Making students into songwriters
Canadian singer/songwriter Katherine Wheatley assists with Nantucket New School's Arts Week and ends her weeklong stay on island with a performance
BY MARLI GUZZETTA INDEPENDENT ARTS EDITOR
After graduating from Queen's University with a geology degree, Canadian singer/songwriter Katherine Wheatley spent five years in the northern Saskatchewan gathering rock samples, then another seven months on a geological survey in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

Katherine Wheatley

"I was without a guitar for the first time since I was 13," remembered Wheatley (who bought her first guitar from a Sears catalogue). "So instead of putting creative energies into guitar, I put it into writing lyrics that, for the first time in my life, weren't rip-offs of Hallmark greeting cards."

The poetic observations of a musician with a scientific eye (and without much in the way of television), those lyrics were the beginnings of Wheatley's musical career, which has included collaborations with bassist Bazil Donovan of Blue Rodeo, Richard Bell of The Band, guitarists Stephen Fearing and Colin Linden, and Wendell Ferguson, a six-time Canadian Country Guitar Player of the Year. In addition to touring Canada and Europe as a solo artist, she is also a member of the band Betty and The Bobs and plays the guitar in Ferguson's popular band, The Smoking Section. Wheatley has also written music for film and television documentaries and has been a musical guest on many television shows, including CTV's Canada AM and CBC Radio's Vinyl Café.

Reporters often compliment the detail in her songs, which she will share with Nantucketers this week during a performance at the New School on Saturday, which will cap off a week writing songs with the students.

"What I love about science is that it's based on observation," Wheatley said. "It's the same for a writer. … I find the best lines come in the grocery line. So much inspiration comes from people's conversation. Or well-scripted novels. I'm amazed at how much the description of frost on the window says about any other things happening in the story."

Wheatley said she has also learned that listeners get drawn into a song when all five of their senses are engaged. "If you can engage those senses, I feel that they're right there. So I think that's one of the goals of writing."

That's just one of the lessons Wheatley will share with the New School students during their song writing sessions, which are part of the New School's Arts Week.

"We are thrilled to have Katherine with us for our annual Arts Festival," said Head of School David Provost. "She brings a great deal of teaching experience and the students are fortunate to have someone of her musical ability in their classrooms."

Wheatley has done similar song-writing workshops with students in the greater Toronto area, where she is a mentor with the School Alliance of Student Songwriters, a group that fosters songwriting clubs at the schools.

The group brain-storming, Wheatley said, helps the students learn more about the artistic method, which, much like the scientific method, requires that things be tried before they are discarded.

"I explain that when you're being creative, every idea is a good idea, and while an idea may not be used in a song, it may start a chain reaction that leads to something used in the song," Wheatley said. "So we make it a point that we all support each other. Every idea is important, and that's one of the main lessons. They learn the collaborative process, and they also learn the courage it takes to be creative, and the need to be open to

other people." I KATHERINE WHEATLEY

When: Sat., May 12, 7 p.m. Where: United Methodist Church, 2 Centre St. Cost: $10 For more information, please call 680-1022.