A Song from the Word Girl
by Brent Hagerman, Echo Magazine, October 19 - 25, 2000
"For me language is play.  As a writer I like to have fun, I like double entendre and words that can turn in on themselves and gobble up their own heads.  You can hear them the first time and get one meaning and the second time get a different one.  That's why I don't write pop songs.  There are too many wonderful words out there to just write pop songs."
Pat Skinner is a writer, both of songs and stories.  She has just released a new CD, Sundays for Maud, with the ensemble known as The Pat Skinner Band.  The release party will be next Friday night, October 27, at the Boathouse in Kitchener.

I talked with Pat recently about her role as a writer, singer, and soup maker (ever since I read the press release for "Sundays," with its description of a pot of roasted squash and pear soup simmering on the stove, I have had a hankering for fresh autumn soup).  I imagine the soup to be thick and filled with diverse flavours that linger long after the soup has left the palette, although as yet I haven't tasted any.
I have sampled Pat's music, though, and the same description applies--densely worded songs full of double and triple meanings that take many listens to even begin to digest.  Would you expect any less of a woman known as the Word Girl?

Pat has a background in words.  She graduated from UW with two degrees in English, taught English and other subjects in Kenya (where she used to amuse her students with Barbara Streisand impressions and teach them Cat Stevens songs) and she used to work at a bookstore.  She left the bookstore to concentrate on writing a novel but realized that songs were easier to finish and that unlike novels, songs are allowed to have empty spaces.
"I found it easier to write lyrics than a book because of their brevity.  I also like that you can leave blanks and the listener can fill them in their own way."

The ideal listener is something we discussed in Pat's apartment over hot apple cider.  Her press release says that the 12 songs on the album invite the "Sunday listener."  Pat helped explain that term to me.

"I've found that my favourite albums are the ones I listen to by myself.  My ideal listener is one that participates in active stillness.  By that I mean a state of contemplation, actively thinking about, and appreciating, the music while they listen."
Sundays for Maud is dedicated to Pat's grandmother, Maud Crane, and the Sundays that Pat spent with her before her passing this summer.  The album features songs written by Pat and the people she plays with, or has played with in the past.  The present band consists of Arun Pal, Mark Spielmacher, and Jeff Grischow.  Serge Solski and Rick Endrulat, who used to be in Sweetfall with Pat, also contributed to the album.  The songs are acoustically-based:  some with drums, some without, and all are full of thoughtful music and lyrics.  The arrangements are generally simple and uncluttered.  Pat told me that she liked that approach so that people could hear the lyrics.

"Sweetfall was busy, electric, and dramatic.  Often the lyrics would get lost in all that stuff and people would tell me after they listened to the album that they had never really heard the lyrics before.  The time the lyrics are simpler to listen to."
The songs on Sundays really capture the word girl at her best.  Some songs like "Big Red Lolas" are descriptive memories of summertime at Pat's grandmother's house with a childhood friend.  The lyrics are fairly simple and straightforward and easily conjure up mental images. Just like a scent can evoke a forgotten memory, lines like "We jump on our banana seat bikes" immediately turned "Big Red Lolas" into a memory from my own childhood.  I guess I was just "filling in the blanks," as Pat would say.

Other songs are filled with sexual overtones and double entendres that don't always sink in during the first listen:  "When you enter me see how my bones grow fluid," or "Let me love you on my knees" both from "White Girl Hotel," or "I cover her body to cover your view / of me in her body" from "Oblivion," a song inspired, and partially borrowed, from the Josephine Hart novel of the same name.

Such lyrics can slip by the listener absorbed in the seemingly innocent music but can provoke when concentrated on.  This is one reason that Pat really likes the feel of the album and band.
"When people hear the acoustic music and see the nice dress they get a sense that it's all pleasant, even if the words aren't.  The words don't seem so offensive when presented in a non-threatening form."  Since Pat writes with the other band members I was interested to find out how the songs on Sundays took shape.  Pat does play guitar, but she apologetically told me that the guitar had been collecting dust more than anything else lately.  Mark and Arun were the chief music writers on the album and Pat, of course, penned the lyrics.

:A few of the songs came from me playing around on the guitar and recording them on my answering machine.  But often Mark would have the music done and I would listen to it and start to write a postcard [short] story inspired by the song.  That's how songs like "Dhows Longer" came about.  I seem to write really well at The Second Cup.  That's where I whittle the story down to a song.  In fact, I spend so much time there I feel like I should play for them sometime to sort of pay them back."

Pat has often played in various bands and formats, often with the same musicians.  Jeff Grischow heard Pat singing in a parking lot to a friend who was leaving on a trip and liked her voice so much it lead to the two of them playing in several bands together including Crowd of One with Arun Pal and Sweetfall with Arun, Rick, and Serge.  Pat and Arun also perform together under the name The Pat Skinner Duo.  Pat also sang with Swacked, the band who had an exquisite song called �Long Hot Summer� (and an album of the same name).

According to Pat, there may be an added incentive to make the trip to The Boathouse next Friday.  We discussed that roasted squash and pear soup at length, partly because of my fascination with it.  It seems that others have expressed an interest in it as well, so much so that Pat has taken to printing off the recipe for it and handing it out.  While she is toying with the idea of doing this at the release party (buy a CD, get a roasted squash and pear soup recipe), I�m pushing for the real thing.  It wouldn�t surprise me if a few bowls of it do end up floating around; Pat feels that music and food are natural together.

�I really like playing in restaurants.  There is something about playing for people who are eating that is different, and better, than playing to a bar crowd.  People seem more relaxed and enjoy the experience.�

There are even food references on the new album though sometimes not explicit ones.  �Mons Truss� is one example that I will leave the listener to figure out.  One more thing:  if you plan to be an appreciative Sunday listener of Sundays for Maud, you might want to keep your dictionary in your lap.  I know I did.

The Pat Skinner Band usually plays at The Boathouse in Kitchener the last Friday of every month.  Next Friday, of course, is the release party for Sundays for Maud.  The band has an opening gig at The Button Factory for Failte earlier in the night so will leave the opening duties to Boathouse favourite Mike Tea.  The cover is $3 and CDs will be on sale for $12.
A painting of Pat Skinner by Shannon Reynolds
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