» Janie Romer brings ‘Kali’ to the airwaves
Janie Romer’s ‘Kali’ calls on the collective feminine rising
JANIE ROMER is perhaps best known in Taos for (notwithstanding her occasional fashion column in Tempo) the design renovation she did on The Stakeout, the former restaurant that is now, arguably, the hippest event space in Northern New Mexico. Romer and Mark Barker bought the iconic building on a whim, after falling in love with its history and location on Outlaw Hill.
Long a hangout for Taos’ artsy Bohemian crowd, it continues to attract the outré and the bold, helped along by the core group that oversees the events held there, spearheaded by Cecelia Cuff (Parse, Seco Live), and including CeeJay Burnett, Romer’s oldest son. London-born Romer first landed in the States during the 1980s when she worked for a time at Vogue magazine as assistant to then-editor-in-chief, Polly Mellon. She also moonlighted as a singer in rock bands, including Loup Garou, which at the time included George Receli on drums and Tony Garnier on bass, who for three decades were Bob Dylan’s rhythm section.
Romer’s musical partnerships are many and varied, but she’s worked with more than a few of the greats, including the legendary British folkie Bert Jansch, who was her musical mentor.
It was inevitable that upon moving to Taos, she’d once more find herself in the middle of a burgeoning music scene right in her backyard.
The young musicians currently drawn here include Paz Lenchantin (of Pixies fame, who shot their new video under a recent auspicious blood-red sky), Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard, singer-songwriter Jessie Lafser and Oscar Burnett, Romer’s youngest son, who is an artist in his own right.
In 1996, long before staking her claim to Outlaw Hill, long before the pandemic and climate change brought fire and brimstone into the every day, Romer made a trip from London to Germany to see Mother Meera, the Hindu female guru who has attracted millions of followers from around the world. The experience led to her writing “Kali,” a song that could not be more timely. So much so, that when Lafser heard it while visiting Romer in her remote cabin one afternoon this summer, she was inspired to help get the song onto various musical platforms.
Since uploading it to the WWW, it’s gotten a little airplay aqui en Taos, by Howie Roemer and Kiki Shakti on their respective KNCE radio shows. “Back in that era of everything having to be ‘positive,’ it kinda went against the grain, which is probably what triggered the contrarian in me to write it,” Romer said with a laugh when we talked last week.
A hard rock paeon to the goddess of destruction, “Kali” features Romer’s stunning vocal range soaring over the
solid rhythm and stinging emphasis of a rather spectacular guitar solo. The lyrics are no less scathing than the musical arrangement – calling on humanity to recognize the signs of the times.
In its urgency, it recalls the rock anthems of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, when brave young artists including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young spoke truth to power.
“I’m allergic to BS, and very suspicious and possibly too cynical about whatever the current narrative is – and the pipers piping the tune,” she noted. “It was actually Bert ( Jansch) who encouraged me to start writing my own songs,” she added, “‘Kali’ was the first written on guitar.” Acknowledging the collective feminine rising, as it does, and although written and recorded by a woman in early years of motherhood, “Kali” the song is offered now by that same woman in her
full power and maturity, her sons grown to men – as she calls on us through time to honor our mother, the Earth we stand on, the women we were born from – during this moment of global crisis and uncertainty.
“Now everything is ‘negative’ and I’m thinking, wouldn’t it be great if in all the daily COVID death counts, they included the number of births? After all, death is inevitable, but birth is a wee miracle, and life is for the living – plus ‘nature always wins,’ says Kali!”
You can listen to “Kali” on Spotify at open.spotify.com/album/2f6iujKDO7hC noZwscEEIY?nd=1.
See Janie Romer’s redesign of The Stakeout at stakeouttaos.com/story. Read her fashion missive in next week’s Tempo, and find earlier articles online at tempo@taosnews.com.