Angela Motter

Angela Motter Bio 2006

Recent Stuff:
Along with gigs at the usual Atlanta haunts, Angela Motter spends time on stage acting, singing and music directing. This year she’ll be gigging around town and raising money for her third CD.

About her recent performance at Smith’s Olde Bar in Atlanta:

“Angela Motter has this piece of wood called a Porch Board that plugs into a DI. [That’s technical jargon for how she plugs her porch board into the sound system] She stomps her boot down on the thing and it sounds like a cross between a weathered Tupelo veranda and a big ol' bass drum. The young heterosexual rocker boys in the room were blown away by her slide guitar playing and the hot blondes blushed at her naked, gender bent and pride bruised lyrics.” –Kahle Davis, host of SongSmiths Songwriter Series in the Atlanta Room at Smith’s Olde Bar


Her Goals for 2006:
Raise enough money to record a third CD, find a home on a compilation for her new CD Single “Makin’ Love”. Makin’ Love will also be makin’ the rounds as a fundraising item and “who knows, maybe I’ll shop it around a bit for some licensing for Indie Films or TV.”

Just Out:
The instrumental version of “My Mama Told Me” from Pleasure and Pain will be heard on the soundtrack to the Vivian Price Indie Film Transnational Tradeswomen about women construction workers, connecting the issues we have in the US with the problems women face internationally in the trades.

Yer Basic Bio Stuff:
Clearly born a musician, Motter began writing songs at age 10. She began her recording career after earning a degree in Classical Guitar Performance from Georgia State University. Her first recording, a pop-jazz single “Secret Lover” – from the compilation CD Best of the Jazz Flavours Cats IV (Primedia) – received heavy airplay in Atlanta and on the nationally syndicated “Jazz Flavours” radio show.

After a gig opening for B.B. King, Motter decided to add the blues to her mix. Soon, she was experimenting with the slide guitar riffs that would become an integral part of her sound. Motter has since opened for Indigo Girls, Tuck & Patti, Louden Wainwright III, Southern Culture on the Skids, Canadian born ex-Nylons lead singer Barnes, Michelle Malone, Doria Roberts, and Melissa Ferrick. She’s played gigs and songwriter’s circles with Edie Carey, Girlyman, John Mayer, Mary Gauthier, Angie Aparo, Amelia White, Bain Mattox, Nini Camps, Butterfly Stitch, Johhny Rabb, and Claire Campbell.


Her Recordings:
Motter has received critical acclaim for both of her recordings, and enjoys a devoted fan base in Atlanta and points beyond.

Outta Control:
Re-released on CD on her own Hey MISTER! label is Outta Control, her first recording, which originally came out only on tape in 1992. Outta Control features ripping slide licks and beautiful fingerstyle work as well as big, strummy pop tunes. Outta Control was produced by Russ Fowler, Motter and Dede Vogt and received critical acclaim from the press in its first release. Jeff Clark, then writing for Creative Loafing, called it “…swampy, steamy, incredibly sexy.”

Worth noting, too, are pictures of the then long-haired Motter featured in Outta Control’s liner notes that cover ten years of hairstyles. This retrospective shows the transition from her long, curly haired feminine/androgynous look to her present look, a black-leather and muscle stage persona. Now, Motter might be easily mistaken for a tough guy right out of 1955. “The hair and make-up thing started not feeling right to me in about 1992. It’s really true, when I was in High School leaving for a gig my Mom used to say ‘you’re not leaving the house without any make-up on’. God bless her. I’ve always been a tomboy.”

Pleasure and Pain:
Pleasure and Pain, Angela Motter’s 1999 CD, won her more critical acclaim. The late Ricky Keller helped Motter produce the record in his “down time” at his studio Southern Living at its Finest. Motter introduced her very out, very sultry and very accomplished blend of rock, jazz, blues, soul and funk to the world beyond her Atlanta confines.

Pleasure and Pain combines influences as unique as the artist herself. Mixing the Delta blues ache of Robert Johnson with the swagger of James Dean and a heavy dash of Keller’s sexy bass-slappin’ and poppin’ funk, Pleasure and Pain rocketed Motter to critical and popular acclaim – acclaim culminating in two 1999 Gay and Lesbian American Music Award (GLAMA) nominations. The “gender-bending soulster” (-GAYBC) and her band performed the song “isitaboyisitagirl” at the New York ceremony, offering the Big Apple crowd a taste of her studious guitar chops and her rich, smoky alto vocals. At the end of the night, Motter had picked up a win in the “Best Out Recording” category for the track “My Mama Told Me.”

“Although physically she fits the stereotypical androgynous mold and some of her songs, most obviously the humorous “isitaboyisitagirl" clearly state her sexual preference,