Grammy-winning singer Janis Ian on living in Sarasota-Manatee, farewell album and tour

After a career spanning more than five decades, singer-songwriter Janis Ian plans to bid farewell with her latest album and tour, which includes dates in her current home of Florida.

Ian, known for tracks such as 1975's Grammy-winning Top 3 hit "At Seventeen," released her final solo studio album "The Light at the End of the Line" in January. She's currently in the midst of a last North American tour, which comes Thursday to Bilheimer Capitol Theatre in Clearwater, not far from where she lives on Anna Maria Island.

Ian, 70, told the Herald-Tribune in a phone interview she started visiting the area about ten years ago, loving the peace and quiet off-season, and she and her wife bought a house here around four years ago. A lot has changed even in those four years, she said, as development and tourism grow. But she loves the nature Florida has to offer, such as the nearby Robinson Preserve and Palma Sola Botanical Park in northwest Bradenton.

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"There are things about Florida that are astonishing still to me, outside of the weather, which is just a big plus if you’re from the Northeast," Ian said. "The parks are amazing, the bike lanes are amazing."

"The Light at the End of the Line," Ian's first full-length of new material in more than a decade, originated as she started collecting songs she thought were worthy of an album, finally feeling that she'd reached that mark last year. And as the pandemic largely kept touring musicians off the road, she realized she wanted to be at home, and felt this album was "a good way to go out."

"There’s been something about being home that’s been great, and at the same time, I was going to hit 70, and that affected it too," Ian said. "So it was a combination of circumstances."

"The Light at the End of the Line" ranges from songs consisting largely of Ian's voice accompanied by acoustic guitar or piano, to tunes with lush instrumentation such as defiant anthem "Resist" or closing track "Better Times Will Come," which Ian wrote after singer-songwriter John Prine's death. (During the pandemic, Ian also started the "Better Times" project, where more than 100 artists from across the globe contributed renditions of the song, including Sarasota's Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe.)

The album also features the track "Nina," about Nina Simone, who covered Ian's 1974 song "Stars" and who Ian knew personally. Ian said Simone could be a very difficult friend, and she was extraordinarily difficult to write about, because she didn't want to pull any punches while still capturing the beauty of Simone and her work.

"So for me as a lyricist, I think it’s the best song on the album, just lyrically," Ian said.

Ian's own recording career started when she wrote the song "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)," about an interracial couple and societal pressures they face, in 1965 when she was 14. While the track later reached No. 14 on Billboard's Hot 100, it also drew controversy due to its subject matter. Ian said the response, which included threats to her and her family, was scary, but it taught her a lesson about the power that a three-minute song could have.

"It was very difficult, and again, very scary," Ian said. "But in retrospect, when I started being able to look at it with a little perspective, it was a great lesson. I still get people whose lives were changed by it, coming up to me and sending me emails letting me know that, so it’s also a privilege."

After "Society's Child," Ian's biggest hit came in 1975 with the wistful tale of adolescence "At Seventeen" off her No. 1 album "Between the Lines." The track was nominated for Record and Song of the Year Grammys, winning Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, and was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, as was "Society's Child."

Ian also performed "At Seventeen" and "In the Winter" on the 1975 debut episode of "Saturday Night Live" as its first musical guest, along with soul singer-pianist Billy Preston. Ian said performing live on television wasn't unusual for her or Preston, or the episode's host George Carlin, but it was new for a lot of the show's cast and crew.

"Nobody thought that it would succeed; certainly, nobody anticipated that it would last this long," Ian said about the series, now in its 47th season. "Then again, I’m still stunned that 'At Seventeen' is still played, or that I still get to play concerts."

Following her North American tour, Ian plans to tour Europe. After that, she said "I honestly don't know" what's in store for her. She's looking forward to the idea of a week off email and the Internet, or going to a show in Sarasota or at the Capitol Theatre – now as an attendee rather than the performer.

"I’d like to just have the opportunity to get bored," Ian said. "I think that would be amazing."

Interested? Janis Ian will play the Bilheimer Capitol Theatre, 405 Cleveland St., Clearwater at 8 p.m. Thursday. Tickets are $35-$60. For more information, call 727-791-7400 or visit rutheckerdhall.com/bilheimer-capitol-theatre.

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Interview with Janis Ian, Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida resident