Checking in with Rachael Yamagata and Lenka on the Hotel Cafe Tour, and Enter to Win a CD!

The Hotel Cafe Tour has a “Lillith Flair.”

And Rachael Yamagata has a way with words. No wonder one of today's most formidable female singer-songwriters was ready for a little Girl Talk.

Yamagata was speaking of the all-female tour she was getting ready to join on the east coast in late October. The comparison to Lillith Fair, Sarah McLachlan’s successful traveling show from 1997-99 also known as "A Celebration of Women in Music," was inevitable. After all, the Hotel Cafe Tour, this latest rolling caravan of eclectic, eccentric and electric performers, is becoming a juggernaut, too.

“I think definitely there’s that vibe to it; trying to find artists that offer some very unique music,” Yamagata said after completing her first sound check in Washington D.C. “I think it’s cool because I feel like we’re all a part of the same team; musically, here (unlike Lillith Fair) you’ve got such integration with the musicians playing on everyone’s stuff. ... I feel like it’s an improv situation where people get up there and anything goes. Artists singing each other’s tracks and maybe a cover, it’s unique to be able to watch several people kind of chime in and do this collective performance, having a great time.”

As Yamagata explained it, the women would perform a few of their own songs with a house band and sit in on select sets by other artists. No coin flips or drawing straws would be involved, and no battles to become the headline act. Then, if all went well, they would come together for a “Last Waltzish” moment to end the show. Just make sure to check those egos in at the stage door.

“It’s really more about everybody supporting everyone else and introducing crossover audiences to the other artists; and so we try to keep it fluid like that,” she said.

“I just think it’s really interesting to have to such a support network of other women, all on the road together," Yamagata, right, added. "It’s sort of unique; Lillith Fair was willing to do it but I haven’t seen much of that (lately); so I think that will be really great to bring back that kind of communal energy.”

Article Author: Michael Bialas

A newspaper editor and former college football player, Michael Bialas makes sports his business but exploring and reviewing music, movies, TV and other forms of pop culture are among the games he enjoys playing now.
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