// Concert reports, music discussion, a whole digest of Nanci-
// related content...plus a Halloween story.
// Enjoy!  [BP

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Subject: NN: Leicester report
   Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 09:27:18 -0000
   From: "Pugsley, R.M." (rmp6@leicester.ac.uk>

Just a few words on last nights Leicester gig. First Tom Russell was
very good, as was the backing from Andrew Hardin. Nanci joined in for 
a couple, although not St Olavs Gate. I wished Tom had done more 
actually, as did my significant other who thinks he's, and I quote, 
'dishy'. Certainly he has a rugged charm and a great voice.

Nanci was in what I would say was medium to fine form, but got finer 
as the evening went on. On the mediocre side, if I never hear FAD 
again it will be too soon. Sorry and all that but it's just been 
wrecked for me over the years and carries too much (bad) musical 
baggage around with it for me to enjoy it the same way I did back in 
1987. Second, there are way too many guitars about the stage. 
Again I know this is going to cause controversy amongst the pickers 
and the strummers here amongst us but I counted nine, and there might 
have been more backstage because this guy kept coming on between songs
with them. The constant swapping of guitars meant that momentum was 
lost between songs. 
This was made worse by my third gripe. We all know nanci likes to talk 
and most of the time I don't mind listening, hell it's only for a few 
minutes after all, but just a couple of times last night she 
seemed...to...almost...come...to...a...stop...when...she...was...
telling....us....about....stuff...and I was sitting there urging
her to stop altogether and sing the damn song!

OK but enough moaning, there were plenty of good points. Firstly all 
the songs from the new album all sounded better live, especially 
"...Snow" and "Travelling...". The encore was totally terrific with 
Tom Paxton showing up to hum along to What's That I Hear? and White 
Freightliner Blues. By this time Tom and Andrew were back on stage too 
and the whole band were...erm...rocking (I know I said there were too 
many guitars earlier, so, OK, I'm contrary...). I love it when Nanci 
rocks out live (my favourite album is the bootleg of her live and out 
of control in Norway) and wished she'd do more, this ensemble would have 
been terrific doing Outbound Plane and Ford Econoline, but sadly that was 
all we were getting. The sound throughout was excellent from where I was 
sitting (K19 in the stalls I think) and I still think that Nanci and 
James do the best GCH.

One more thing, she seemed to forget her lines twice. Surely she's 
not suffering from nerves after all these years, maybe she's just got 
too many songs to remember?

All the best,
Robert (Pugsley)

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Subject: NN: CWH n'all
   Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 20:12:55 -0000
   From: "c.k.grew" (c.k.grew@btinternet.com>

I have just enjoyed reading the debate about our aNGel's change in style 
over the years and as someone who first was introduced to her music by 
Storms, I feel that her "poppier" tracks have certainly enabled her to 
broaden her fan base.  Nanci's ability to always feature songs by other 
songwriters on her albums also means that I have been introduced to so 
many other wonderful songwriters/musicians.

I am in a state of heightened anticipation for Nanci's concert tomorrow 
at the Albert Hall (a venue that has such memories for me - I collected 
my first school prize on the stage at the Hall aged 6) and really 
excited that I shall get the chance to see Tom Russell about whom I have 
heard so much from the folks on NanciNet.  I really hope she sings 
Armstrong because I had never heard the original song and I just love 
her for introducing me to John Stewart's wonderful lyrics.  This is what 
I have come to love about Nanci, her generosity towards her fellow 
artists.  I also feel that after the horror of September 11 I need to 
link in to the American soul, and she does that for me in no other way.

As an Englishwoman born in the late 50s I was too young and too far away 
to understand the enormity of Vietnam and I thank Nanci for bringing her 
viewpoint and telling me about women like Dickey Chapelle.  She has made 
me so more aware of things American, and through you folks I feel more 
in touch with how some of you feel about the world.

I too have returned to Nanci's earliest albums and TALBTW has been on my 
personal stereo for days but I think I will turn back to Storms and Late 
Night Grand Hotel to help me get in a rock'n'rollin mood for tomorrow 
night.

Caroline "Can't Wait and Probably Won't Sleep a Wink tonite" in London

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Subject: NN: mellow night at the RAH
   From: "DWF Abbott" (D.Abbott@bristol.ac.uk>
   Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 09:44:28 +0000

So it was mellow, nice, with one astonishing bit. I think it was Nanci 
and the BMO doing what they do best last night at the Albert Hall. 
Great sound quality, lovely arrangements and Nanci's voice clear and to
the fore. I think she does quite 'safe' sets but even so it was good. 

The great bit was 'Snowing' - I've never heard a vocal performance from
Nanci quite like it - wow, clear and strong and powerful and quite 
beautifully performed. I'm a bit ambivalent about the CD version but 
this was just great.

I have to say I'm hoping that Nanci won't play the Albert Hall again. 
It was about half full and it feels like a bit of a barn when it's not 
full and her set last night would have been different in a smaller, 
more intimate venue.

It was great to see her and I felt genuinely thanked when she thanked 
her fans for supporting her all these years.

While I'm here, can I plug/say how much I'm loving the new Jimmy 
Rankin CD (formerly with the Rankin Family). 

