Jenny Gillespie Mason of Ship Says Om told us about her Tori Amos experience.
Jenny Gillespie Mason: At age fourteen, I attended Tori Amos’ concert in Springfield, IL. She played solo at the piano for about two hours. This must have been around the time of Little Earthquakes. I’m so grateful she decided to stop in our boring Midwestern town because seeing her was so crucial to my own musical development. I had begun to write music and perform at open mics, but the transmission I received from this show enabled me to tap into more confidence, more love of my craft and further motivation to continue on my path. It was like a transmission from the Divine Feminine to be in her presence in the modest auditorium. She filled up that space like a fireball!
I was already in love with her music, her gorgeous wild energy and her lyrics that were elliptical and weird but feminist and funny. Beyond being stunned by her vocal power and piano genius, she was definitely the sexiest, most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen in my life. The way she connected with her piano as something alive and primal and tender, opened me to the knowing that my instrument, at that time a 1972 Martin, was in fact alive. It had its own spirit, its own messages it wanted me to convey.
Tori carried with her a depth of spirituality and shamanic power that poured through her playing and singing, but she was also funny as hell, charming, at ease with us. And she was just so deeply immersed in the music, losing herself in it but also holding us so lovingly, the audience, at the same time with little jokes and a lot of eye contact. It was like being in her presence made us feel like better people. I don’t think I’d seen a musician lose herself so fully in the music, in the sense she seemed to be transcending into a higher sphere. I think this also gave me permission to go deep in my performing and connect with something beyond myself, to close my eyes as Tori did at times and feel the emotions and let my inner experience be shared with the audience.
But in between closing her eyes, she would look so directly at us, but so lovingly and bemusedly too. I never did master that way of going inside and then looking out-I was too shy in general-but I felt she was ministering to us, which is interesting as her father was a minister. I think she’s the best live performer I’ve ever seen, still, after all of this time.
Ship Says Om's Dream Journal is out now.
