CANDYE KANE "SUPERHERO" Source: Lincoln Journal-Star Date: 09/2011 Writer: Kent Wolgamott

Candye Kane ready to return to her favorite Midwest city

Candye Kane likes Lincoln so much, she once considered buying a house and moving here.

"I really love that town," she said Wednesday from her San Diego-area home. "It's my favorite Midwest city. I've been coming there forever, since 1986. There's something really special about Lincoln. The people are really sweet and down to earth and good people, and the Zoo Bar, of course, is such a great place to play."

Kane, the "Toughest Girl Alive," will be back at the Zoo on Tuesday with an excellent new album to push along with her message of hope, optimism and resilience in the face of adversity.

That message comes from Kane's life. Growing up in a dysfunctional family, Kane's mother taught her to steal at age 9. Her father was in prison. Other relatives struggled with mental illness and alcoholism.

"Growing up like that, you not only have to be self reliant and learn your own strength, you learn compassion and an incredible amount of patience with people who are troubled and difficult -- musicians fit right into that," Kane said with a laugh.

At 17, Kane became an unwed mother. A year later, she began working in the sex industry, doing modeling, films and writing for magazines. Kane also overcame an abusive relationship, drug problems and, most recently, pancreatic cancer, for which she had surgery in 2008.
"Cancer is nothing compared with the other obstacles I've overcome," Kane said, adding that her cancer has returned, in a small way.
That cancer is carcinoid, a rare form that hits only 1 in 100,000 people, including Apple's Steve Jobs. She is seeing a specialist in that cancer, but she's not letting it slow her down.

"There are many people living for decades with this kind of cancer," she said. "I'm going to be on the road singing until I drop dead. If I'm lucky, I'll die on stage the way my friend Country Dick Montana did."

Montana, who was in the Beat Farmers, was in the Southern California roots rock community, where Kane began her musical career. Discovering the brassy blues of Big Maybelle, Memphis Minnie and Ruby Presnell, Kane changed her style and became one of the leading lights of the blues circuit.

Nominated for multiple Blues Music Awards last year, Kane has just released her 11th album, "Sister Vagabond," her second collaboration with guitarist Laura Chavez, with whom she co-wrote nine of the album's 13 songs and co-produced.

Kane sees herself as a mentor/mother for the 28-year-old Chavez, encouraging her to put her talents to work in the studio and on stage.
"My job in Laura's life is to push her into the spotlight where she belongs," Kane said. "She's naturally shy and stands back. I literally stand behind her on stage and push her into the spotlight using my whole body. It's funny to watch, but if I didn't do it, she'd stand at the back of the stage with her hat over her face."

Last month, Kane's past came back at her when a festival in Shelby, Ala., canceled her appearance because of her sex work decades ago.
"Fear is a powerful thing," Kane said. "The fear of sexuality is one of the more powerful fears. During a sexual situation, our bodies are out of control. It can be a scary thing. ... People like to judge what they don't understand themselves. I'll be 50 this year. The portion of my life I did sex work was five years. The other 45 years, I've been a mother, a singer, a songwriter, a sister."

That said, Kane acknowledged she's been candid about her past because she didn't want people digging up things and not getting the full story. And she says, in the long run, that's been a great benefit to her.

"I'm probably the only blues artist who's played the Monterey (Bay) Blues Festival, The Hooker's Ball in San Francisco and New York Gay Pride and I'm not gay," she said. "I've had a tremendous run because of my decision to be who I am."

Kane was preparing to hit the road when we spoke, going first to Texas, then heading north to Nebraska.

"I'm really looking forward to getting back to Lincoln," she said. "Going down into the Haymarket district, going to the antique stores. All the stuff I do there. I really like that town."