Sheridan applies light touch to big issues of womanhood.

Byline: Serena Markstrom The Register-Guard

Although a New York audience got a taste of Cosy Sheridan's new show - a blend of traditional singer-songwriter presentation with spoken word and theater - Eugene folks will be the first to experience Sheridan's entire "Botox Tango and Other Modern Myths."

The Utah-based artist has been on the folk scene for more than 20 years. One of her consistent interests has been how traditional mythology pertains to modern women.

Sheridan recently developed a one-woman theatrical show, "The Pomegranate Seed," which incorporated music. But what audiences will experience during her special Mother's Day show at Luna is a hybrid of her singer-songwriter presentation and her theatrical one.

"I'm trying something new," she said during a telephone interview. "I want it to feel like a loose performance piece." The work is flexible enough that she can alter the content based on who she sees walking in the door.

Sheridan, 42, applies a light touch to serious issues. Take her song "Botox Tango."

It is humorous, but the underlying notion that a woman's worth is somehow tied to the tautness of her skin is something most American women will struggle with during their lifetimes.

As an artist, Sheridan has learned audiences get more from her songs when she includes a spoken back story - that charming, informal banter that is so critical for folk artists trying to connect with listeners.

At the same time, she said she found it somewhat disingenuous to tell the same story in the same way night after night, as though it had sprung up as an original thought during the show.

So she decided to face the issue head-on by making no pretense that the spoken part of the show was improvised; now, the spoken intro is a scripted part of the song. A level of improvisation remains, but by having concise introductions including only the most crucial elements of a story, she manages to cover more ground in the same time.

"I found it added more energy before the songs," she said. "It's much more charged than just chatting. It's loose enough that it can pause for a while" and go in a different direction if the mood suits her.

Women through a mythical lens

As for the content, Sheridan's said she's "really interested in how women can see their own lives in a mythic way - your great story as opposed to your small story. We all have mythical scenes in our lives."

In the opening scene of her one-woman show, which includes the song "Demeter's Lost Daughter," underworld goddess Persephone is sent to an all- girls school and falls in love with a biker. Sheridan knows this story resonates with women who have made choices to follow something exciting, exotic - and a little dangerous.

Generally, she says, the women who have been through something like that with a man eventually move on to something healthier and more stable.

As an album, "The Pomegranate Seed" deals with body image and eating disorders. Sheridan designed the one-woman show for a college-age audience.

Her new presentation is better able to straddle age groups. So if a mother and daughter came to Sunday's show, both would find something to relate to.

With a psychology degree and 20 years of therapy under her belt, Sheridan has immersed herself into voicing the issues women face. In the task, she is backed by a bass player and her own bluesy, percussive guitar style.

In a review of "The Pomegranate Seed," a writer for Dirty Linen Magazine says Sheridan never relents on her message of empowerment and challenging authority. `(But) her easy voice and delicately played guitar are powers in their own right," the reviewer says.

Or as Acoustic Guitar Magazine puts it: "If I were going to throw an all-girl dinner party at which I wanted to laugh and cry from the hors d'oeuvres to the chocolate pudding, Cosy Sheridan is the first woman I'd invite."

CONCERT PREVIEW

Cosy Sheridan

What: Singer-songwriter

When: 7 p.m. Sunday

Where: Luna, 30 E. Broadway

Tickets: $15

On the Web: For music samples and links to Sheridan's Web site go to www.registerguard.com /ticketfiles