guitar, bass, drums, and keys to meld indie with Americana, hi-fi with lo, and all the while retains the rock-and-roll urgency of eras past. On this sixth project, the band returns with that same fervor, whether it’s the beautiful slow burn of “Separation/Love Pt. 9,” the gentle ache of “Long Time,” the rough-and-tumble “16,” or the bourbon-bottle blues of “5 Weeks.”