It's about time Kim Lembo is getting back to putting so much of her soul into her music.
That's what her good friend Penny Jo Pullus said about a year ago when the Syracuse native flew from Oakland to Austin to talk about this feeling that was taking hold of her anew.
And so after a 15-year gap in her discography, expect a new collection out in 2016 from the singer who set the Salt City afire with four records on Baldwinsville-based Blue Wave Records, starting with 1994's "Blue Heat," running through "Mama Lion" and "Ready to Ride" and capping with "Paris Burning," recorded live in 2000 at the Chesterfield Cafe in, yes, Paris, France.
And Lembo is stoked about it.
"I really love these songs," says Lembo of the dozen pieces she expects to be on the record she's in the midst of recording with Gawain Mathews in his East Bay studio in San Pablo, Calif. "You're a writer. You know how there comes a point when your story comes to life for you?"
Lembo is taking ownership of it all during our phone conversation, and my old friend from the days when I covered the music scene for the big daily and she was a big part of it never sounded so pleased about it all.
"This story, this record, in my head, is coming to life as a real thing. And it's a really good thing," she says.
Lembo moved from her hometown to San Francisco 15 years ago, she says, because she had to.
"I left because it let me grow as a human being and as an artist," she says.
She lived in the vibrant city by the Bay for nine years. She worked with non-profits.
"It was really magical," she says.
Lembo rose to a position with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation where she ran both the San Francisco and Los Angeles offices, coordinating fund-raising and managing 600 volunteers. Then she was promoted to Associate Director.
But in her personal life, she'd moved across the bridge to Oakland, to a calmer pace, and began meeting and mingling with other like-minded artists there.
"I've been living in Oakland the last six years," she says. "Right now I'm in a hillside building, looking out the window at a mixture of Redwood trees and beautiful buildings. I'm a little bit of a country girl at heart."
And a lot of an artist and musician. The creative urge was taking over. Lembo quit her job with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation in October. Two days later, fellow Syracuse native Pullus listened to the bones of the songs Lembo had inside her and told her to chase her muse again with a purpose.
"It's been a wonderful year, I have to say," Lembo says.
The songs are different than the blues old fans will remember.
"It's not a total sea change," she says. "But I have grown up. I do play guitar now. I am a simple player. I am not without a guitar or harmonica with me now. It has a groove. But it's not screaming guitar with me screaming vocals. It's more thoughtful. I think it's a grown-up record."
Examples of the new sound can be found at her site's music page.
And Central New Yorkers will be able to get a taste of the solo version at 7:30 Wednesday at Muddy Waters, 2 Oswego St., Baldwinsville. Yes, Lembo is flying home for a hometown show, an intimate 45-minute set, Lembo, her voice and her guitar, a slot for which she thanks club owner Tom Taylor and her friend in her friend in Syracuse band the Easy Ramblers, Scott Ebner.
"I am very aware and very nervous," she says. "I've done shows out here in larger theaters. I opened the Queer Arts Festival two nights in a row, 20 minutes in front of 175 people. But I'm more nervous coming home. It's a listening experience. You might move a little, dance a little. But you listen to the music."
Special, indeed, Lembo says.
"My hometown is very important to me. So I'm coming back home to share music that's important to me," she says.