Even cowgirls get the blues…
by sandi tomlin-sutker

But these girls just “wanna have fu-un!” And while they’re at it, they want to break a few stereotypes, publicize a few local issues, remind us all that we don’t have to be perfect to get out there, and oh, at the same time, play and sing some fantastic music!

Julie and I, along with our summer intern Emily Perry, met with these cowgirls (who call themselves the Buckerettes) to find out who they really are. The Buckerettes (Robin Cape, Deb Criss, and Roberta Greenspan) played at our Summer’s Eve Celebration while the crowd danced their toes off. We, and the partygoers, fell in love with these women and their music, so we looked forward with great expectation to learning more about the individual women and the group.

First question, of course, was—Where in the world did you get that name? “There are so many bands in this town,” Robin laughs, “so you have to find your niche, your branding.” One day they were goofing around, throwing out names with a cowboy/cowgirl theme: buckaroos, buckerettes. Later Deb called and said, “you know that name, Buckerettes, it’s sticking with me.”
Were they worried that the ‘ette’ on the end was a bit sexist? “Look, I don’t have a diminutive female bone in my body,” Robin warns us, “so we can reclaim that ette! Plus people really crack up when they hear that name and remember it.” And then there’s the whole connection with “bucking the system” and these three women are definitely doing that.

Even though having a good time with the music is important to them, they are all accomplished musicians. Julie asked when the music started for each of them. Emily wanted to know their influences. Having heard them play and sing, we were not surprised at the answers.

Roberta began with the violin/classical music in elementary school. “I was really very shy and I liked the instrument and it gave me a focus. Then it helped bring me out of myself. I liked it well enough to continue and I made my first close friends in high school in the orchestra. Later I started jamming with friends and doing some folk music…our first band was called The Bathroom Door! When I went on to college I continued with orchestra and quartets, then one day I heard a guy fiddling around.” What followed was much less orchestra, and many nights of staying up until 4:00am, recording hours of fiddle music, skipping her Friday classes! “I got together with two friends studying agriculture in the late 70’s at the University of Delaware—we named our band The County Extension Agents.”

Later Roberta (Bert to her bandmates) blended these two interests of gardening and music when she traveled for 3 1/2 years, with partner Marilyn, in Canada and as far away as New Zealand and Hawaii doing gardening for room and board. “That really broadened who and what I was open to—we’d stay with people in Hawaii, for instance, and if they wanted to watch three Sci-Fi movies in five days that’s what we did. That really helped me come back here and juggle all the things I’m doing.”

Roberta played for about five years in Pittsburg with a square dance band—Whiskey on Tap. Old-time music is still her favorite style. Then, around 1990 she met up with Deb, who was traveling at the time. They played a lot together on the road before each ending up in Asheville in 1991 playing with Deb’s band Grandmother Time.

Deb’s love of music started at age two when she recalls hearing a commercial melody on the radio. At age five she started playing the piano by ear, then picked up the guitar at age ten. She played in high school groups and on TV talent shows with her brother. “I came up in a musical family…everybody sang, amidst our dysfunction that was the one time we were together. In Florida I was in a rock’n’roll band, then traveled around solo, went to the Virgin Islands…I guess by age 25 I was seriously performing music. Now I love world music—groups like Donna the Buffalo.”

Roberta Greenspan, Deb Criss

Robin interjects: “So that’s why when people ask ‘Do you know…’ I’ve learned to ask ‘Do we?’! She knows so many things, so many songs. As a bass player I can follow along, for the most part, if I can see her hands!”

Mutual respect for each other is so evident among these women. Deb responds to Robin’s comment with: “she can follow along with anything.” Robin demures, telling us that she didn’t pick up the bass until just a few years ago. Of course, she began playing the piano at age seven. “I went to college early through advanced placement as a piano major. But in my first class my professor looked at me, slammed her books down and yelled, ‘I am sick and tired of being given students like you who will never amount to anything except a third-rate piano teacher because you’ve moved around your whole life…’ and here I was 17! In six months I quit the piano and left school pretty soon after that. I’d been playing around with a guitar and a dulcimer so I traveled around playing dulcimer on the streets of Vancouver for money! At lot of my influences were Jazz and I want to do more of that in the future.”

Robin Cape

Robin didn’t really pick up an instrument again until age 42. “Deb and I sang in a few projects and I’d been singing with the Raven Moon band in Weaverville, thinking how much I like the bass. One day the bass player came up to me and said, ‘you can’t just stand there and sing; I play mandolin, guitar, banjo, and I’m stuck playing the bass.’ I’d had enough music theory that it was easy for me: I learned on Sunday and every Friday and Saturday for the next two years we had a gig!

“Learning the bass was really a part of a spiritual realignment for myself after the event with the piano teacher all those years before. I decided I’d give myself a Gift: to be non-critical. Music is all about being in communion and relationship with each other…if you can laugh it just intensifies the whole energy.

“I wanted to show people you don’t have to be perfect to follow your bliss. The Buckerettes are about being so happy and real about it that you [the listener] say, hmmmm, where’s my Bliss?”

Of, course, it can’t all be bliss…three very talented musicians, strong opinions and egos. How do they keep it all together, maintain the harmony?
Deb and Robin laugh out loud. “Robin and I have big stuff between us, early on we could come into a room and if we weren’t fighting in five minutes, it was amazing!”

“We’ve known each other 20 years,” Robin tells us. “One time, playing a gig together, I looked at Deb and thought ‘Wow, she looks just like my grandmother did when she was young…’ and my husband Ivo told me how much she sounded like my grandmother…it’s funny, Deb, that your band was called Grandmother Time!”

