OMC: Is the band on the record still playing with you or do you have a Milwaukee-based band now?

SD: I am currently sans-band. I enjoy performing acoustic shows; you have a lot more freedom with the songs. If a song isn't working for a specific audience, you cut it short or rock out a bit. Every crowd is different and it's easier for me by myself to work my set around the atmosphere of the people. Making music for people is a form of communication. If you aren't reaching them you might need to alter your approach a bit, otherwise you are just up there doing it for only you. It takes a great band to be able to do that together, to create unity and understanding with a crowd of people that you don't know ... all that and also if you mess up you can cover it easier.

OMC: Do you have a favorite track, one that you enjoy performing most? Is there one with a special meaning for you?

SD: As long as I can conjure up feeling, I like to play any song. If I can't relate to the song at the time it is dead to me and it means nothing to play it. So, I think it's fun to play songs that have a universal theme that everybody digs but an esoteric mystery for me that I dig while I'm playing it.

OMC: I first heard "Weak" and was moved by its melancholic melody, the emotional quality of the lyrics, which also have some lovely imagery, and your passionate performance. Is there a story behind the song?

SD: Oh, it was just a little whining and complaining about a relationship. I get mail about that song that says, "oh that's such a great break-up song" and we didn't even break up for a year after I wrote it. It gets pretty complicated to explain and everyone pulls their own ideas about the song anyway which is good. Once at a show a guy was screaming out, "Play the front porch song! Play the front porch song!" and he was singing a little bit of it. The song he was talking about had nothing to do with any front porch of any kind in any way but he saw in his mind a front porch when I said, "blue paper lanterns" so imagery is a tricky thing. I'm into how the transfer of words into pictures is different for everyone.

OMC: What musicians move you?

SD: Emily Saliers from the Indigo Girls, her songwriting is phenomenal and keeps getting better every year, I saw them for the first time at Summerfest in '92. Sinead O'Connor, she has so much feeling in her voice it breaks my heart. Liz Frazier from the Cocteau Twins; this woman can write melody through herself that comes from another place where everyone wears white feathers and carries peacocks for pets. I dig anyone who can let the sub-conscious go and write: Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, The Innocence Mission, Jane Siberry, Dead Can Dance, Rufus Wainwright, Coldplay, The Sundays, Radiohead, Bjork, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, we could seriously sit here all day so I'll stop there.

OMC: What's next for you?

SD: Um ... I think I'm going to go grab a beer ... and I believe I'm in the right place for that.

You can learn more about Dosen, contact her and buy copies of "Ghosts, Mice & Vagabonds" at www.stephaniedosen.com.

Dosen performs Sat., Nov. 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the Milwaukee Ale House in the Third Ward.