Asheville city councilwoman by day, free-ranging, trailblazing cowgirl by night. How does this yin and yang of politics and performer come together in the life of Robin Cape?  

“I’m a bass player who does politics for service,” says the 51-year-old mother of two. “[I am] a part of this community who feels like I have gifts to share.” So share she does, through a country trio act called the Buckerettes, which plays parties, weddings, concerts and festivals around Western North Carolina. She’s also served on Asheville’s City Council for three years, where she’s known for pushing environmental issues and helping to protect a Woodfin watershed. 

The music part started early. She played piano at seven and was a music major in college. She didn’t pick up a bass fiddle until 2000, when a Weaverville band, Raven Moon, invited her to sing backup and play bass. For the next two years, she learned on stage. Suddenly she was singing lead and playing bass with other local groups like the Quantum Leapers, Jimmy Landry and Tornado Cider. 

Eventually, Cape and two friends—Deb Criss, a guitar player and former Quantum Leaper, and Roberta Greenspan, a fiddle player—got together in 2003 and were asked to play a gig. They had to come up with a name quickly, Cape recalls. “We were all 45, 48, and we said, well, we can’t be the cute chicks with cleavage, so let’s come up with a shtick,” she says. “We could be a cowgirl band—the Buckerettes.”  Now, many happy trails later, the Buckerettes will release a second CD on September 25 at the Orange Peel.  

Politics may seem a world apart from what can sometimes be a silly, irreverent stage act, but Cape doesn’t see the two as so divergent. “Politics for me is a creative expression,” she says.

She settled in Western North Carolina nearly 20 years ago with her husband Doug “Ivo” Ballentine, with whom she opened a successful architectural salvage business in Asheville and Weaverville. The couple eventually sold the business, and Cape found herself wanting to contribute to the community. In 2003, she and others spoke out about a contentious neighborhood watershed issue in Woodfin, which got Cape elected to the Woodfin Water Board—without even running. She was the first candidate in Western North Carolina to win a write-in campaign, which made her a popular choice with progressive voters in 2005 when she was elected to the Asheville City Council.  

So what advice does Cape offer to women who want to make a mark while channeling their inner “Zen Cowgirl” (a song Cape wrote for the Buckerettes)?  “Every step you take is the step you make—you have to look behind you to see what your path is,” she says. And maybe a grab cowgirl hat on your way out.