David 

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Subject: NN: Re: Getting primal with CWH
   Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 02:16:36 -0800
   From: "Julie" (julieanne-101@home.com>

Todd Williams wrote,

> Let me put it this way.  Nanci's best work, as with
> all great art, gives one the sense, whether true or
> not, of pouring out of her soul, so to speak.  So that
> when the expression of emotion, whether it be pain,
> joy, whatever, is passed on to the receiver is felt to
> be not only genuine, but also personal and yet primal
> or universal on a human level.

CWH is full of some of Nanci's most personal and primal songs yet....
Shaking Out The Snow.... Traveling Through This Part of You..... 
Last Song For Mother....

> For instance, even a song like "Everything's Coming up Roses," 
> which I'll admit is light in substance, expresses emotion that
> the artist, Nanci, brings across as genuine.  I feel,
> as a listener, that it is coming out of her at a primal level.

Huh?  Dismissing CWH the album as not being primal enough and comparing 
it to the "primal" Everything's Coming Up Roses.  Huh?

> Now take a song like "It's a Hard Life
> Wherever You Go."  While I believe the chorus has that
> primal quality, the verses strike me as being purely,
> cerebrally contrived.  As if Nanci had the chorus and
> then said, okay one verse about Northern Ireland since
> it's a hard life there, one about racism because that
> certainly makes life hard, etc.

Nanci put out IAHLWYGo in 1989 after she had toured Ireland more than 
once. (She even had a permanent residence in Ireland for awhile sometime 
back then.) She wasn't shopping at the song lyric store, pulling ideas off 
the high shelf.  Just like her approach to songwriting throughout her 
life, I don't believe for a minute she was doing anything but writing 
about something she knew, something she saw, something she heard, 
something she felt and believed in.

She was born and raised in the South in the 50's and 60's, so the civil
rights strife was about as close to home for her as one could get to
it...again, not contrived lyrics, but rather she wrote about something
that was a part of her life, her environment, her consciousness.

You may fail to be moved by the verses, but that does not mean Nanci 
wasn't moved to write them.  Has she ever given a concert without 
performing It's A Hard Life Wherever You Go?  She champions that song 
wherever she goes. Catch a live show and marvel at how she's still 
lighting a match beneath that song all these years later, making a 
statement I have to believe she still passionately believes needs to 
be heard.

> As far as Vietnam, (and I'm not sure why I even have to
> explain why Vietnam is a trite topic-it's been done to
> death) it has become a kind of weighty artistic
> signifier that inhibits original and what I'm calling
> "primal" artistic expression.  What I mean is that it
> carries so much meaning now, because of all that has
> already been done with it artistically and because of
> all that we know of it historically (not to mention
> those who lived through it and/or were directly
> affected by it), that it overwhelms anything that an
> artist could do to express themselves in terms of it
> in a meaningful way.

That's the definition of the death of creativity.  Hell, if we all 
gave up because it's been done before, it's been written about before, 
it's been said before...it'd be the death of everything.

Trite?  There are plenty of walking wounded from the Vietnam war still
living, and people whose lives were affected by those wounded souls, and 
so many who lived on after their somebody didn't come home, whichever 
side of the conflict they were on.  America is at war again.  
Is the story of Vietnam really insignificant?  
People are still being destroyed by decades-old landmines in many 
places on this planet.  Is there really nothing left meaningful enough 
to express? 

I certainly understand what Nanci is singing about.  My stepfather died 
two months ago.  He spent his years in Vietnam working with explosives, 
being flown from place to place in a helicopter, setting landmines day 
in and day out.  Blowing people up.  He lived a miserable, tortured, 
wounded life every single day from those days on until the day he died.

Nanci is writing about how she came to understand a very important person 
in her life by understanding something about his war experience.  
She traveled the ground where fighting took place, worked with people 
still being maimed by landmines, talked to people who put their lives 
and their countries back together after war, people carrying on after 
having part of their body blown off.  What an eye opening, heart wrenching 
experience that must have been.

It sounds to me from her song as though she came back with some pieces 
of her life's puzzle settled into place with understanding.  Is her 
story "overwhelmed" by all that has been expressed and recorded about 
the Vietnam war before, so that nothing about the journey she shared 
in her song can be expressed in a "meaningful way"?   Absolutely not.

Nanci wiped the slate clean in the first line of her song anyway, in that 
way she has of saying it best....."Nothing that I've ever seen now means 
much of anything, in traveling through this part of you."  She wrote very
plainly about the distinction between "the Vietnam that I had dreamed" and
what she came away from her journey knowing.  The song tells me she had a
living, breathing, intensely meaningful experience after following her gut
instinct to put everything she knew up to then aside.

Is it even any surprise that Nanci would be taken by and want to tell the
story of Dickey Chapelle, a brave and spirited person with a singular
passion who lived an unconventional life traveling about the world in 
pursuit of that passion?

Rings some bells.

***
One last thought here before lights out...Kenn, lighten up, please, on
segregating the "starry eyed Nanci fans".  Does the list need a
philosophical debate about whether 'intellectual' contributions to this 
list are more valuable than those from list members whose contributions 
are based in unabashed Love?  Is it really right to be dismissive of 
those who get what Nanci is about in every part of their being, in favor 
of strictly serious thought or attempts at serious thought?  
Bring on the exuberance of those who have made a connection to Nanci 
and her music in their hearts and souls, those who understand and connect 
with her words and music on a whole different level!  
I always prefer it to listening to people shooting off marbles in their 
pinball machine minds.  This list is the worse for the leaving of some of 
its most exuberant contributors over the years.

