Urbanmuse NYC Is Eight Female Singers and Songwriters Who Don't Like to be Called "Singer-Songwriters"

New York, NY. Cutthroat competition, glamour and squalor rubbing up against one another, clubs (at least until recently) like arenas out of Gladiator filled with fame whores and madams. Sometimes stereotypes are true. How odd to find in the midst of all this glitz a forum, a collective (though loosely organized and not expressly political) for artists aspiring to success.

Urbanmuse NYC consists of eight women, all singers and songwriters, who don't like to be called "singer-songwriters" because of the folky connotations of the label. Some of them lean more toward pop, some toward rock. They strike me as realistic, not idealistic: hardworking, intent on honing their craft and getting to the next level of exposure. And they get together, schedules permitting, every other week or so, to?

"Guys have weird ideas about what we all do together," laughs Amy Fairchild, a jeans- and fuschia mules-clad singer and guitarist based in Hoboken. "People tease us sometimes."

"I wonder when we will have guys," says Karen Jacobsen, an Australian singer and keyboard player who's recently relocated to the city.

"Soon. The longer it goes on."

That's Jo Davidson, a founder of and driving force behind the group. A petite blonde originally from Ohio, Jo's had songs on several tv shows, done a national radio tour, worked with artists ranging from Susanna Hoffs to Meat Loaf. Although Urbanmuse has members at all stages of their careers, there are quite a few seasoned pros?Fairchild's gigged for 10 years or so and recently got an award from the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival; the group includes Rachael Sage, whose latest album Painting of a Painting made quite a splash?and that's part of what's impressive about these women, how they are experiencing success within the notoriously competitive world of music. How much of the credit should go to the group?

"Part of the success we've had so far has to do with a bluntness that happens between friends," said a bubbly Sage, interviewed by phone while touring in Oregon. "We try to prop each other up and namedrop each other... The group is something more than career advice, or venting or kibbitzing, though we certainly do do that." She laughs. "Basically we kick each other's asses."

Originally, says Jo Davidson, the group wasn't designed to be all women, or even all musicians. Things just kind of worked out that way, at least at this point?Urbanmuse is only a year and a half old.

I'm sitting with Amy, Jo and Karen in Chelsea's Big Cup. The women sip tea (Karen: "I'm sorry, you can't get decent tea in this country") and coffee and talk a little about their hair?Amy, a redhead, is planning to go back to blonde. They talk a lot about how important it is for them to have a setting that's non-competitive (though Karen mentions that it's human nature to want something someone else has) and how the group helps them stay positive, and that the chance to perform new or unfinished songs and get critical feedback is one of the things they like best about it. They seem honest and unpretentious and breezily direct with one another, if somewhat guarded with a reporter, and I wonder if those qualities come across when they perform or record (several of the women have released independent CDs). A few met via a Lilith Fair talent competition and I think about the mindset involved in reaching out to people you've met in an explicitly competitive setting, a contest, and creating something apart from all that. Maybe cliches can be true, too, like the ones about "competing with yourself" and how group success and individual success aren't always contradictory.

Back to those meetings: the performers try to have some structure ("or else it just ends up being a party," says Jo), but it's not just a lot of schmoozing and networking (Jo again: "We don't need more business in our lives"). The women of Urbanmuse perform individually, with bands and in small groups. On occasion, when they can coordinate everyone's touring and recording schedules, all eight of them get together and do something "in the round." It's intriguing to imagine how that might be informed by their experience of the group, where, they tell me, leadership roles shift from meeting to meeting. Will there be roving spotlights? Track lighting? Candlelight?

All eight Urbanmuse members play July 24 at Makor, 35 W. 67th St. (betw. Central Park W. & Columbus Ave.), 601-1000. Their website, www.urbanmusenyc.com, has information about individual members as well as the group.