There's a storm coming through

Every so often, somebody comes along for whom shaking things up is almost second nature. An outspoken activist, a fiercely independent musician with a style that crosses genre borders, a rookie who impresses the veterans enough to end up hanging out with them-any of these can make plenty of waves alone. Atlanta singer/songwriter Doria Roberts happens to be all three, and the ripples are going to be felt for a very long time to come.

The 28-year-old performer was born just as the 1971 hurricane for which she was named struck the coast of her native New Jersey. It was near the end of her college days in Philadelphia, as a student at the University of Pennsylvania, that she began to develop a little wind speed of her own and make her first steps into the music world.

"I picked up a guitar as a distraction because I felt a little overwhelmed, trying to figure out the rest of my life," she recollected. "I started to play some open mics just to get out of my room, and I started writing songs by accident, just about." She has now been playing for nearly seven years.

Her first official show came in the spring before her graduation, but her stay on that scene would be short-she first visited Atlanta in April 1996 and has called this patch of concrete home ever since. "I was getting kind of frustrated with Philadelphia anyway, as far as the music scene, because nobody really took me seriously, mainly because I was a student." A request to assist with the birth of her cousin's baby led to her decision to head south.

Suffice it to say that in the four years since that time, Roberts has been a fairly busy woman. Her first goal was to find other players who could tune in on her wavelength; one answer came in 1997 in the form of Viva la Diva drummer Wayne Glass, who found himself temporarily unemployed after that band split up.

Her next dream was that she might find someone to play cello behind her so that she could continue the writing style she had developed. "I play a lot of bass lines within my chord structures, and when I tried to play with a regular bass player, I found that we were fighting for space within a song...What I've found with the cello is that I can still have the low end, maintain the low end, and it's a lot more fluid."

She got her wish near the start of 1998 as a result of a chance meeting with cellist Okorie Johnson at Eddie's Attic. He is featured prominently on Roberts' 1999 album Restoration, in which he supplies a dark, mellow counterpoint to the mixed folk/soul/jazz vibe of her guitar and vocal lines. The sum total was good enough to win over the judges at last May's Lilith Fair talent search, in which two local acts were selected to open the side stage bill dur.

The crowd may not have been huge, but Roberts made the most of her time. "The highlight came from just hanging out and the atmosphere backstage, everybody treating me as if I was a Sheryl Crow or a Jewel or whatever...Seeing it on that level-that people are making a living, having a great time, and they're genuine people-really impressed me."

Talking to Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde ("'You taught a little black girl from Jersey how to rock'") and surprise guest Sinead O'Connor were two unexpected plums. The jackpot would come later, though, when she got a personal invitation from the Indigo Girls to sing with them on the main stage both nights, and another from tour founder Sarah McLachlan to go solo during the big finale. Not bad for a little black girl from Jersey!

The experience prompted her to quit her day job shortly afterwards and devote herself to making a full-time living in music on various fronts. The home front is HD Records, the imprint she put together in order to release Restoration; plans are in the works to handle albums from a few other acts, starting in the fall.

"It's going to be a distribution thing, trying to get HD Records up as an official company and possibly to get some national distribution out of it. That way, I'll be able to maintain a serious level of independence-not just saying, 'Yeah, I'm an indie artist,' but being able to function as a label and have an income," she explained. She also plans to release the first in a series of EPs of her older songs in the spring.

Roberts sometimes finds herself caught between her dedication to her work (staying independent) and financial security (accepting a recording or distribution deal). In the end, though, it comes down to a question of how much effort the people on the other end are ready to put into backing her work.

"There's really something lacking in that end of dealing with music that I can't really subscribe to right now," she commented. "I'm not saying it's completely out of the picture, but the offers that I've gotten have been pretty substandard. If I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it. I'm not going to screw around and sign some horrible contract and wind up not being able to produce music for 10 years because of something stupid."

Events such as South by Southwest and the Atlantis Music Conference (which she played last year) do less for artists in her position than they used to, in her opinion. The focus has shifted away from giving exposure to new talent, moving instead toward showing off bands that have been getting industry buzz for some time. However, she added, these gatherings do give fledgling musicians a chance to make contacts and pick up business advice.

Roberts has plenty of chances to apply what she learns in her other projects. Last month, she was in New York to tape a set for the upcoming documentary, For the Love of Rock. The film deals with women in music and will feature performers such as Michelle Lewis, Melissa Ferrick, and Amy Ray (of the Indigo Girls). The producers had been in attendence at one of her shows in October and approached her based on what Ferrick had said about her during that segment's taping.

When the dust settled, Roberts found herself playing to the cameras during a benefit at the Mercury Lounge. "I just did it. I couldn't afford it, and it was right after Christmas-I usually take time off, the end of November, December, and January. But I didn't care; I just did it, and it went great."

She has recently become involved with Nuci's Space, a nonprofit facility set up in Athens to provide rehearsal space and services for musicians. The idea came from the family of Nuci Phillips, a songwriter and UGA student who killed himself in 1996 after fighting a five-year battle with clinical depression. When Roberts heard about these events, she felt an immediate connection.

"I saw the story and thought, 'That easily could have been me, but for the grace of whatever, it wasn't.' I wanted to contribute a voice for the struggling musician. I'm still struggling, I'm not past that, and it really hit home: the human side of being an artist and the toll it can take on you." Roberts now distributes information on Nuci's Space at her shows.

She also takes every opportunity she gets to spread the word about Queerstock, an exhibition of gay musicians and artists that is going into its fifth year of touring. Atlanta, Boston, New York, and Durham are on the current itinerary, with stops in Chicago, Philadelphia, Portland, and San Francisco slated for later this year. "I'm expanding it as much as possible, but I do it all out of pocket. It's a lot of work," she admitted. However, it helps her keep a sense of perspective about her place in the field of music.

Life in Atlanta has certainly been interesting for Roberts: Restoration, Lilith Fair, Queerstock, the film, Nuci's Space, and an occasional show with people like Michelle Malone and longtime friend Josh Joplin. She still works on mapping out exactly where she wants to go, both artistically and physically.

"Atlanta's cool, but I get wanderlust and need to get on the road. There are a lot of places I haven't been...I've never had an interest in being a big fish in a little pond. I kind of want to keep growing and meeting people, and I still have the energy to do it. I'm going to keep doing it until I peter out," she reflected.

If she does decide to pull up stakes later on, she may want to send out a few storm warnings before she rolls out. People need to know if a hurricane is coming their way.

Doria Roberts will be performing with Jeffrey Butts at Eddie's Attic on February 27. Call (404) 377-4976 for details.