Hickman ventures back into adult music
By: Andy Langer, News 8 Austin
Sara Hickman’s latest album cover pays homage to the Kama Sutra; this from a woman who’s spent the last five years concentrating on children’s music. Make no mistake, Motherlode, her new album, is what she calls "Adult Music."
"It’s funny, I never had to say ‘adult music’ until I started making children’s music. Then I had to start quantifying it because people would come to my shows at 10 p.m. with their 4-year-old or come to my 2 p.m. kids shows and be confused. ‘Adult’ was the quickest way to explain what I’m doing. I guess that does have a tawdry connotation to it though," Hickman said.
A concept record, Motherlode has a choose-your-mood, choose-your-disc premise. You can explore despair on disc one and happiness on disc 2. For Hickman, it’s a chronicle of not just the woman she is today and where she’s been, but of a veteran songwriter finally coming to her own.
"I feel like this is the strongest adult CD I’ve made in that I feel the most comfortable in my skin. I’ve always loved making music, it’s just come out of me. I couldn’t stop it. But this time I had a very clear vision of what I wanted. I wanted to talk about sex, insomnia, war, death, domestic violence and frustration. I think these are all things everyone can relate to, but I wanted to make it kind of sexy and well-rounded, coming from a woman," Hickman said.
While Hickman hopes women, and men, that have liked her past work will enjoy the challenge of Motherlode, she’s also anxious to reach people walking into her career cold, folks with the energy to sift through two discs of diverse material to find what they relate to most.
"This isn’t a stupid record. This isn’t a record where I threw something together and put it out. It took a year to make. And I put a lot of thought into it. I think it’s like an onion. You’re going to peel away the layers and the more you listen the more you’ll discover," Hickman said.
"Hopefully people will feel like it was a good purchase."