Victoria Williams Pt. 2

[katefans@world.std.com (Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago)]

Vickie here. I am so very excited I can hardly sit still enough to write
this. I just had the most wonderful time with one of my very favorite
people in the universe--Victoria Williams! We went out to dinner and she
even came up to our apartment. She's so sweet and so nice and I'm walking
on air! I'd been in a blue funk all day because we couldn't afford to go
to the concert and I'd wanted to see her live from the moment I first heard
her music (when "Happy Come Home" was released in 1987). I fell in love
with that album the first time I heard it and she became my third favorite
female artist (after Kate & Jane--btw, I "found" Happy Rhodes long after I
"found" Victoria and my favorites tend to rank in the order that I discovered
them).

 Our guardian bunnies Kim & Richard were able to go to the show because
Richard works for Atlantic Records. He can get us into some concerts (for
instance, he got us into Chaba Fadela and The Sundays free) but not others,
and this was one that he couldn't swing. After Victoria's set was over they
met Victoria and asked her if she wanted to go eat, that they knew of a 
wonderful vegetarian restaurant called The Heartland Cafe. Victoria was 
all for it and said yes. The Heartland Cafe is only a few blocks away from 
where we live so Kim called us in a rush and said to meet them there. The
rest of the evening is still somewhat of a blur. We had a wonderful dinner 
and Victoria told great stories about traveling in Europe (she opened for
Randy Newman a couple of years ago), growing up in Louisiana, making the
film with D.A. Pennebaker and lots of other things. She's a born storyteller
so it was fascinating to listen to her, even when she was just making small
talk. I tried my best to not come off like a "fan", but when it finally came
out that I'd loved her music for so long and that I'd been playing it on my
show since the very beginning, she was SO pleased! I guess when you're used
to "Victoria who? Oh you play music? How nice" or getting receptions like
what I heard about tonight's concert (everyone talked during her set and she
only got the slightest pattering of applause) it must be nice to meet some-
one who really and truly appreciates and loves what you do. She was very
grateful for the support and enthusiasm and also very supportive of what my
show is all about. That's nice for me because I've run into apathy myself
when I tell people about my show and it's shrugged off as just "a feminist
thing". I can't stress enough how sweet and nice and fun Victoria is!

 She told a sad tale of her Walkman breaking and how she's been desperate
for music to listen to so Chris & I offered to lend her a Walkman to take
with her. At first she didn't want to, she was worried that something would
happen to it, but we insisted and that's how she came to be in our apartment,
because we had to come home to get it. I got a show ID and even gave her
some of my shows to listen to. She was here just for a few minutes (long 
enough for her to become acquainted with our two cats, she said she can't
have cats because her dog has a bad habit of eating them!), she signed my
CD of "Swing The Statue" and a poster that I have and then gave me a big hug
and said that it's great to have friends in Chicago now, she'll feel more
at home the next time she's here and then they left to go back to the venue
she played so she could get her guitar! Unfortunately she's leaving early in
the morning or else she said she'd loved to have come over and spent the day
with us. I'm positive we'll be in touch (hopefully) fairly regularly from
now on. I had dozens of questions I wanted to ask her but I didn't want to
overwhelm her or tire her out. 

I'M SO HAPPY!!! Meeting Victoria certainly took away the pain of not being
able to see her concert, though I still wish I'd gone, just so I could have
clapped and cheered her on. She's just too wonderful for words!

Vickie (one of Vickie'n'Chris)
katefans@world.std.com