Exuberantly, unabashedly, with love and peace for Nanci and everyone,

Julie, who only plays pinball machines with fully integrated hearts and
souls

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Subject: Re: NN: CWH is not good
   Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 10:18:01 -0500
   From: "Steve Robertson" (stever@mindspring.com>

on 10/30/01 6:03 AM, John Courtney at jc_riselaw@hotmail.com wrote:

> To be serious for a moment, the whole point about 
> Nanci Griffith's music (IMO obviously) is that she 
> has broken out from the constraints of her roots
> and created something unique, entirely her own and 
> which totally defies categorization.

To you she has broken out from the constraints of her roots. To me she has
occasionally succumbed to the pressures of commercialization and allowed
herself to be steered into pop blandness. Staying close to the roots does
not constrain an artist. It gives them total freedom from the constraints
of commercialism.
-- 
>From the Georgia Pines,
Steve Robertson

====================================
_________Fiddlin' Around____________
The Journal of American Roots Music
          on the web at
      http://www.starchart.com/
====================================

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Subject: Re: NN: CWH is not good
   From: "John Courtney" (jc_riselaw@hotmail.com>
   Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 11:53:13 +0000

Steve Robertson (stever@mindspring.com> replied:
> To you she has broken out from the constraints of her roots. 
> To me she has occasionally succumbed to the pressures of 
> commercialization and allowed herself to be steered into 
> pop blandness.

Fair enough, I think we can agree to differ, unless you want to meet up 
somewhere in mid-atlantic (St. Helena?) and fight about it.:-)

>Staying close to the roots does
>not constrain an artist. It gives them total freedom from the >constraints 
>of commercialism.

There is a lot of truth in that: many great and honourable artists have 
chosen that path. But it's not an absolute or exclusive truth. Without 
wishing to labour the point, IMO the *most* creative artists have always 
sought to extend their horizons, break through the boundaries to create 
something new and uniquely their own. To me, Nanci Griffith is in that 
select company and that is what she has done.

It's a risk. Admirers of earlier work may be left behind and these artists 
sometimes fall flat on their faces - but I suspect there is a kind of 
compulsion behind it.

Cheers
John.

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Subject: Re: NN: CWH is not good
   Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 10:12:18 -0500
   From: "Tony Cox" (tonycox@pacific.net.au>

> Steve Robertson (stever@mindspring.com> replied:
> To you she has broken out from the constraints of her roots. 
> To me she has occasionally succumbed to the pressures of 
> commercialization and allowed herself to be steered into 
> pop blandness.

I'm not quite sure about these attempts at categorisation.  So which 
category does something like "It's Just Another Morning Here" come under - 
Texas roots music or bland pop?  How about "It's A Hard Life.."?  Or 
"Marilyn Monroe/Neon and Waltzes"?

I could pick any one of dozens that to me are just damn fine songs, 
crafted and performed by a unique talent on a level way beyond that 
little corner of the world that is Texas - lovely place though I'm 
sure it is:)

Tony

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Subject: Re: NN: CWH is not good
   Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 10:19:34 -0500
   From: "Steve Robertson" (stever@mindspring.com>

on 11/1/01 10:12 AM, Tony Cox at tonycox@pacific.net.au wrote:

> I'm not quite sure about these attempts at categorisation.  
> So which category does something like "It's Just Another Morning 
> Here" come under - Texas roots music or bland pop?

Bland pop

> How about "It's A Hard Life.."?

In my opinion, we would have to exempt songs clearly written to 
support a political position from this discussion.

> Or "Marilyn Monroe/Neon and Waltzes"?

Texas roots music. Or unsentimental truth, if you prefer.

> performed by a unique talent on a level way beyond that little 
> corner of the world that is Texas - lovely place though 
> I'm sure it is:)

As Governor Ann Richards- the last real governor of Texas (Scotty, 
divert power to the flame shields!)- said on the OVOR video: "You 
can take the girl out of Texas, but you can't take the Texas out 
of the girl." And "lovely" spots in Texas are few and far between. 
It's rough country, for the most part. That fact plays a key role in 
making Texas musicians distinctive. 
After all, Texas was once an independent country, and many of its 
residents still think it is ;-)
-- 
>From the Georgia Pines,
Steve Robertson

====================================
_________Fiddlin' Around____________
The Journal of American Roots Music
          on the web at
      http://www.starchart.com/
====================================

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Subject: Re: NN: CWH is not good
   Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 08:47:34 -0800 (PST)
   From: "Bill Page" (bpage3@yahoo.com>

--- Steve Robertson (stever@mindspring.com> wrote:
> And "lovely" spots in Texas are few and far between. It's rough 
> country, for the most part. That fact plays a key role in making 
> Texas musicians distinctive.
> After all, Texas was once an independent country, and many of 
> its residents still think it is ;-)

Now hold on thar, buddyroe...
Ya can disagree with anyone on song categorizations and what's good 
and what aren't, but don't go bad mouthin' Texas. 

Sunset on the Llano Estacado, Palo Duro Canyon, Lake LBJ, bluebonnets, 
the Dallas skyline, Padre Island...
coeds at any number of Texas schools...

