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other notable music figures, Fure shared a few thoughts about some of them. About
Linda Tillery, she said, "One of the greatest singers around. She is largely responsible for pushing the boundaries of traditional women's music," and with regard to
Eric Clapton, Fure mused, "A master guitar player, a great singer." When she is on the road, Fure listens to
Cheryl Wheeler,
Tina Turner,
Shawn Colvin, and always, James Taylor. However, Fure noted that she probably doesn't listen to as much music now as others do, largely because she does not want to interfere with her own muse, the voice and sound that she hears as her own. " I'm writing my own tune."
After graduating from high school in Marquette, Michigan, Fure set off for Los Angeles. There, at nineteen, she toured with
Spencer Davis, recording "Mousetrap" with him. Also in the 70's she put together a rock-n-roll punk band influenced by new wave's "rock-n-roll with content" sound. As she said, she "got into the electronics of it." She took up electric guitar and learned to manipulate sounds and compositions by laying tracks and working with synthesizers.
Her first album came out in 1973 on MCA Records, produced by the late
Lowell George of Little Feat. Regarding George, Fure reflects, "Lowell was so innovative, a great man with great ideas and an immense desire to create original music. He molded my ideas for creativity and business ethics more than any other and for that I will be eternally grateful." Fure was also opening for bands like Yes,
Poco, and the
J Geils Band. While Fure was composing in the 70's, she was writing the music first and then deciding what she wanted to say. However by the 90's, as she returned to her folk roots and rediscovered the sound of acoustic guitar, she began to write the words first and then compose the music for them.
For Fure the lyrics come as a gift. Although she also writes poetry, she knows immediately when her words have the structure she requires for lyrics. For example, she wrote "The Hawk and the Dove" on
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September 12, 2001, in about five minutes. It was pretty much complete as it arrived, the words set in the right musical structure. Fure states, "My best songs come through me."
For twenty years Tret Fure was teamed up with
Cris Williamson, engineering a record for her in 1981 and then producing her next five solo projects as well as the three duo CDs Fure and Williamson recorded together. Then a few years ago Fure realized she had to make changes in her life. In late 1993 she had been diagnosed with Retinitus Pigmentosa, an eye disease that slowly leads to tunnel vision, and she saw an analogy between what was happening with her vision and what was happening with her life. "I felt that the disease which I have…was an accurate reflection of how I was moving through my life. I felt that I was not pursuing the goals of my own life…" She set out to redefine herself as a solo musician.
Fure's first CD, Back Home, she describes as transformational. The opening song, "This Train," is about making a journey and not looking back. Listeners might also notice an abundance of bird imagery on the CD, and when asked about this, Fure replied, "At the time I wrote most of those songs, I felt like a bird taking flight," this in keeping with the transformational tone of the CD. Her latest work, My Shoes, is more aggressive, perhaps more reassured than the first. Both showcase compositions that grew out of the split with Williamson, but much more than that, both are filled with thoughts of life's bigger journey that we all make.
Fure's inspiration for themes derives not only from personal experience, but also from the experiences of others as they come to her through observation, artistic suggestion, or other means. Her lyrics tend to be full of images that more or less create a form of musical impressionism. For example, "The Apartment" was born from a painting, "1919: The Alarm" by Kusma Petrov-Vodkin and from Fure's personal writings. It addresses the revolution of life and escape. This ability to take a snapshot of something concrete
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