Bisexual Blues Singer Candye Kane Brings Sexy Back

Musician Candye Kane has been called a survivor, a

superhero, the sexiest bisexual in music, and the toughest girl alive. (All but

one of those are also titles of her self-penned songs.) As her eleventh album, Sister

Vagabond (produced by Kane and noted

guitarist Laura Chavez) hits the stores, the jump-blues singer, songwriter, and

mother of two from East Los Angeles is fighting cancer again. Raised in what

she calls a dysfunctional blue-collar family, Kane became a mother, a pinup

cover girl and a punk-rock, hillbilly blues-belter by the time she was just 21

years old. She hasn’t slowed down since. A five-time nominee for Blues Music

Awards, who has nabbed 10 San Diego Music Awards, Kane has been touring her

sold-out stage play about her life, The

Toughest Girl Alive. (The synopsis

perfectly sums up Kane: “The stranger-than-fiction story of an ex-gang member,

unwed teen mother, rockabilly, plus-sized ex-adult film star, cancer-surviving,

multi-award winning, bisexual blues phenomenon named Candye Kane.”)

With Sister Vagabond, a worthy successor to last year’s Superhero, Kane reminds blues fans why she garnered a worldwide

fan base in the last two decades. She’s performed for the former president of

France, Francois Mitterand; the French ambassador to Rome; Pedro Almodovar at

Cannes; five private parties for famed healer Louise Hay (who remains a devoted

fan). She’s shared the stage with everyone from Ray Charles to the Circle

Jerks, performed on TV for Queen Latifah, Donny and Marie and Penn and Teller,

and even performed at the lesbian wedding of ecosexual actress Annie Sprinkle.

Oh, and don’t forget the thousands of blues festivals and solo concerts in

between.

Two decades of singing for and

fighting for plus-sized women, sex workers, queers, and transgender folks has

meant a Candye Kane concert today is a colorful mixture of outsiders: bikers,

fat chicks, punks, drag queens, burlesque dancers, aging hipsters, and lots of

rockabilly couples. The audience at The Toughest Girl Alive — adapted for stage by Javier

Velasco, director and choreographer for the award-winning San Diego

Ballet — has a similar feel. (The play returns to the Moxie Theater, a

female-run theater in San Diego, in January.)

The crooner slowed down long enough to talk with The Advocate about her new album, the play, and why straight girls

are still making it hard for America to understand bisexuality.

The

Advocate: Tell me about your

play, The Toughest Girl Alive.

Why tell the story on stage?

Candye Kane: There are some dark

aspects to the play but overall, like everything I do, there is a silver lining

that highlights triumph over adversity and personal strength. It’s a really

different endeavor to do the play because it’s two hours of dialogue and

singing and movement, so it’s a lot harder and more intense than a Candye Kane

Band show

Did you record the album while recovering

from cancer treatments or while you were sick?



No, I was healthy while recording Sister Vagabond. Superhero was

the album I made right after cancer. Although, I have recently been diagnosed

with what they believe is a recurrence of my neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer.

I am lucky because this is the “good” kind of cancer, if there is such a thing.

Did cancer change you?



Absolutely. Number one, am just grateful for every day I am well. I don’t know

how long I will be around these parts so I sing for joy and I sing for life

because I love it so much. If I died on stage, like my friend Country Dick

Montana — one of the Beat Farmers — that would be fine with me. I am so

blessed and lucky to be alive and singing. I get bouts of pancreatitis about

every three weeks but so far it’s been manageable with pain meds. It just makes

me appreciate being healthy when I am.

Did it change your music?



Yes, I feel like it gave me permission to be more serious. I have always had a

good sense of humor and showed that in my songwriting. Songs like “Masturbation

Blues,” “The Lord Was a Woman,” and “All You Can Eat and You Can Eat It All

Night Long” showed my light, fun side and I loved them. But now I feel like I

can dig a little deeper and show the side of me that is a bit darker.

What’s the take away from Sister

Vagabond? Is there a theme

listeners will recognize?



I think Sister Vagabond is a

celebration of the musical union and personal union between myself and Laura

Chavez. She is an incredible young talent and our connection is intuitive. We

really love each other and we work very well together, as well as being best

friends off stage. Laura is my closest ally. She comes to me with my cancer

specialist. She is my advocate, my writing partner, my stage cohort, and in

many ways, she is my sister. I love her so much and I am so lucky to be able to

expose her to more audiences. If there is any theme in Sister Vagabond, it’s the theme of two curvy women making honest

from-their-hearts, rockin’ blues, and celebrating life, love, and broken hearts

in the swampiest, groove heavy style possible. And it’s about putting as many

miles on the road as possible, doing what we love, making music.

You’re still one of a handful of openly

bisexual celebrities. Do you think bisexuals are gaining visibility?



Yes, I do think bisexuality has become more mainstream. Part of me is glad for

that because it has been hard sometimes being called a fence-sitter by my

hardcore lesbian fans and being misunderstood by straight people who think

being bisexual means I want to have sex with everyone. I am a true bisexual; I

love women and men equally and am proud to love them both. But I choose to do

so one relationship at a time. It’s weird how as the LGBT community becomes

more visible it has become hip for straight girls to make out. I think that

confuses people who are trying to understand what real bisexuality means. It’s

not just making out with your best sorority friend at a kegger party. There’s a

little bit more to it than that.

It’s an interesting time.



I am just so excited that more states are legalizing same-sex marriage and that

LGBT people are gaining visibility in every facet of life: the elimination of “don’t

ask, don’t tell” in the military, New York gay marriage, Chaz Bono on

primetime. It’s beautiful to see GLBT people not only courageously demanding

our rights but making inroads on a daily basis. This makes me so proud.

Are you still touring 250 days a year?



I am touring as much as humanly possible this year. I have done 122 shows so

far, not counting my stage play all of January at the Moxie Theater and in New

York City in August.

You got involved with the World

Down Syndrome Congress. What drew you to that cause?



Since 2005, I have been the spokesperson for a charity called

UnitedbyMusic.org. UBM gives talented people with disabilities a chance to get

on the bandstand and show what they can do. We have done it primarily in the

Netherlands but are now trying to establish it here in the U.S. It’s such an

inspiring thing to see people with different disabilities get a chance to play

music with so-called “able minded, able bodied musicians.” It blurs the line of

who is the one with disability. It took us to World Congress for Down syndrome

two years in a row in Dublin, Ireland and in Capetown, South Africa. It’s the

most fantastic project I’m involved in.