Lots of lovely spots in Texas...

Bill "what? live there? not again" Page

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Subject: Re: NN: CWH is not good
   Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 14:38:25 -0500
   From: "Steve Robertson" (stever@mindspring.com>

Wait a minute! I'm the one trying to explain why Texas has produced
some of the best songwriters in recent history. It's all the folks 
who think Nanci has to rise above the limitations of her home state 
who are bad mouthin' Texas!

Naturally, Texas has lots of spots that are nice at certain times of 
the year, but all of them combined are probably less than one percent 
of this huge state. But then, some folks think oil derricks are 
beautiful ;-)

Steve Robertson

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Subject: Re: NN: CWH is not good
   Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2001 08:10:37 -0500
   From: "Tony Cox" (tonycox@pacific.net.au>

Steve Robertson wrote:

> Wait a minute! I'm the one trying to explain why Texas has produced 
> some of the  best songwriters in recent history.

Fair enough - I'm beginning to get the picture.  Though I do wonder 
why a similarly desolate natural backdrop in the Australian bush has 
inspired only Kasey Chambers (of note) - and she sounds American!

> It's all the folks who think Nanci has to rise above the 
> limitations of her home state

Dylan sounded like a hillbilly when he started out (not that there's 
anything wrong with hillbillies!) but when the muse *really* visited 
him, he plucked songs out from the 'bigness' (as the Aborigines call it). 
Many artists/composers have spoken of creative genius in similar terms - 
that they rise beyond their wordly constraint and connect with something 
greater.  I mean, can you hear Hibbing, Minessota, in 'Visions of 
Johanna'?  You can?  Oh well...;)  And yeah, I know he's gone back to 
'roots' music - that's because the muse deserted him some while back.

Drugs seem to play a part in this process for many of our icons, though  
Nanci, who I'd put in the category of 'great' songwriters, just seems to 
be one of the naturally gifted.

And there's a danger of over-rating some of the others, who to a large 
extent fail to connect with that 'higher ground'.  I know I'll be 
flamed for this, but I can't listen to the likes of John Prine, Guy Clark 
or Tom  Russell without soon feeling my perspective narrow in the process!
(Exception: 'Dublin Blues' and 'Boats To Build' which I adore).  Maybe
they're not all from Texas - I'm not sure - but the point I'm making still 
applies - that the best of the best music surely transcends parochialism 
and connects with us at an altogether different level.

OK, enough from me for now;)

Tony

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Subject: NN: some random thoughts
   From: "DWF Abbott" (D.Abbott@bristol.ac.uk>
   Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 15:45:17 +0000

'There's a light beyond these woods' has long been my fave NG album and 
'Michael's Song' my favourite track of all. I've just given up 
expecting Nanci to do these old tracks live but I'm excited to hear of 
a rendition of St Olavs Gate at recent gigs.

I just got the CD with Nanci doing 'Tower Song' on it and like it a 
lot. Another nice buy has been the new Pete Seeger (songs of) CD with a
lovely version of 'Had I a Golden Thread' by Dar Williams - who is 
coming to my city of Bristol, UK soon - hurrah. Also coming is a great 
Irish singer-songwriter called Juliet Turner who I'm happy to 
recommend. And we just had the wonderful Eddi (I could listen to her 
sing the phone book) Reader. Nanci on Thursday in London - life's sweet.

David

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Subject: NN: Easy Pleased or What?
   From: "John Courtney" (jc_riselaw@hotmail.com>
   Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 16:59:25 +0000

Too much time on my hands, I suppose. Found this on a website selling 
cruises to Antarctica: 
  (http://www.travelvantage.com/anta_cru_voyage.html 
if  you fancy the trip. Wrap up warm) and was simple-minded enough to 
be amused by it.

"January 18 - Enderby Island (Auckland Islands)
Enderby Island is renowned for its Southern rata forest, rich with 
lichens, mosses, ferns and endemic wildlife. We hope to encounter nesting 
Royal Albatross and the endangered Yellow-eyed Penguins. Increasingly rare 
Hooker's sea lions joust and spar on the sandy beaches"

Too much of a coincidence, surely?

Oh well, please yourselves.
John.

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Subject: NN: Dave Van Ronk seriously ill
   Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 11:06:14 -0800 (PST)
   From: "Reid Mitchell" (reidmitchell@yahoo.com>

Folks, I just rec'd this and am passing it on.  If
this has been discussed recently in the list, I
apologize.

>Subject: Dave Van Ronk seriously ill
>
>Dear friends and colleagues in the folk radio world:
>Our good friend Dave Van Ronk was recently diagnosed with malignant
>colon cancer, and will undergo surgery this coming
>Wednesday. 
>Please hold him in your thoughts and prayers.

There's additional stuff in the email about donations
but I thought it'd be presumptious for me to post it.

Reid

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Subject: NN: Dave Van Ronk
   From: "Amethyst Foundation" (amethystfoundation@prodigy.net>
   Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 15:39:58 -0500

Reid,

Three of my sons (19, 12 & 9) and I saw Dave Van Ronk last summer 
in Boston at Passim's.  He didn't play for much longer than an hour 
and didn't meet with folks after the show (as he had the prior year).
I had first seen Dave at Club 47 or The Unicorn Coffeehouse in 1963 or 
1964 and have caught his shows semi-regularly over the years.  Cambridge, 
Massachusetts ain't Texas, of course, but we enjoyed him nonetheless.

