Singer-songwriter Janis Ian, 74, is an icon. She’ll be in Maine next week for screenings of the documentary “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence” in Gardiner and Brownfield.
There will be an interview and audience Q&A following the film at both venues, and Ian will sign up to three items each for fans.
Ian released her song “Society’s Child” in 1965, when she was 15 years old. Its lyrics speak of an interracial relationship and includes these lines:
Walk me down to school, baby, everybody’s acting deaf and blind
Until they turn and say, ‘why don’t you stick to your own kind?’
My teachers all laugh, their smirking stares cutting deep down in our affairs
Preachers of equality think they believe it, then why won’t they just let us be?
Her label Atlantic Records refused to release it, but Verve Records did. “Society’s Child” was initially considered too controversial for some radio stations to play, but it eventually reached the No. 14 spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
In 1975, Ian’s songwriting struck an entirely different kind of nerve with the deeply personal “At Seventeen,” on her seventh studio album “Between the Lines.” She won a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance along with Grammy nominations for Record and Song of the Year. On the charts, “At Seventeen,” reached the No. 3 spot.
I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
Ian’s most recent album is 2022’s “The Light at the End of the Line.” It garnered Ian a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album. The album, and the shows that accompanied it, were meant to be Ian’s goodbye to the touring world, so she could focus on other types of writing. However, Ian wasn’t able to finish the tour because of vocal scarring, a condition that left her unable to sing in the way she’s accustomed to. It’s unlikely she’ll ever sing again in front of an audience.
During a telephone interview, Ian, who lives in Florida, fielded questions about the documentary, how important connecting with fans is, and why her social media presence is so important.
How did you come to work with director Varda Bar-Kar?
I had walked away from a deal that I had signed, and then after I had signed it, the person who I signed it with turned into a different person. That doesn’t happen a lot in my life, but when it does, I say ‘OK, my instincts were wrong’. Then Varda got a hold of me about six weeks later. She emailed me, and I said I’m not interested. But Varda said it was really important that we talk, and she persisted. I asked her for samples, and then we talked a couple of times and I liked her work a lot. My entire contribution to the film was three interviews, and I sent her a bunch of photos and memorabilia.
What did you think when you first saw the film?
I thought she did a really remarkable job.
Has doing appearances with the film helped you with the fact that you’re unable to perform?
It’s doing two things. It’s letting me be backstage. For me, like most artists, a lot of us spend a lot of our lives in search of home because we don’t feel like we’re really home anywhere. And so what it’s allowed me to do is go home again, because backstage is home. That has helped, because it gives me the feeling that that part of my life (isn’t) completely over.
And the other thing is, it’s giving me a chance to meet fans. That is a closure for them, and for me, I think because the last album, “The Light at the End of the Line” was really intended as a final statement, and the song was a song for my fans, just to say, here’s how I feel about you. That sounds really clichéd, but I’ve had a 60-year career. How many people get that lucky? Not very many.
How do you feel when a fan tells you how much a song like “At Seventeen” means to them, after all these years?
It’s amazing. I don’t know how to explain it. There’s something so gratifying about not working in a vacuum. To have the knowledge that I have four or five generations who have heard and been moved by stuff like “Society’s Child,” “At Seventeen,” or “Jesse,” it’s a privilege, and I really regard it as a privilege. I don’t take it lightly. When somebody gives me a note or tells me that a song changed their life, I don’t feel like ‘oh here we go again,’ because other artists have done that for me. I burst into tears when I met a writer named Connie Willis because she changed my life. I get it.
In the mid ’90s, you and Joan Baez performed a song you wrote with Jess Leary called “One In a Million.” A recording of it was just released. Why now?
We thought that it was a perfect time for people to have some hope because part of the agenda of this administration is to make sure that we lose hope and that we feel like there’s nothing we can do. We really wanted to give people that sense. I think it’s important for artists to, first of all, stand up, and second of all, give hope.
You have an active presence on Facebook with nearly 600,000 followers and you keep it positive. Why is this important to you?
I think a lot of the people who go on there don’t even know my discography or care. I think they come there because they know that it’s a place where you can have a civil discussion. I think it’s an important thing for an artist like me, because I don’t normally use social media like most artists, where I want to have a publicist to make sure I’m on TikTok and I’m going viral, and I’m this, that and the other. I use it as a communication tool.
Many artists have covered your songs, including Cher, Mel Torme and others. What are some of your favorites?
Celine Dion did an astonishing job on “At Seventeen.” I really thought that was great. Bette Midler did an amazing job on “Some People’s Lives.” There are a bunch of people like Aoife Scott and Mary Black that have done wonderful covers. It’s hard to pick because every cover is different. But when I love a cover of one of my songs it’s because that person really made it their own, they didn’t lift all of my phrasing, and that’s one of the reasons I really like Celine’s.
“Janis Ian: Breaking Silence”
7:30 p.m. Sept. 24. Reehl Stage at Johnson Hall Opera House, 280 Water St., Gardiner, $33 in advance, $38 at the door. johnsonhall.org.
7 p.m. Sept. 25. Stone Mountain Arts Center, 295 Dugway Road, Brownfield, $76. stonemountainartscenter.com.