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5 Questions
with Dawn Tyler Watson

(return to part 2)

 

Your originals tend to cover topics not often explored in blues, or to cover the old topics in new, unexpected ways. The Ten Dollar Dress tune "Latex," for example, brings a contemporary twist of direct sexuality to the old "cheatin' song." How important is it to you to do things artistically that have not been done before?

"Latex" is kind of tongue-in-cheek; it's a fun song but with a serious message. People respond to it. I do like to stimulate people or even take them outside their comfort level a little, with a song like "Hey Hey" [which deals with drug addiction] or "Abused." I like it that at the end of "Abused," people don't seem to know what to do. And I think the reason a lot of people are uncomfortable is that so many people were abused, are abused, or are abusers, that they don't even realize it. So songs like that stir intense emotions in people, and they're like, "Do we clap? Do we holler? Do we not?" But I know then that I've touched them, that I've made them think. And that's good. It's a song I don't do it live often, because it's so heavy emotionally for me.

It's so great to have this album out there and to get a good reception. Especially as a songwriter, because I always thought my stuff was too heavy, too controversial, and too personal to be experienced by other people. I didn't understand until a couple of years ago that different people can experience a song - just like a painting - with different eyes. That everyone will see different things in them. And that I didn't have to be such a literal writer, that I could be more abstract. So I'm happy to have people saying that "Latex" is a cool tune.

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