I'd like the link for donations.  He is a true American classic.

Bob Kelley

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Subject: Re: NN: CWH is pretty good
   Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 23:48:03 -0500
   From: "Tony Cox" (tonycox@pacific.net.au>

John Courtney wrote:

> To be serious for a moment, the whole point about 
> Nanci Griffith's music (IMO obviously) is that she 
> has broken out from the constraints of her roots
> and created something unique, entirely her own and 
> which totally defies categorization.
> Which I suspect is the reason Tom Russell opens for her and
> not the other way round.

Spot on.  For me, Nanci is lifted into the 'genius' category by her 
ability to take a simple musical idea and turn it into something 
magical, something which transcends genre or parochialism.

CWH may not be the album richest with such treasures, but I'd suggest 
that 'Traveling through...' is as good an example of this wonderful 
talent as you're likely to hear from any artist. 
And there are several other tracks which have cast their spell on me 
at various times. I agree with those who have expressed admiration for 
her the quality of her singing on this album - not as technically
perfect as on some earlier works, perhaps, but no less engaging or 
seductive.

As for Shaking Out The Snow - well, I'm afraid for me it just doesn't 
work very well.  That's not to say she can't put what the hell she 
likes on her album - just that IMO 'quirky' is not what she does best.
  If I want to hear quirky, something by Victoria Williams, Ani di 
Franco or Kim Barlow usually hits the spot.  Nanci's offering is 
interesting as a one-off, but just not quite convincing in that 
effortless way of something that 'works'.  Still, like most people, 
I'm intrigued by what the lyrics reveal of her spiritual state.  
It seems amazing that someone who professes an inability to find an 
outlet for expressing warmth and intimacy in her personal life is 
such a wonderful communicator as a performer - though that's the 
blessing for us, I suppose.

Tony

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Subject: NN: Prose to the Wheel--chording
   Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 21:38:18 -0800 (PST)
   From: "Reid Mitchell" (reidmitchell@yahoo.com>

Does anybody else, playing Prose to the Wheel, play it
with the B and high E strings fingered at the third
fret on the G chord, C chord, etc?

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Subject: NN: CWH Whiners
   Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 17:59:48 -0800 (PST)
   From: "P Koether" (jerzeejeff@yahoo.com>

OK folks:

I have a deal for all CWH naysayers.   I will now make
the market for any unwanted copies of CWH (no
questions asked) for $7.00 U.S. per copy. I'm giving
them as holiday presents.

So, if you really think CWH can't suck enough please
contact me off-line at jerzeejeff@yahoo.com. I will
sent prompt payment by check or money order.   I will
honor this offer until midnight 12/01/2001.  I am
prepared to buy up too 100 CD's so send those CD's
early and often.

So, who wants some cheese with their whine?

Paul J. "jerzeejeff" Koether
The Garden State Cowboy

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Subject: NN: Rare Blue Moon tonight
   From: Gilliatt@aol.com
   Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 13:23:34 EST

A  rare Halloween blue moon tonight.  Here is an excerpt and a 
link to a nice article that includes the history of the term 
"Blue Moon".

Here's a link to the full article:   
Rare blue moon tonight / Spooky cluster of stars also will make appearance:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/10/31/MN127465.DTL

According to Bing Quock, the Planetarium director at the California 
Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, what's so unusual about a blue 
moon on Halloween is that it last shone over California in 1944. 
And there won't be another until the year 2020 -- time for a new 
generation of costumed celebrants. 

The blue moon was originally defined by the Maine Farmer's Almanac in 
1819 as an extra full moon within any season. Later, however, the 
respected publication Sky and Telescope altered the almanac's definition 
and since then  it has come to mean the second full moon within a single 
month. The first full moon this month was Oct. 2. 

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Subject: Re: NN: Rare Blue Moon tonight
   Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 21:31:00 -0500
   From: "Mike Chesman" (chesman@preferred.com>

Actually here in the eastern time zone we don't get a second full moon this
month.  Our full moon is at 12:41 a.m. which puts it on November 1st.

Mike Chesman

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Subject: NN: New Listeners
   From: "Barry Medway" (barrymedway@interact.net.au>
   Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 08:52:06 +1100

My intro to Nanci occurred barely 15 months ago, so I guess 
that makes me a new listener. Since then I have obtained 
all her albums  (except "Once In A...... & its coming). 
As each arrived I would listen in awe & appreciation. 
I loved every one, not equally, but there are none that I 
don't play regularly. If I have favourites they are probably 
her earlier sets, but then my liking of simple, acoustic 
backing may account for this. 

Then came CWH.

I read fervently every post re this release & when the tumult 
ebbed I sought a copy. My initial response...sheer disappointment. 
Nothing grabbed me except "Looking Through...".  

Must be me!!!  

Play it again, listen properly.

A bit better? Yes, it is, but isn't that snow thing weird?
Every other Nanci set blew me away the first time  heard it,
but not CWH. I cant explain why, I like most of it now. With
due respect to the eloquence of those who have posted for
& against CWH, they offer no answer I can accept either.
Do some tracks sound too much alike? Is there too much
backing? Lyrically, I think it is awesome, but somehow it
still comes up short.  But, what the hell, no other artist 
comes close to displacing Nanci from  my Hall of Fame, &
CWH is still growing on me, s l  o  w  l  y.

