THE FREE LANCE-STAR
wHEN I FIRST began talking with Charlotte Martin, her tour bus was 22 miles from a rest stop, and Martin really had to pee.
The diminutive singer-songwriter-piano player knew she had left Denver, and she thought she was on her way to Minneapolis, but her actual location was anyone's guess.
"I like it," Martin said of being unaware of her surroundings. "Everything else is just kind of passing, and I don't really know about it, and that's good."
Martin is traveling the country as part of the Chicks With Attitude tour, which is headlined by Liz Phair and also includes the Cardigans and Katy Rose.
These feisty females will end their tour at the 9:30 Club in Washington tomorrow night.
Chosen for the tour by Phair herself, Martin's solo piano act and the somewhat mellow pop of the Cardigans balance out the rock sounds of Rose and Phair, Martin said.
Possessing a strong will and a tendency to speak her mind, Martin considers herself a chick with attitude, although the particular attitude may vary throughout the course of a day.
Last month's release of Martin's RCA Records debut, "On Your Shore," coincided with the beginning of the tour, much to Martin's relief--the CD is finally seeing the light after being held up for about four years.
Martin's music is often compared to that of Tori Amos. Album tracks range from bleak and lonely to upbeat and hopeful, but they are all driven by the same thing--strong emotion.
"If I'm not feeling it, I don't do it," Martin said.
The one-time Miss Teen Illinois conveys intelligence and brutal honesty through complex and instantly appealing melodies and vocals.
"I think there's more emotion in the human voice than any other instrument," Martin said.
A classically trained vocalist since the age of 7, she planned to pursue a career in opera until, as a college student, she wrote her first song for a friend's funeral.
"I kind of about-faced and did a 180 because I felt compelled to," Martin said.
The transition was not at all natural, however.
"The first stuff I wrote was terrible--past terrible," Martin said. "I always had to work hard to make things I thought were cool."
She admits to being too hard on herself, but the self-criticism has helped her grow as a songwriter.
Martin applied that same discernment to "Shore," which she co-produced with her boyfriend, Ken Andrews.
She arranged vocals, chose final versions of each song and gave the OK for every single sound that shows up on the CD.
Martin wrote two CDs worth of songs in the time it took for "Shore" to come out. Now that it's in stores, she's already concentrating on her next album, which she will begin recording next week.
After spending so much time recording, writing and touring, "there's not a whole lot of room for anything else. Books. Food," Martin said.
But the self-described hermit, who loves movies, always makes time to talk to her family and waxes eloquent about wine and pad thai.
Martin had an eating disorder in high school, "so I'm making up for all the eating I didn't do," she said.
Which brings us back to the bus and Martin's hunger and her dire need to urinate, which came up periodically during the interview. By the time we get off the phone, the rest stop is just a mile away.
"I'm happy to go to this truck stop," Martin said. "I'm going to pee, and I'm going to buy all sorts of [stuff] I don't need, and I'm going to get food. Maybe fried chicken. And I'm a vegetarian. I might get crazy today."
To reach EMILY GILMORE: 540/374-5426 egilmore@freelancestar.com