September 2- 8, 2004

musicpicks

Charlotte Martin

Rock/pop She's heard all the Tori talk and Kate comparisons. And, people, she's over it.

"I guess there're not enough women doing music — that's where the comparisons come in," the 27-year-old Martin says by phone. "The whole gender thing with music really pisses me off anyway. That's why this tour is so cool." The 19-city jaunt in question, Maybelline's Chicks With Attitude tour, is headlined by Liz Phair (who recruited Martin after hearing one of her songs) and also features the female-fronted Cardigans and teen-rocker Katy Rose.

Martin, a former Miss Teen Illinois who trained as an opera singer, knows the tour is a demographic dream and a hip and happenin' showcase for her just-released major-label debut, On Your Shore (RCA). The angst-and-ache-laden CD highlights Martin's dramatic piano playing, sweetly tremulous soprano and penchant for songs about love and loss.

Co-produced with her boyfriend, Ken Andrews, there's "not a sound or a squeak on the record that I didn't give a nod to," she says. "It's totally me; totally real." Onstage, Martin likes to go it alone with just her piano, belting out her moody ballads and taking on the occasional cover too, like the Stones' "Wild Horses," which she transforms into a soaring, tear-worthy epic.

--Nicole Pensiero

Thu., Sept. 2, 8 p.m., $25, with Liz Phair, The Cardigans and Katy Rose, Electric Factory, Seventh and Willow sts., 215-336-2000.

—Nicole Pensiero