Now Playing (constantly)..Eva Cassidy..Songbird.

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Subject: Re: NN: New Listeners
   From: DvBGardner@genelogic.com
   Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 09:39:01 -0500

Barry Medway wrote:   
(((( Now Playing (constantly)..Eva Cassidy..Songbird. >>>>>

Which is right now my absolute favorite CD as well, Barry.    
I've always been a devoted and unconditional Sting fan, but Eva's 
rendition of Fields of Gold surpasses his ten times over......

Enjoy your day,
Donate

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Subject: Re: NN: New Listeners
   From: "mk.pearson" (mk.pearson@ntlworld.com>
   Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 16:59:46 -0000

Ditto and ditto.

A superb voice that I missed first time around. I just wish that I 
could have seen her live. Does anyone know if there are any video 
recordings of Eva performing?

Mike

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Subject: NN: CWH sound
   Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2001 14:00:14 -0500
   From: "Tony Cox" (tonycox@pacific.net.au>

Barry Medway wrote:

> Every other Nanci set blew me away the first time  heard it,
> but not CWH. I cant explain why,

I think part of the problem is something Todd touched on previously
when he referred to the disappointing production job on the album.  In
fact it's an audio crime!

The vocal mix is for the most part OK, but the instrumentation often
sounds dull and bland by comparison with her best works.  Nothing
wrong with the playing -  just what's been done to the sound.  When I
play my vinyl copy of 'Poet In My Window' (which I have been doing
quite a lot lately) the richness and natural clarity of each
instrument (as well as Nanci's voice) leap out and draw me in from
track one and make the listening experience a joy from start to finish
- so much to get into, like watching a great movie more than once and
making new discoveries each time.  Likewise on 'Late Night Grand
Hotel' -  a superbly produced album.  And 'Flyer' even.  With CWH I
have to make an effort to maintain any level of interest in what's
going on musically.  On the denser tracks especially (Lost Him In The
Sun, Pearl's Eye View), it sounds as if they've gone back to the
technology of the early 80's with that characterless digital wash of a
sound, all boom and tizz.

Good production is an essential part of the finished product and can
greatly enhance enjoyment of music, a fact which is often overlooked.
I see the credit (?) for the production on CWH is given as Ray Kennedy
and Nanci.  There's a lot to be said for leaving some things to the
experts.

Tony of the audio police

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Subject: NN: Halloween Stories and such.......
   From: DvBGardner@genelogic.com
   Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 12:41:25 -0500

I just walked into my office after a long night at the studio, 
turned on my laptop, eagerly anticipating a new Halloween story from 
Shawn.
Alas...
Shawn -- you do know it's Halloween today? Are going to oblige us?   
Your stories are the absolute highlight of my nancinet experiences.

Donate "yawn" v.B.-G

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Subject: NN: Blue Moon
   From: "The Kimbros" (kimbroj@charter.net>
   Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 00:33:16 -0500

When Amanda and I were first married we lived in a one room houseboat 
on Cherokee Lake.  We were both just out of high school and my job at 
a boat dock didn't provide enough money to make ends meet.  
Every morning I watched Gus Ison, then in his late 70s, go out in his 
old flat-bottom boat and come back with it loaded to the top with fish 
which he sold to local grocery stores and restaurants.  One day I asked 
him to show me how he caught so many.  He agreed to take me with him and,
over the course of several weeks, taught me how to catch fish commercially
using trotlines.  One day as we were running the lines Gus pointed to a 
partially submerged silo and said, "you see that silo there, well, that's
the farm where I grew up before the lake took it."  I don't know why the 
TVA engineers decided to leave the silos when they tore down the houses, 
barns, and flooded the valleys in the 1930's, but I was struck by the 
irony of Gus fishing the same land he once farmed.  
I can't help but think of him every time I see those silos and the
thoughts eventually grew into this song. 

--

Some folks here may have heard or read the previous paragraph.  I tell 
this story from the stage when introducing a song called "Trotline." But 
the story doesn't stop with the song, there's much more. You see, when 
the water level of Cherokee Lake falls to winter river stages, the remains 
of entire communities emerge.  There's no standing buildings left, but 
hundreds of muddy concrete foundations surrounded by broken bottles, 
fragments of depression glass dishes, rusty metal implements, an 
occasional old car or tractor frame, and any thing else that wasn't swept 
away when the Holston River Valley was flooded in 1938.  Since Gus and I 
fished year round, we worked the river in the winter and he would 
frequently tell me stories of the people who once lived in the houses 
along the river bank.  We usually didn't fish at night, but sometimes, 
when the moon was very full, we'd stay out until after midnight running 
the lines.  That's when Gus told me about the death of Mrs. Ira Darbee.  
He told the story rather matter-of-factly and it has been verified by 
others so I believe it to be true.  It went like this:

"It was the coldest night of the year and the second full moon of the 
month when she died. A blue moon they said, with a ring around it and 
way high up in the sky, not like the big one we got tonight.  They lived 
right up there on that rise above that row of oak stumps.  See that pile 
of rocks there? That was the chimley.  It was a fine house built by Ira 
Darbee hisself, two stories and made of red oak he had hauled in from 
Virginia. Mrs. Darbee took sick one Saturday morning and, by dinner time 
when the doctor arrived there wasn't much left.  By evenin' when darkness 
fell, they'd called in the undertaker.  The undertaker was a Goins, not 
kin to the Goins up on Fall Creek, and always stumblin' drunk.  He got to 
the house about midnight and picked up the body.

