Female folk duo play at Boxcar Books

Pamela Means and Sarah Grain will play a free show at 7 p.m. tonight at Boxcar Books, located at 310A S. Washington St. \nMeans is a Boston-based Indie folk artist who writes political folk music and has actually worn a hole into her guitar. According to the biography on her Web site, she recently received the honor of being nominated as an Outstanding Contemporary Folk Artist at the Boston Music Awards. \n"Pamela should be a rockin' good time when she performs," said Colin Schoder-Ehri, a volunteer at Boxcar Books. \nMeans' Web site posts her lyrics, which encompass themes from racism and sexism to politics and love. In the song "Yours" from the album "Single Bullet Theory," she writes "I'll be your woman or your man/ whatever you want I hope am." According to her Web site, Means performs more than 150 shows a year, from coffeehouses and gay pride events to Black History Month events and the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. \nMeans was unavailable for comment at press time. \nGrain, formerly Graub, will open for Means. Grain is an Indianapolis-based artist who describes her music as folk but said there's never been a consistent description. \n"It's traditional American folk with an international influence and definitely an influence of spoken word," she said. \nGrain said that she would be coming to see Means regardless of whether she herself was playing at the show. \n"I hear Pamela Means is a badass," she said. She said she was overjoyed and intimidated to be opening for Means because she was so pleased at what she heard of her political folk music on the Web site. \nGrain has played with the Acoustic Women's Showcase at Boxcar Books for several years. \n"I really like the environment of Boxcar," she said. "It's colorful." \nSchoder-Ehri said that the free concert is a great time to see Grain perform. He said "her music expresses a great set of community values that you don't hear that often," referring to a song called "Goin' to the Garden." \nGrain might have a different set of community values because she is the director of community outreach and volunteers for the non-profit organization Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. She said the program helps to plant trees all over the city, as well as build community gardens and turn vacant lots into parks. She said the organization uses 20,000 volunteers a year. \nLike the Keep Indianapolis Beautiful organization, Boxcar Books also relies on volunteers. According to the store's Web site, it is a "volunteer run, non-profit organization that exists to provide new and used books, zines, magazines and comics on topics of social justice, independent media and fiction for the community." \nFor more information, visit boxcarbooks.org, pamelameans.com, or myspace.com/sarahgraub.