“Along the way, Robin and I discovered that we sang beautifully together, so we just had to continue working on it. You know, you can count on your hands how many times that happens. It took us a while!” One day we went into the woods to do a ritual…we realized we wanted to play together…we realized, here we are.”

Robin finishes, “We sat by the river and vowed to let go of what we used to share with each other, we said ‘Let’s make a turning point.’ We made agreements about how to move into the music together.”

“And knowing that it might not be easy, we laid out some things that would be easier for us, like communication.

We still trip up sometimes, but we do remarkably well. And we’ve both grown…god, we met each other 20 years ago! I think the beautiful thing is that we each could recognize each other's growth and not have to carry that old baggage forward.”

Roberta laughs that she didn’t know anything about all this earlier! She and Deb also went through some stuff early on and are just now putting together that they each come from similar family dynamics: two other siblings and with father dynamics that are similar. “You know, the ‘females are stupid’ mentality. Deb’s father is the mirror image of my father!”

Robin explains her view: “Until women deal with themselves, their own issues, there’s a lot of competition that comes up: even if there’s not sexual competition there’s competition for power. Women have been pitted against each other for thousands of years, so, until you’re conscious, you’re caught up in it!"

Deb: “When we met, I was going through some changes myself, having to realign my purpose with my music and my soul."

“This band,” Roberta says, “has been a real bringing together. I am more vocal on stage than ever. I grew up singing backup and harmony…Deb has encouraged me to sing the lead more. Even though we’re doing this mostly for fun, I’m being challenged musically. Sometimes, I’ll think I’m tired, and then I’ll end up practicing for 2 ½ hours.”

Robin agrees. “We are crafting our songs more. I arrange more in this band than ever. It’s amazing, the risks we take, what we try to do with our songs, creating our own flavor.”

All three of them clamor to tell us: “We have this new song Zen Cowgirl…we all started writing it on our way home from our world tour…yeah, the world of Tryon Barbeque Fest and a gig at the Durham Triangle Folk Society. We’re wanting to write more songs with cowgirl themes…yeah we got a gig from our ad in WNC Woman to play at a birthday party with a cowboy theme…If folks come to our CD release party they’ll get to hear this song…yeah, we have to get it ready!”

It’s almost time for Roberta to go to her day job. “What is that by the way?” Julie asks. “I work for Ancient Sun Nutrition, we sell blue-green algae products. It’s a very flexible job so I can do my music too, along with reclaiming a fallen-down house, riding my bike, and gardening.

“I don’t want to be on tour all the time, but I want music to be a real part of my life—to make music and have fun and make some money at it”

We want to know what the other two women do when they aren’t playing music. Deb responds: “I’ve always been in the healing arts—massage, nurse, counselor. Now my partner Mary Anne and I have a couple of vacation rental cabins. My favorite thing, other than music, is nurturing people in that sanctuary space.”

Robin: “My husband and I had a business, Preservation Hall, first in Asheville, then in Weaverville. We did that for nine years. Recently we decided if we sold that business, lived really simply, we could make it on our rentals and music…so we did that.”

The flexibility of this lifestyle enables Robin to participate in her other passion: local government. “A few years ago I got involved with the Woodfin water board to save the watershed from logging—we were successful.” Now she is running for an Asheville City council position in the upcoming election.

Finally, before we wrap up (and head to any day jobs we might have), intern Emily Perry (also an accomplished musician in her home state of New Hampshire) has a couple of questions for the group. “I’m wondering if you’re taken more seriously at your ages? Is it easier to get a gig as an adult group?”

Deb: “I think because we’re really not trying too hard...we’re having fun, and it seems easier to get gigs!”

Robin: “Once people see and hear us, they want us…but really there’s more ageism toward our age group. Women singers are supposed to be sexy, young and beautiful.”

Roberta: “I think it’s the novelty too. We tend to get more gigs like your fundraiser, the Sierra Club, Mountain Conservancy Land Trust. I think our age and wisdom are being reflected in the kinds of gigs we’re getting. And we can also get fun gigs like the Paddlers’ Pub!”

Robin: “I think I also have absorbed the society’s ideas about age. Like if you haven’t made it by the time you’re thirty you’re a has-been. But I think since we’ve chosen not to go the route of the good lookin’ sex queens…we’re just women who are who they are...and I think we have a “market share” of people who are moving right along with us in age, we’re in a lucky niche.”

Deb: “And when you start out as a younger musician, we all have egos, and we have to get past that, grow past it. It’s a lot more fun now, with that part not being there.”

Roberta: “For me this band is one of the most fun, best experiences I’ve had. I appreciate the talent and hearts of these two musicians…everyone has the highest good and each other’s interest at heart.”

They all agree that they’re pretty much “just living here in the mountains, enjoying life, playing music". Sure they sing the Blues. “We all experience the blues from time to time, but we don’t focus on despair. We really do want to have fun with this!”

To reach The Buckerettes: TheBuckerettes@hotmail.com or 828-216-4009

Upcoming Buckerette Gigs:

Aug 6 Paddlers' Pub, Hot Springs 7:30-10:30
Aug 7 CD release—Wild West Extravaganza PartyGrey Eagle Asheville 8-11:00
Sunday Sept 4 Main Stage—LAFF festival, downtown Asheville
Friday Sept 9, Malaprops—Downtown Asheville (time to be announced)Sat Sept 10 Paddlers' Pub, Hot Springs 7:30-10:30
Sat Sept 17th Conservation Network Benefit, Dupont Forest
Sat Sept 23 Flat Rock Music Festival, Main Stage,