Mr. Darbee was so upset that he couldn't stand the thought of a funeral so
he gave Goins some money and told him to bury her right then that night
without so much as a preacher or funeral or nuthin'.  He hauled her off in
his wagon and stopped by at Moore's to get him some liquor before he took
her to his place where he put her in a pine box.  He nearly finished 
buryin' her when he got to thinkin' about that ring she was wearin'. Mr. 
Darbee'd give her that which was gold with a big blue sapphire and she 
always wore it. I guess he figured he could trade it for more whiskey or 
something so he decided to dig her back up and get that ring.  He got the 
top of the box pried off and reached in and got her hand. I guess it was a 
little swollen 'cause that ring wouldn't come off so he pulled out his 
pocket knife and started cuttin' on her finger.  Well, you know when he 
did that that poor woman sat right up and screamed.  These days they'd say 
she'd took a coma and wasn't really dead, but nobody knew about that much 
back then.  
Ol' Goins got so skeered that he run his wagon right off Three Springs 
bluff and kilt hisself and his horse both. 

Mrs. Darbee took off walkin' back to her house on that cold night.  
They said she was barefooted and didn't have on nuthin' but a buryin' 
gown.  She made it too, all the way and that's where they found her, 
layin' right up there below Mr. Darbee's window.  There was some rocks 
layin' around her like she'd been trying to throw 'em up there to get 
him to unlock the door and let her in.  Ira Darbee burnt his own house 
down that very mornin' and him in it.  That was right before the lake 
and  they never did build it back.

I've fished out here for nearly 25 winters now and I swear I hear that 
woman calling out sometimes. But I don't believe in ghosts much.  Still 
yet, if there ever was one, I know she'd be it."

Gus is long gone now but I still fish Cherokee Lake.  Not commercially
anymore but sometimes for fun and old time's sake.  However, there's one
section of the lake I don't go around much, especially on nights like
tonight, when it's cold and the moon is full, and like a sapphire ring,
blue.

Happy Halloween!
-Shawn

New Album - TROTLINE - Release Date Dec. 7, 2002.
http://mountainsoul.cjb.net

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Subject: NN: West Texas Beauty or lack thereof. Little Nanci content.
   From: "Tara Ntella" (justabouttired@hotmail.com>
   Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 12:30:00 -0600

>Now hold on thar, buddyroe...
>Sunset on the Llano Estacado, Palo Duro Canyon, Lake LBJ, bluebonnets,
>the Dallas skyline, Padre Island...coeds at any number of Texas 
> schools...
>
>Lots of lovely spots in Texas...

Spoken by one who obviously never drove the drive from Big Spring to 
Midland, Big Spring to Lubbock, or Odessa to Crane.  Lovely sky and 
sunsets, sure.  But god that is some ugly land.  Punctuated by oil 
drills.  The grass is always greener on the other side, unless the 
other side is deep in the  heart of Texas.  
Green-tinted glasses like they wore in The Wizard of Oz (the book) couldn't
fool anyone into thinking anything grows there!  Well, 
anything that don't have thorns.  You ever tried to walk barefoot 
in West Texas?  If so, you are a fool.  Sharp prickly pare, the 
residents grow roses on their lawns, thorns in the grass, thorns 
on the mesquite -- and to top it all off, barbed wire fences everywhere 
in the country!  

And the dust!  The  funniest thing i've ever seen was some idiot out 
washing their car -- not when it looked like rain, but rather - 
when it looked like it was about to blow dirt!  Red, red dust.  
Hot & dry in the summer, like walking into an oven.  No trees much 
taller than me (i am a lanky 5'10" Texas lady).

Sure, you can talk about East Texas, but everyone knows that's not 
REAL Texas.  That's softshoe Texas.

Rattlers, mesquite, cacti, brown grass and red dirt.  Oil rigs and oil 
refinery stink.  Towns with buildings desperately in need of painting.  
And you call this beautiful!?!?!?!  LOVELY?!??!?!

Me too.  Now i'm homesick.

You can't HELP but be a poet there, if you got a poet's soul.  
You can't help but look far and wide around and over.  
You can't help saying it's beautiful, if you look at the sky.  
I cried when i first moved to Memphis.  
The sun does not set here, you can not look it in the eye as it goes 
down. The trees make you feel claustrophobic.  All the rain -- the 
weeks of rain -- seem WASTEFUL!  You don't need that much rain to live!
It's pure decadence on the part of Mother Nature.

It's ugly, but it's our kind of ugly.  So ugly that when i came back 
after my first long absence i wondered how i thought anything else 
could be beautiful.

Okay, this was going to be a really short email, but i couldn't stop 
typing.

I suppose i should relate this to Nanci somehow.

I know what a Dust Bowl Symphony looks like.  It has programs with a 
treble clef made out of barbed wire on the front.

