Smith fires up Rockrgrl conference

In her keynote address yesterday at the 2005 Rockrgrl Music Conference, punk-rock icon Patti Smith recalled meeting Jimi Hendrix at his Electric Lady Studios in New York.

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Too shy to attend the studio's opening party shortly before his death in 1970, Smith was sitting outside when Hendrix came out and began talking to her. He told her of his vision of bringing together diverse musicians from around the world to Woodstock, N.Y., "to play and play and play until they found a harmonious place and find a new way to communicate globally through music."

But Hendrix never lived to fulfill his dream.

"All people have something special, but the artist has a specific calling, a calling that the people need and that people are inspired by and magnified by," Smith told the audience of nearly 200 gathered at the Renaissance Seattle Hotel for the three-day conference ending today.

"The artist, musician, painter or poet must tend to his own house, must take care of himself because he's been given a gift and that gift belongs not to the artist but to the people.

"So all of us who feel this calling must be very diligent, must take care of ourselves and must not fall into a romantic and romanticized lifestyle or idea of how the artist or poet or musician is supposed to act.

"How you're supposed to act is to magnify your work, to animate God and produce a work that inspires and informs and leads the people."

Smith, an inspiration to generations of female musicians since her debut in the 1970s, continues to inspire today. She also brought laughter and warmth to the room with stories about meeting some of her own idols, about the perils of messing with another musician's guitar and about growing up with a hard-working mom who never wallowed in self-pity.

Smith, perhaps best known for the song "People Have the Power," drew applause when she talked about witnessing the birth and evolution of rock 'n' roll in her lifetime and experiencing the country's ups and downs during the same period.

"I really believe we are in the hardest, the most difficult and -- I have to say -- the dirtiest times I have ever seen," she said.

"They're the most demoralizing and the most exploitive of our young people, the most corrupt. We are in a state of fear, paranoia and disinterest."

Presented with a Rockrgrl "Woman of Valor" award dinner Thursday night, Smith sang about a half-dozen songs with longtime guitarist Lenny Kaye (with whom she will celebrate 35 years of working together in February) and shared insightful anecdotes about a career that began with the release of the watershed album, "Horses," in 1975.

This weekend, Smith celebrates the album's 30th anniversary with her appearances at the conference, as well as a performance for conference participants tonight at the Crocodile Cafe. (While in Seattle Thursday, Smith and Kaye also made a "pilgrimage" to the Experience Music Project to see the Electric Lady Studios mixing board on which "Horses" was recorded.)

The conference, the first since 2000, concludes today with a second keynote speech by Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde, as well as a trade show and panel discussions on such subjects as balancing motherhood and a music career and building a community of musicians. One of the day's most-anticipated events is "Shop Talk: A Conversation With Ann Wilson and Bonnie Raitt" at 2:30 p.m.

Among the dozens of performers at various clubs around town are The Blonde Mexicans of San Francisco, Megan Slankard of Berkeley, the Hazard County Girls of New Orleans and Kym Tuvim of Seattle.

Before Smith took the podium yesterday, James Keblas, director of Mayor Greg Nickels' office of film and music, read a proclamation designating Nov. 11 "Rockrgrl Day."

The conference has drawn musicians from around the world -- Japan, New Zealand, Great Britain, Scotland and Sweden. Among them was Austin, Texas, singer-songwriter Sara Hickman, whose next album, "Motherlode," is due in May.

Hickman, an independent artist who has recorded for major labels, views the conference as a chance for women artists to share ideas and experiences unique to them.

"The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the majority of people I work with are men," Hickman said.

"But there's something different about being around a group of women. They're all in the same struggle."

Before introducing keynote speaker Smith, Carla DeSantis, the conference organizer as well as editor and publisher of Rockrgrl magazine, decried the dearth of airplay for female musicians on rock radio, as well as the homogenization of women in all formats.

"It seems we have two flavors on the radio. We have vanilla -- and vanilla," she said, adding there are so many sources of inspiration for great songwriting, from politics to world hunger.

"We've got all this inspiration out there, and we're listening to 'Oh, baby, baby, baby' on the radio."

Rockrgrl Venues

7 p.m.-1 a.m.: Music showcases by nearly 100 acts (various clubs; admission charges vary for individual clubs, but wristbands for all remaining showcases at all clubs are $50 each).

Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway

Caffe Vita, 1005 E. Pike St.

CHAC, 1621 12th Ave.

Comet Tavern, 922 E. Pike St.

El Corazon, 109 Eastlake Ave. E.

Green Papaya, 600 East Pine St.

High Dive, 513 N. 36th St.

The Hopvine, 507 15th Ave. E.

Liquid Lounge, Experience Music Project, 325 Fifth Ave. N.

Madison Ballroom, Renaissance Seattle Hotel, 515 Madison St.

Madison Day Stage, third floor, Renaissance Seattle Hotel

Madison Night Stage, Visions, 28th floor, Renaissance Seattle Hotel