Folk singer Bissex dies of cancer at 48

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/bfpnews/local/2000h.htm

Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Susan Green
Correspondent

Recent lyrics by Burlington folk singer Rachel Bissex, who died of cancer Sunday at age 48, made the moon a metaphor for her emotional journey: "If I drive this road alone, she will bathe me in white light."

Bissex recorded the song for her fifth album, "In White Light," with accompaniment by the Vermont Youth Orchestra. She also performed with the classical ensemble at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts during the First Night celebration on New Year's Eve 2003.

"Rachel had a strong local following and was perhaps even more highly regarded around the country," said Jimmy Swift, First Night artistic director. "She was also very much a mentor to a lot of other musicians."

A Massachusetts native who got her first guitar at 13, Bissex was a 1982 graduate of Johnson State College. Later that decade, she founded the Burlington Coffeehouse and was instrumental in organizing the Discover Jazz Festival.

Bissex often toured throughout the United States, in 2001 appearing at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She won several prizes from various folk festivals and songwriting contests.

"Her language has a poetic quality, suffused with vivid imagery," a review in the Washington Post once said.

But no matter how far Bissex traveled, she always seemed to find time for local gigs and worthy causes.

"Rachel would volunteer to play at our annual Kids Day," recalled Jane Sanders, who ran Burlington's former city youth office and now serves a president of Burlington College. "She'd also sing for the Sunday brunches we had at the teen center."

Bissex lived on the same New North End street as Jane Sanders and her husband, Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. "Rachel used her talents to make the world a better place," he said. "She was a good friend who played at our wedding in 1988."

Swift remembers Bissex as a social activist with an all-embracing demeanor. "I'll always think of her as an Earth mother with arms open wide," he said.

According to friends, Bissex drew strength from her family -- her husband, playwright Stephen Goldberg, and children Matthew Cosgrove, Emma Goldberg and Jonas Goldberg.

"Their household was very much about art," said Norwich filmmaker Nora Jacobson, often a guest there when she visited Burlington. "We'd spend hours talking about the creative process."

Jacobson cast Bissex as a singer-songwriter in her latest movie, "Nothing Like Dreaming," which will open at the Savoy Theater in Montpelier on April 1. "Everyone adored Rachel," she added. "She just exuded love and warmth."

Bass player Ellen Powell of South Burlington has a vivid recollection of the time she and Bissex were hired as the opening act for Joan Armatrading at Memorial Auditorium in the late 1980s. Little did they know that the British rocker disliked the idea of other performers at her concerts.

Armatrading's crew treated them rudely, but the two Vermonters went on to dazzle the sell-out crowd. "We got a standing ovation," Powell said. "Our revenge was giving the best show possible. We turned it into a triumph."

After seeing Bissex play at First Night a few years ago, Bernie Sanders suspected that she was someone who could always find some triumph in tragedy.

"Rachel used the pain of her illness in an extraordinary way," he said. "She incorporated it into her beautiful music."

A memorial service for Bissex will be held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, 152 Pearl St.