A Few Years Ago and Even Today with Janis Ian, GRAMMY winner for Spoken Word Album of the Year!

"I learned the truth at seventeen / That love was meant for beauty queens / And high school girls with clear-skinned smiles / Who married young and then retired" -- by Janis Ian

       Janis Ian spoke the truth about teen angst in 1975, when her classic "Between the Lines" came out on Columbia Records. That same yearning still happens today, as young women search to find themselves and that perfect someone out there. . .somewhere. Good luck with that, girls.

       When I realized that Janis was going to be signing her book, Society's Child, at Parnassus Books, I knew exactly what my next move would be. I had to find the album in my collection and take it with me to ask her to sign it (the signature is on the brim of her hat). She was so kind and gracious to everyone who had bought her book, and to a few of us who still had that thirty-eight year old album. 

       Janis Ian had a painful sense of right and wrong even as a very young woman. She had somehow survived the turmoil of the Sixties and early Seventies. I am reading her book, and there are a bunch of folks I would like to sock right in the nose even today. She didn't sock anyone in the nose, but she stood her ground and made her way all the way to the present time. What an amazing woman! 

       Thank you, Janis, for your music, your book, the signatures, and the time you spent with me and my friends! Who could resist your wonderful smile?
        CONGRATULATIONS! Janis Ian takes the 2013 GRAMMY for the Spoken Word Album of the Year!

       For more information about Janis Ian and her career: www.janisian.com

Meeting Janis Ian (Society's Child) was a wonderful experience!

Betty, Janis, and the Randy Cannon family are a force to be reckoned with!