If singer-songwriter Edith Frost sounds like a sweetheart of the
rodeo on her new album, Calling Over Time (Drag City), it's not because she's ever tamed a buckin' bronco.
Simply put, the 32-year-old balladeer is just a fanatic about
cowgirls. She was surrounded by rodeos and ranch hands growing
up in Texas, but it wasn't until after moving to Brooklyn in 1990
that she connected with the cowgal culture.
"My mother likes to shop at flea markets and she wanted to know
what she could get me," explains Frost on the phone from her current
digs in Chicago. "I told her to get me cowgirl stuff because I
figured she wouldn't buy me anything too icky with that in mind."
Seven years later, Frost has a collection of cowgirl paraphernalia
that includes hundreds of figurines, beer signs, dolls, posters,
calendars and a Western Beauty potato sack. Every month, her mother
sends her another trinket.
Some of Frost's pre-war cowgirl figurines are worth well over
$100, however, her favorite piece of memorabilia is a signed photo
of the music act Maddox Brothers and Rose.
"I'm not sure how much it's worth, but to me it's priceless,"
she says.
Frost doesn't love cowgirls just for their kitsch value. Even
though she admits it's hard to say exactly what fascinates her
about them, it's easy to hear an appreciation for range life in
the lyrics to "Pony Song," a serenade directed at a cowgirl's
best friend.
"I don't wanna give you no reins," woos Frost. "I'll look out
over the fences when I see you running/ Oh, can I call you over?"
Her campfire vocal and sparse strumming amble along, soothing
like a warm breeze rolling over the plains.
As for horses, Frost's affection for them started early. She was
riding horseback by the time she was 5. When her family lived
in Mexico for a brief spell during her childhood she had a horse
at her disposal.
"That horse was a jerk," recalls the singer with a laugh. "He
threw me one time and I got afraid and never rode him again."
But Frost's appreciation for cowboy culture actually comes from
reading up on her heroes and researching them on the World Wide
Web. She's even chatted online with relatives of Dale Evans, Roy
Rogers and Patsy Montana. A Web programmer by trade, Frost set
up a "Cowgals Home on the Web" home page a few years ago. Even
though that site is now defunct, you can still find plenty of
cowgirl info and links on the Edith Frost Web page (http://www.enteract.com/~cowgal/).
You can also find out odd facts about her: she has extremely large
feet for a girl, is a big Hello Kitty fan and can juggle flaming
torches.
There's also a page or two about Frost's musical history. When
she picked up guitar in high school, she had blue hair and was
into punk rock. When college rolled around, she became a fine
arts major at the University of Texas, but flunked everything
except for music classes. Though she never graduated, she took
several classes in theory and voice.
"At first I was worried that I'd turned into an opera singer,"
recalls Frost, "but of course I didn't. Any kind of training you
can get is a help."
After moving to New York, she tinkered around in rockabilly and
hillbilly bands, eventually settling on a country-folk sound.
The demos she sent out to various record companies resulted in
two offers: one from the rootsy, Texas-based Dejadisc and the
other from Chicago's Drag City, home to low-key indie rockers
like Palace and Smog. A big fan of Palace, she opted to go with
Drag City on a gut instinct.
Frost fell in love with the Windy City while recording her album
there last year. When her marriage broke up she decided to relocate
to get away from her ex. Quite a bit of her romantic turmoil is
documented in the lyrics to songs like "Too Happy": "I don't want
to be bitter anymore/ Wanna let the sunshine at my door/ I don't
want to be too happy/ just enough to keep me goin'."
For the meantime, she's content living in Chicago, but figures
the cowgirl in her will bring her back to the Lone Star State
in the future.
"I'm more proud to be from Texas than I ever was when I lived
there," says Frost. "It's taken me years to appreciate what's
great about that life."
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Edith Frost