She sings to a spider on her wall, and writes songs about "animated pickles walking down the street," sounding a bit like Nanci Griffith meets Lost in Space. Last month, this sensual, ethereal, versatile singer/songwriter, with a knack for storytelling and communing with her audiences on a personal level, stopped in town for two quick gigs. Here's what she had to say between sets and over coffee at Kopi.

Who were your musical heroes or heroines... who mattered in your development as a singer/songwriter?

Things that matter? Seventy's Pop-Rock (she giggles). Rush (laugh). Jethro Tull (clears throat). Yes. Peter Gabriel... I mean, as far as the biggest influence on me musically, ever... actually, I need to make a confession here... I was really into Stevie Nicks and I thought she was really great when I was an adolescent. Just hormones raging, and it was pretty powerful stuff. Then she just kind of deteriorated into schlock. Kate Bush, though, is my favorite female, of all time.

You've been compared to Mary Chapin Carpenter. Do you think that having Pete Kennedy (MCC's guitarist) play on your recordings has anything to do with it?

I think that has something to do with it; well, they also compare me with Nanci Griffith. I think just in general, the comparison thing is just very funny -- if you were two girls playing, regardless of what you sound like, you'd be the Indigo Girls. Or if you're a guy and a gal, you're The Carpenters! So if you're a solo girl standing there, you're gonna be compared to everybody from Mary Chapin to Edie Brickell.

What does success mean to you?

To me? I want to play music for the rest of my life... So, that requires achieving a certain amount of success to do it in the ways I want to do it. So far, I've been able to have a musical career and do what I wanna do, which is wonderful. That means being able to take time off to write, to produce the next record with a bag-pipe orchestra, or whatever. If I could just have the freedom to do that, and then to have a life... I've thought seriously about that success thing. You have to be real clear about what you want. I don't ever want to be in a position where I have no say. You can lose a lot of your own power, a lot of your creativity, your family life, your health, it can all kind of go to hell.

How do you like Champaign, and will you be coming back soon to play?

Oh the town is wonderful, I mean I travel through so many places and I immediately knew this was a really great place. It's just one of those places that you kind of land in the middle of all these people and then there's kindred spirits, and then the gig, and you know, everything's great, the cappuccino... I'll be coming back through November 20 and 21, and I'll be playing at Periscope and City of New Orleans.

When can folks get your latest CD?

The CD will be out in November-ish, we will make sure it's in Periscope in November, regardless of whether it's in any other store in the entire USA. It's called Blue Apples and it's got a python on the front, 160-pound python... you can't miss it.