RATSY: THE FOLK MADONNA?

"Folksinging gets a real `Kumbaya' reputation, and I'm not singing Joan Baez songs," she says, in what may prove to be the understatement of the year. It's also about the only understatement you'll hear from Ratsy, from whom exaggeration seems to flow as naturally as the Charles River. She bills herself as the "soon to be extra-super-famous folk songstress." And when pressed for her real name, she begs off by asking, "What if really early in Madonna's career her real name came out?" If this kind of blatant self-hype seems out of place on the new-folk scene, Ratsy makes no apologies -- indeed, she seems to pre-empt them. "I want to be the next big thing that happens/Have my face plastered on People magazine," as she sings on "Love Me!"

So how does the 29-year-old winner of the 1994 Acoustic Underground Competition get away with it? "I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes. It's not like I'm taking anything away from anyone else. I'm just saying that this is what I want to be. In general I get a good response from people, or else they think I'm a nut, but a nut in a good way."

A nut in a good way is as good a description as any for a folksinger who writes a song called "Margy Nairs Her Forearms," a gassy tune that according to the credits features a musical effect called "hand flatulence." But Ratsy isn't merely a novelty act. The simply rendered songs on Squished Under a Train boast disarmingly pretty melodies, functionally percussive guitar, and unaffected vocals. Although the lyrics and concerns are occasionally offbeat, they interlock with an overall theme of diminished expectations and downsized emotions brought about by perpetual disappointment. "I'm not lonely or depressed, though somebody once told me they really enjoyed my music because I could sing so openly about being rejected. I wrote most of these songs last year, when I was pretty happy. I was just remembering back to a period when I was kind of alone and depressed."

Ratsy attended Michigan State and then went to beauty school in Ann Arbor. During a visit to Boston she was taken by the thriving busking scene in Harvard Square; she moved here in 1987 and played in the streets, subways, and folk clubs for three or four years. She then took a few years off from performing -- she calls this her "hermit" period -- and stayed in her apartment designing a line of hats.

In the fall of 1994, a friend talked her into sending a demo tape to the Acoustic Underground competition, where she was subsequently named Best Female Performer, presumably the first step toward famous folk songstressdom. To give herself an additional boost, Ratsy promotes herself not only on CD and in concert but also on the Internet, where she has her own home page (http://www.infinet.com/~trk/ratsy). Designed and maintained by her brother, it includes sound samples, a personal photo album, and an up-to-the-minute tour schedule.

-- Seth Rogovoy

(Ratsy performs at the Somerville Theatre Saturday, March 16, as part of the Fourth Annual Festival of Women Songwriters, which also includes Daring Angels, Agona Hardison, Les Sampou, Laurie Geltman, and Cosy Sheridan.)