If someone wants to take a stab at relating all this to why i love 
Nanci's music, go for it.  I have a feeling they're connected somewhere.
Even if just that i got my start listening to it in the sitting in the
backseat while my parents drove me through this barren land.  
That ugly wild flat deep land and "Little Love Affairs" and twined 
somehow.  I was 9.

Okay, i'll hush up now.

Always,
Tara-"wouldn't move back to Big Spring if you paid me, okay, 
maybe i would" - Ntella

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Subject: Re: NN: West Texas Beauty or lack thereof. Little Nanci content.
   From: DvBGardner@genelogic.com
   Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 15:36:57 -0500

Tara Ntella wrote:     
((Rattlers, mesquite, cacti, brown grass and red dirt.  
Oil rigs and oil refinery stink.  Towns with buildings desperately in 
need of painting.  And you call this beautiful!?!?!?! ..
No trees much taller than me.>>

My first move to the United States was as an Army officer's wife,  
when my husband took a command at Ft. Hood and we were transplanted 
from beautiful Heidelberg, Germany, to Killeen, TX.   
Talk about culture shock!!!!    
I was so afraid that this is what all of America would look like...how 
can people live without trees?  My tree-nymph heart broke at the sight 
of my surroundings -- on my first day there, I tried to lie down in 
the grass and cry... but the grass was like straw and had none of the 
comforting, aromatic qualities of the grass I knew from back home.
Somehow,  I survived.  Wish I had known some musicians down there to 
check out the Austin scene.   
And now all I remember from those days in Texas are the wonderful, 
lifelong friends we made down there, and that my awesome daughter was 
born a Texan.   It's all good.......

Donate "okay, I've delurked three times in one day... 
Shawn's story made me do it..." v.B.-G

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Subject: NN: Re: West Texas Beauty or lack thereof. Little Nanci content.
   Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 11:37:27 -0800 (PST)
   From: "Bill Page" (bpage3@yahoo.com>

--- Tara Ntella (justabouttired@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Spoken by one who obviously never drove the drive from Big Spring to 
> Midland, Big Spring to Lubbock, or Odessa to Crane.  

Actually, I went to college in Abilene (a BO leen), and have made those
drives and more...Abilene to El Paso, Abilene to Lubbock to Clovis to
Albuquerque, Amarillo to San Antonio, San Antonio to New Orleans...you 
name it, I've just about driv it...

> Sure, you can talk about East Texas, but everyone knows that's not REAL 
> Texas.  That's softshoe Texas.
...most of the places I named were West Texas, not East Texas!

> Rattlers, mesquite, cacti, brown grass and red dirt.  Oil rigs and oil 
> refinery stink.  Towns with buildings desperately in need of painting. 
> And you call this beautiful!?!?!?!  LOVELY?!??!?!
> Me too.  Now i'm homesick.

See? It's hard to get it out of the system, ain't it?

> I know what a Dust Bowl Symphony looks like.  It has programs with a 
> treble clef made out of barbed wire on the front.

Hey, I LIKE that imagery!
 
BP

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Subject: NN: Re: Manchester concert
   From: BMiller224@aol.com
   Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 14:43:00 EST

Frieda writes:

(( I was struck by how strongly she supported the actions of the 
US and UK against the Taliban, from a performer who sings anti-war 
songs this was unexpected,>>

Dickie Chapelle, the gutsy photographer Nanci has icon-ized in "Pearl's 
Eye View," was an outspoken warhawk on the Vietnam War.

So maybe Nanci is just acting in the spirit of Dickie C.

Also, Frieda, other than "From a Distance," which of Nanci's songs 
were you thinking of as being antiwar?  

The Vietnam songs on *Clock Without Hands* are notable for not being 
even implicitly critical of the Vietnam War, though "Pearl's Eye View" 
could certainly be heard as an anti-landmine song.

That song does have the line saying that "she blew the whistle loud and 
clear."  But in the context of Dickie's story, I assume that means she 
was "blowing the whistle" to warn people about the need to fight the 
Communists.  

Bruce Miller
Oakland CA

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Subject: Re: Getting primal with CWH
   From: "Chevelle" (chevelle@pnx.com>
   Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 08:05:03 -0600

Todd Williams wrote,
  > Let me put it this way.  Nanci's best work, as with
  > all great art, gives one the sense, whether true or
  > not, of pouring out of her soul, so to speak.  So that
  > when the expression of emotion, whether it be pain,
  > joy, whatever, is passed on to the receiver is felt to
  > be not only genuine, but also personal and yet primal
  > or universal on a human level.

And Julie replied:

  > CWH is full of some of Nanci's most personal and primal songs 
  > yet...Shaking Out The Snow...Traveling Through This Part of You...
  > Last Song For Mother....

A big amen to Julie and Todd about the  good comments on CWH.  
I brought it to work with me Thursday and played it while I was 
doing my work.  

"Traveling Through This Part of You" hit me particularly well, 
since my middle brother Joe was in the Air Force in the Nam war 
and my older brother John was a grunt on the ground.  
Now that Joe has passed away this Tuesday and we are preparing 
to go and say our short goodbye to him, that song and some others 
have a certain poignancy to them.  All the songs on CWH are 
masterpieces in their own way, and I thank Nanci for sharing 
them with us. =20

Hank "Jeepster in the heart" Van Slyke

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