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By Anonymous |
When you are born with a famous name and famous parents, you are born with a lot of pressure. Ask Frank Sinatra Jr., hockey's Mark Howe, or even Louise Goffin.
Louise who? Well, perhaps her father, Gerry Goffin, isn't as recognizable as her mother, Carole King. Anyone who has stuck an ear to the radio during the past decade has heard her work. That's a tough act to follow, as teenaged Louise is finding. With a rather similar voice, and (worse yet) slightly likened musical preferences, comparisons have proven inevitable.
"I'm trying so hard not to be forced to follow in my mother's footsteps" she says "But everywhere I go, no one wants to treat me like an entity on my own. I love my mother, but it's as if people think she writes my songs for me. I can't get out from beneath her shadow yet."
Her first album, Kid Blue, was a good beginning though. A waif-like offstage personality, she energetically comes to life in concert. Her singing is strong and sincere, and she has an engaging onstage allure. The album seems timid by comparison. With strong session work by some of L.A.'s finest players, her identity gets a little submerged by the competition.
"It was pretty ambitious," she says of Kid Blue. "It was a learning experience. I think I learned more what not to do, than what I should do, for the next album."
Completing a cross-continent tour headlining with Greg Kihn on the "Rock and Roll: The Next Chapter" show this past fall, she's writing material for another album, to be ready for the summer. "I'm just getting into it, so I shouldn't be put off, but I hope I can establish my own style. I hope people will let me be me.
©1999 TG Magazine/Le Magazine TG
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