Curtis refuses to play the fame game.

Byline: Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

Catie Who?

If you're a fan, you already know the last name. But to many, Catie Curtis is still an unknown.

And that's just fine with the pop-obsessed, Boston-based singer-songwriter who prefers quality of life to instant name recognition.

"I've turned down some larger tours because I've always wanted to have a better balance between being home and being on the road," says Curtis, speaking by phone from her Boston home in anticipation of today's performance at the McDonald Theatre.

"If somebody wanted to play my song on the radio and call it Top 40, (as long as) it didn't require me leaving the house, I'd be all for it."

Curtis' relative obscurity may have kept her off MTV, but it's made her the subject of a new documentary by Rob Millis on the struggles faced by a modern folk musician. Initially, Millis planned to focus on several different artists, but decided to zero in on Curtis.

"He came to one of my shows and I think he was really taken by the fans," Curtis says. `He saw them hanging out to get autographs and he thought, `This is really interesting, because here is someone who is not objectively famous, but all these people would like to get a chance to talk to her and get her autograph.'

`That's unique to this scene, because anyone who is famous wouldn't actually be able to have that contact with fans on a regular basis, but we do it every night."

At this point, Curtis has her attention focused on her newest release, "Dreaming in Romance Languages," a pearly, radio-friendly collection of pop-folk songs. The record opens on a sunny note with "Saint Lucy," a rootsy pop song that takes its title from the patron saint of blindness.

"Oh Saint Lucy, I can't find the place where I need to be/ Oh, Saint Lucy, lend your eyes to me," Curtis sings over the whirl of a Hammond B3 organ.

A brush with Morphine

On a darker note, Curtis includes a version of the haunting Morphine song "The Night."

While the original was marked by that group's signature "low rock" sound and driven by late singer Mark Sandman's deep growl, Curtis' version is more ethereal. She discovered the tune shortly after Sandman's 1999 death from a heart attack, when she met with members of the group.

"I went over to (Mark's) loft to hang out with some of his friends after he died, and someone played this record that they just finished, the last Morphine record," Curtis said. "They played it and I just lost it.

`I just found it to be so moving in connection with his death and maybe his premonition of his death."

The title of Curtis' album suggests she has gained an understanding of love, but in fact, she says, it's just the opposite. Several of the songs were written while she was on the road in Europe, where she saw a parallel between language and love.

"When you travel in Europe and you go from one country to the next, you have to adjust your language every day," Curtis says. "In that same way, when you're going through changes in your personal life, there's confusion in your communication and your dreaming as you try and work it all out."

In the past, Curtis has collaborated closely with mandolin player Jimmy Ryan. She says she prefers pairing her own singing and guitar playing with instruments other than a second guitar.

On her current tour, she'll be joined by Julie Wolf, an accordion player who also handles keyboards and organ and sings harmonies. Wolf is a member of Bruce Cockburn's touring band and former member of Ani DiFranco's recently disbanded backup group.

"I've been playing solo for a year and a half, so she will add a lot for me," Curtis says. "Having gotten used to not having a band at all, to me it's going to be like a full band having her there."

Love often is in the air

Curtis has long been accustomed to performances that are stripped-down musically.

She began playing solo with an acoustic guitar in her hometown of Saco, Maine, and played the coffeehouse circuit while studying music at Brown University. She moved to San Francisco and released the indie-folk record "Truth From Lies," which spawned the radio single "Radical."

Curtis signed with EMI in 1996 and put out a self-titled pop album. She followed with two more albums where she introduced a more rootsy version of her signature pop-folk sound.

"Dreaming in Romance Languages" is Curtis' fifth album. It follows "Acoustic Valentine," a retrospective released on her own Sam the Pug record label, and her previous full-length album, "My Shirt Looks Good on You."

Love is a frequent subject of Curtis' songs, but she's also not afraid to tackle difficult subjects such as homelessness, peace, gay issues and domestic violence.

"I guess a song really needs to have a hard center to it," Curtis says. `Sometimes, it comes from having sort of innocence in the voice of the song, where you're taken by surprise by the message as opposed to just as soon as you hear it going, `I know what the message is going to be.' '

Curtis credits the publicity machine behind EMI Records for establishing her as a singer-songwriter (she's now on Vanguard Records), but says the Internet has allowed her to maintain a career as an independent artist.

Someday, Curtis says, she'll release the pure folk album many of her fans would like to hear. But until then, she says her affair with pop music is likely to continue.

"I think sometimes hard-core folk music fans might feel that I intentionally write songs that are hooky and popular in a way that could been seen as going for something commercial," Curtis says. "I think that they don't realize is that I grew up on Paul Simon and James Taylor and pop-folk (music). I grew up on Beatles and pop music from the '70s and '80s.

`I love those kind of songs and those kind of melodies, and I feel like what I write is very authentically the type of songs that I like."

Lewis Taylor can be reached at 338-2512 or [e-mail].

CONCERT PREVIEW

Catie Curtis

With: Girlyman

When: 8 p.m. today

Where: McDonald Theatre, 1010 Willamette St.

Tickets: $18 day of show