The diminutive, American, Jewish, lesbian folk singer with a penchant for swimming tells Tim Glynne-Jones not to park in handicapped zones.

"My name's Phranc with a PH and a C. I'm a jewish lesbian folksinger but don't believe everything you read."

The declaration came out on a monotone and the audience chuckled. This little woman with the flat top and combat boots was singing about great female athletes, female mud wrestling and staying alive and the crowd was listening with amusement. This, it seems, has been the norm at the various concerts Phranc has played. She was over in England for two weeks back in march and now she's back by popular demand and loving every step of the tour. She's even been tuning in to the world cup.

She tries to play to as varied an audience as possible and this broad-mindedness has led to support slots with Husker Du, The Violent Femmes, Frankie Armstrong and Billy Bragg with whom a certain amount of comparison can be drawn; the hairstyle, the humour, the hooter.

The response from all audiences has been positive on the whole and it's probably due to her sense of humour that the hecklers have left her and her minority status pretty well alone.

"I don't THINK it stands in my way I really don't. It's interesting coming over here because all my press has preceded me where as usually a lot of times I'm a big surprise. I walk on stage, I do one number and then I introduce myself as a jewish lesbian folksinger. It usually gets a really good laugh. It breaks the ice and it lets people know that I don't take myself too seriously. I think it's very important to say that I'm a lesbian on stage. I wanna wear that word down so that it has no shock value at all.

"I think gay men have come a really long way in music because they've taken the risk and stepped out and I think that women have to step out if they want to get there. I don't really want to stand out because I'm a lesbian but I think that somebody has to make the move and I feel quite good about it so I'm proud to do that. I'm not really out there to shock anyone. All the press say when they finally meet me, 'well we didn't know what to expect,' and they meet me and they see I have a sense of humour and I dont think that really comes across until you've seen me live.

"I think humour is one of the best tools a performer can use because I don't believe in shoving anything down anyone's throat. I say that I'm a jewish, lesbian folksinger but that's just because I wanna get that out there, you know, I wanna be totally honest and I wanna break down stereotypes. I don't hate men. I have my sexual preference and I feel very proud and strong about it but I don't want to use it as a barrier against anything and I think that when you use humour it makes bitter pills go down a lot easier. It's better to slip an idea in the back door instead of trying to ram it down someone's throat which I don't believe in doing at all. I don't like anyone that does that whether it's a politician or a performer. I think humour is very important and I think that the strongest thing that a performer can do is perhaps make an idea cross someone's mind one more time, not to totally change them or convert them or make them think one way or another but if you have an idea that you wanna sing about or present just to be able to find a way to make.the idea cross someone's mind one more time.

"I've got this song that I do about not parking in handicapped zones and that song is dead serious but it's also quite humourous. It's a big problem in America, I think it's a big problem everywhere so I've written this song which speaks to an issue but it's humourous at the same time and I hope that maybe if somebody thinks about parking in that zone the song might cross their head and they'll think, 'ah, maybe I won't park there this time.'

She's had two singles out over here, Amazons and Dylan's The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, both of which feature on her album, Folksinger. Featured in the credits is a thank you to Bob Dylan, somebody she never met, who is obviously a big influence.

"Yeah but I didn't listen to Dylan until much later, until I was about 18. I listened to a lot of Alan Sherman when I was growing up and Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary. Just real soft folk, Woody Guthrie stuff, as a child growing up. Alan Sherman does a lot of heavy Jewish comedy so a lot of his stuff is really silly but I've listened to that since I was about five. That's where I get a lot of humourous stuff from.

"I started performing when I was about fourteen. Every year my grandfather hired a jewish folk singer just to do Israeli songs and stuff. When I was old enough I got to be the entertainment.

"I played in a number of punk bands in the 70s and I really liked that part of it but I really wanted to be able to hear the words a lot. It's easier to tell a story in a folk style, you know. I'm much more of a contemporary folk singer although I really love a lot of the old traditional songs and I think a lot of folk music never really gets old cos it still speaks to issues that are really relevant."

Phranc has played the same guitar, a Martin 0018, for six years without acompaniment but she's beginning to look towards branching out and incorporating other elements in her repertoire.

"I'm starting to become more and more interested. Being solo it's really hard for me, I have to kind of force myself to get out and play with people. I'm a very simple musician, I play very simple chords. You don't need a lot in folk but sometimes I feel I'm loo limited and really need to get out and play some different kinds of music and play some different chords and to get reinspired and it's really important but it's really hard for me to do. There's a little guitar, a quarter size guitar which is just like a guitar but it's really tiny. Bigger than a ukulele. It's got six strings and it sounds like a cross between a mandolin and a banjo. It's really sharp, really high and I'd love to get one of those because if I break a string here now I don't have my roadie or anything, you know, I travel light so it would be nice to have an instrument that just sounds a little bit different to be able change to. So I'm thinking a quarter size is really easy to carry and I think banjo would be really fun to learn. It's really different and I'm pretty ignorant around that instrument so I'd like to learn something new."

Do you ever consider other guitars?

"Yeah. I think Epiphone's a great guitar. I love Gibsons. I like those big hollow body Gibsons that are acoustic/electric so you can plug 'em in. I'm thinking about that because I don't play with a pick-up now. I just play with a vocal mike and a guitar mike."

So you have to stand still.

"Yeah. It might be nice to be able move around a bit but I'm kind of a purist. I've been staying away from pickups. But then I see people with pickups and it sounds wonderful and I think, 'well maybe,' or they're making a lot of new guitars now that have the pickup built right into the bridge so it's invisible so you can play it like tin acoustic and mike it or you can plug it in and it sounds really good.

"I really like to shop in pawn shops for instruments, I feel you can find some really great instruments in pawn shops. I'm not too hot on buying a brand new instrument I'm not really into that."

Do you see a lot of talent coming out of Los Angeles?

"From where I see it it's just really dwindled. It was pretty big at one time but now it just seems to be literally dead.

"When I got started it was pretty exciting there because it was the Los Angeles punk scene and everyone was in a band so I got my foot in there and just kept playing. Now I'm sure it's really difficult to start. Despite popular opinion there aren't many clubs to play in LA. Maybe four or five."

Possibly due to the fact that none of her songs have come out as singles in the States the airplay she has received has been almost exclusively on the college network.

"I get airplay on college radio. College Radio is stations they have at different colleges all over the country and they have a network and they have their own chart and everything and it goes out to students.

Students run the station and each college has their own radio station, or most of them do, and they're pretty well organised and networked nationwide so you could do a tour of just colleges and you'd get airplay and stuff. It's terrific. It's really the alternative radio of America because the stuff that'll chart on college radio wouldn't have a chance of charting on regular top 40."

Sounds like the John Peel show.

When she's not on the road Phranc spends her leisure time with the
Santa Monica Swimming Team and if there is a general mood to her songs it's a love of athleticism and making the most of a healthy body but there are underlying issues to be dealt with. How does she go about turning her experiences into songs?

"It usually pops out all at once. I go through periods of not being able to write but then it usually comes in kind of a gush. It's usually pretty emotional, either something that makes me really angry or something that makes me really laugh or something that makes me think."

Does playing live inspire you to write new songs?

"Yeah, and travelling about really does. I mean it's nice because when I go home now I wanna be able to really write. It's nice to get out and talk to people and see what they're at and go to other counties because you really don't know what's going on in other parts of the world until you go there because you can't believe what you read or you see on the television, it's such garbage."

The next step of the tour takes her to Europe with the Pogues which will guarantee her some capacity crowds although the language barrier could suppress her sense of humour; the one weapon she possesses for punching holes in prejudice.