Singer/Songwriter Doria Roberts calls her record label Hurricane Doria. It is an apt metaphor for the Atlanta-based musician. She’s hitting the music work from all angles and affecting everything in her wake. A festival promoter, record label owner and fabulous musician all rolled into one package.
Doria happened into life as a musician. The summer before her senior year at the University of Pennsylvania, Doria picked up the guitar. Learning as she went, the prolific songwriter started penning lyrical and emotional songs that examined Doria’s unique perspective of the world.
Her music is a richly woven tapestry of combined worlds. A voice buried deep in R&B soul partnered by lyrics ripe with folk music’s social commentary is Doria. Her 1999 Hurricane Doria records release Restoration has sold about 5,000 copies since it’s release in March. Her relentless touring and performing earned her an opening spot on last summer’s Lilith Fair. Along the way she has earned critical and professional respect. The Atlanta Press voted her the Female Artist of the Year in 1999. Her single "Perfect" was recently nominated for best pop recording at the Gay and Lesbian Music awards going up established acts like Luscious Jackson and M'Shell N'Degeocello .
Playing Lilith inspired Doria to quit her day job and to concentrate on her musical career. A move that is a drain on her pocketbook, but it has made life as a performer a bit easier.
"It’s all I have to do all day long. Now I can sit here and call back bookers till I get a show." Doria said in a telephone interview from her Atlanta record label.
Despite having the luxury of time now she still hasn’t gotten comfortable with the evil stepsister of musician life: rejection.
"Rejection is just constant. You’ve got your paper and pencil and calendar all ready and you call 10 people in a day. Four people are not there, two say no outright and the other four are kind of iffy." Doria said.
Nevertheless, she has still managed to overcome rejection and line-up and early spring tour of the Northeast kicking off in April. Being out on the road through the end of May means phone booths around the country will serve as Doria headquarters for her other projects: her record label and travelling festival.
With costs of recording and new avenues of distribution available to indie artists it seems like every band these days has started their own records label. Doria is no different; she’s just taking a different tack with it. She is planning on distributing two other artists this year. While she won’t handle the press or front them the money to record, she doesn’t rule that out as a possibility in the future.
Unlike many indie artist she doesn’t view major labels as the Anti-Christ. Back in her days at Penn she was prepping for a career in business. Applying her business acumen to her career she has arranged to distribute other artists in an effort to make her little Hurricane Doria records more appealing to the major labels. Selling her own record through on-line retailers amazon.com, cdnow.com and Borders books gives her national distribution access.
"Distributing other artist makes HD to look good and more viable to a major label." Doria said.
Looking for major label distribution connection for her label doesn’t mean Doria is looking to get herself signed to a major. A major reason for Doria’s refusal to go with a major is their insidiously homophobic nature. As an openly out lesbian, Doria says going back into the closet to better promote her career is not an option.
"I’m not really interested in getting signed to a major label because of my image. I am looking to be distributed through a major. All they handle is the pressing and distribution, not the marketing or the press. That I could handle."
A defining moment in her career came during the inaugural Philadelphia performance of Queerstock in 1995. That year the annual Pride parade was held in May instead of its rightful month of June. Grassroots organizers illegally took over Judy Garland Park and on a P.A. run though batteries entertained more than 500 music fans.
"We took over a park. We had a shitty sound system. We all could have been arrested – no one could have shown up. It was really organic. Handdrawn flyers. A really cool situation to be in. Now days it is really hard to do that kind of stuff. We just said lets just do this, not find sponsors or backers. We just really wanted to do this." Doria said.
So empowered by the positive rush she got from Queerstock, Doria volunteered to take it over the following year adding stops in Atlanta, New York City, Boston and Durham, N.C. Planning a travelling festival while trying to establish roots in her new home of Atlanta proved to be a trying time for Doria.
"It was my first time as a Queer artist. It was profound. I was 22, just finished with school. I said, can I take it over? I moved to Atlanta and it was this uncomfortable thing, making friends and getting Queerstock together. People thought it was the craziest ideas."
Queerstock touches down in seven cities this year. While Doria requires that performers be open about their sexuality, being Queer isn’t an automatic spot. Doria is the only performer at all performances and in each city the festival looks to bring in the best queer bands that each locale has to offer.
"The music has to be quality. I have a great bullshit detector. I know when someone is not being real. It’s not so much the genre. I can really tell when someone is working at the art." Doria said.
Words Doria personally follows. Not letting the burdens of HD records and Queerstock interfere with her own musical journey; she is slated to return to the studio this summer. Doria-Radio, a collection of politically inspired tunes is scheduled to be released on Election Day 2000. The new album promises to be a kaleidoscope of Doria’s interests and influences that illustrate her growth as a musician.
This new album will explore different musical avenues, still she is forever rooted by her folk ethic. A foundation passed on through generations of folkies before her—challenging the status quo through melody and wit. Like the Hurricane she was born into Doria is proving she’s a powerful force of nature.
Doria Roberts’ dream six band festival.

1- Patti Smith
2- Nina Simone
3- Danya Kurtz
4- Cassandra Wilson
5- Prince
6- Odetta