Creatives in Conversation - Janis Ian

·35 min·3 clips

Janis Ian performs 'At Seventeen' live, revealing the raw vulnerability behind her teenage anthem.

The episode features an interview with singer-songwriter Janis Ian, conducted by host Sean Rox. It opens with Ian performing her iconic song 'At Seventeen' live in the studio. She reflects on the song's enduring impact, noting how it helps parents and children bond over shared teenage insecurities. Ian recounts writing 'At Seventeen' at age 23-24, needing distance from the teenage experience to craft it. She shares a poignant story about first playing it for her mother, who cried and claimed it as her own song despite being beautiful in high school. The discussion turns to her new album 'Billy's Bones', titled after Billie Holiday, whom Ian admires for the 'dignity' and 'truth' in her voice despite her troubled life. Ian describes Holiday as a 'wretched role model' but 'astonishing' artist, emphasizing the separation of person and art. She performs 'Mary's Eyes', a song inspired by touring with Mary Black and observing Dublin's cats during time off. Ian explains her innovative approach to the album's release: she documented the entire process on her website, allowing fans to download song drafts, view budgets, and hear studio chatter, including with Dolly Parton. She details the collaboration with Parton on 'My Tennessee Hills', where Parton insisted on participating despite management objections. Ian discusses other co-writes on the album, like one with Woody Guthrie. She touches on her early career, including having her first song published at 12 and hit 'Society's Child' at 14-15. Ian mentions reissuing her back catalogue through Cooking Vinyl and owning her masters, enabling artistic control. She briefly describes the Pearl Foundation, a charity funding scholarships in honor of her mother with multiple sclerosis. The episode closes with Ian performing 'I Hear You Sing Again' from the new album.

As heard by us

Janis Ian turns memory, Dublin, and outsiderhood into songs with a quiet, lasting charge.

Janis Ian's songs come through as containers for memory, moving between the lasting ache of "At Seventeen" and the Irish history folded into "Mary's Eyes." She remembers writing "Mary's Eyes" during two rare days off on tour, seated at a Dublin hotel window, watching cats cross…

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Why you'd press play

Press play for Janis Ian turning memory back toward "At Seventeen," then carrying a Dublin hotel-window song into "Mary's Eyes."

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