Building a Dyke

Humming and strumming with Kate Reid

She might not have won the 2009 Canadian Folk Music Award, but Kate Reid was just happy to be nominated—no, really. To the Vancouver-based folkie, the nod for New/Emerging Artist of the Year helped to draw some attention to her unique brand of dyke folk.

“People in the folk music community are really liking what I’m doing, which is great because that’s what I wanted, to have my music be out there and have the lesbian and gay community be more visible,” she says. “I felt really proud when I was at the awards because of that. It’s personal-is-political kind of music. So that’s big for me and important for me.”

With songs titles like “I’d Go Straight for Ridley Bent,” “The Only Dyke at the Open Mic” and her unrequited-grocery-store-clerk-crush ditty “Co-op Girlz,” Reid’s penchant for bringing herself and her sexuality front and centre in an often self-deprecating, funny way is indeed a big part of her music. But while others might shrug off their sexual orientation (queer or otherwise) as an unimportant part of their musical identity, Reid feels it’s still something to sing about.

“I often ask myself that question, why is it so important, and I think it’s really important because there’s still a lot of homophobia out there,” she says. “People think it’s sort of passé, but it’s not because people still struggle with coming out. I get letters all the time from people saying, ‘Thanks for doing what you’re doing and please keep doing it.’ It really helped them to come out. It shows me that people are still really having a hard time with their own sexuality and people around them have a hard time with it.”

Good reasons, for sure, but perhaps throw on the track “Uncharted Territory” on her CFMA-nominated I’m Just Warming Up for a more articulate view; it’s just one of the more serious tunes that Reid penned for the follow-up to 2006’s Comin’ Alive. While she still has her sense of humour on album two, Reid says having a second record has allowed her to spread her musical wings a bit.

“I think the serious stuff is important too,” she says. “The funny stuff does get the attention because it’s funny and kind of different, but the serious stuff, when I get emails from people they really comment on that as well.”

And the momentum is still going; Reid is already starting work on her next project: a record for kids of lesbian parents.

“I’m interviewing a bunch of kids and their moms to get the story on what their life is like,” she says. “I’ve gotten some fan mail from younger people and that inspired me to write songs about them because there isn’t really an album out there for kids who have lesbian parents.”

Hey, maybe it’ll get a nomination for Children’s Album of the Year. M

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Kate Reid
(with Jennifer Louise Taylor and company)
7:30pm Friday, December 4
Solstice Cafe, 529 Pandora
Tickets $7-$15
katereid.net