This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 5, 2010 - Musician/singer/songwriter Michele Isam has earned a strong following over several decades for her work in a number of locally based groups. Isam and Carol Schmidt co-founded the popular Jasmine in the late 1970s, which became one of the most beloved bands in the area and throughout the Midwest. Although Jasmine expanded to include Lydia Ruffin and tour the country, the band eventually broke up in the late 1980s.
However, Schmidt and Isam have continued to perform and record together on occasion, although both have built their own careers. Isam played and toured briefly with Pavlov's Dog, then became an integral member of the band, Fairchild - a group she still performs with as well.
Now Isam has a new recording as a leader, "Songs of a Midwestern Girl." And the CD features her performing a five-song suite of songs based on the life of the legendary American sharpshooter and star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show in the late 19th century: Annie Oakley.
I met Isam near the train station in Kirkwood to talk about the recording project. She had just finished shooting video of a train passing through and told me she planned to edit it with other footage for an introduction to the CD release concert for the new recording. That's scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 9 at Highland Brewery in Kirkwood.
"Trains were a big part of Annie Oakley's life," Isam says. "She traveled around the country on a special Wild West Show train, and she escaped from her life as a servant at a young age when someone gave her a train ticket out of kindness."
According to Isam, the decision to record songs based on Oakley's life was not something she had planned. It only came about through a chance viewing of a PBS documentary on Oakley's life - and a subsequent connection with the story of a woman with Midwestern roots who overcame a difficult childhood to achieve worldwide fame.
"Once I found out Annie Oakley's story, it was really compelling to me," Isam says. "When I saw that documentary about her life, I just was amazed. I think most people only know her from things like the Broadway musical, "Annie, Get Your Gun," or just very superficial cliches that she was a good sharpshooter. Her real life story was quite a shock to me, and when I did more research on her, I really became engrossed in her life."
Isam originally planned to only write one song about Oakley, but that soon changed. She became inspired by the many fascinating aspects of a woman who has been called by historians the first American female superstar.
"I was inspired to write a song about Annie, and I came up with 'Sure Shot,' which I meant to be a very traditional American folk song," Isam says. "But it didn't turn out quite that way. And then I felt like I had a muse shaking me out of an artistic lethargy. I decided to write a couple more, and I really wanted them to be the best they could be. So I asked Dave Torretta, who is a very talented musician, writer and producer, to collaborate with me."
The songwriting collaboration soon turned into a recording project - one that would involve other music by Isam as well as include many of the musicians Isam has worked with over the years in Jasmine, Fairchild and other groups.
"Eventually, we decided to make the songs a suite about Annie and her life and record them," Isam says. "But we wanted to record other songs, too. I had several I had written already that I wanted to document. And I felt like they would all work together on one recording. And with the Dylan song, "It Ain't Me Babe," I had a unique arrangement of that, and it really fit the Americana feel of the CD, so we added that."
The release of "Songs of a Midwestern Girl" this year coincides with the 150th anniversary of Oakley's birth, a factor that helped Isam decide to push the project to fruition. The CD, released in late summer, is on sale at Euclid Records, Webster Records, Vintage Vinyl and Left Bank Books. The CD is also available on the Internet at iTunes, Amazon.com, CD Baby and CD Universe. And Isam is ready to use release concert to create wider awareness for the project.
"Sales have been slow but steady," Isam says. "And with the CD release concert happening, I want to move on and do some other select performances - including some out of town - to try and build awareness. I want to try to get it heard in Nashville. I'm trying to see if 'Prairie Home Companion' might be interested. I'm working toward a showcase performance next March at the South By Southwest Conference in Austin. And I'm brainstorming ways to promote it as much as I can on the Internet."
In the meantime, Isam is building toward Tuesday's concert - editing video, rehearsing the band and getting the word out to fans and friends about the concert and "Songs of a Midwestern Girl." She's especially excited to be working with Torretta, Carol Schmidt, Connie Fairchild, Billy Engel, Mike Newman - and special guest Debra Dobkin on percussion.
"Debra is a wonderful musician who has worked and recorded with artists such as Bonnie Raitt and Richard Thompson," says Isam. "Really, the list of people she's worked with goes on and on - Taj Mahal, Jackson Browne and many more. I met her when she played on the Fairchild CD back in 1992. She's going to come in to play at the CD release concert, and it's really exciting for me that she's going to be here."
Terry Perkins is a freelance journalist whose work includes music coverage.