The Nields Newsletter 
Falcon Ridge! New CD!

August 2014
 

Dear Nields people,
 
What an amazing month we have in front of us.  We are recording a new record!!  We are playing Falcon Ridge!!!
 
The past week of summery New England weather has seen us arranging all the vocal parts for our new songs. It has been a while since we last tried to arrange a whole pile of new songs. We both were TERRIFIED of this week.  We thought we would fight like when we were 13 and 15. We thought we'd be devoid of great harmonizing ideas. Conflict and hard work at the same time???? How would we survive??? But the week was fabulous. The harmonies came easily. There was no fighting AND no biting (take that, Luis Suarez!)  We are more excited than ever to make this CD. So excited that we will be debuting a few BRAND new songs at Falcon Ridge.


 Day one, tracking Princess! From left: Dave Chalfant (duh), Sturgis Cunningham (drummer), Kit Karlson (producer) and Chip Johnson (genius boy).

Falcon Ridge is one of our favorite places in all the world.  It is happening August 1-3 this year and we will be there on Saturday for our MainStage set and a fabulous all-star Pete Seeger inspired Sing Along, and on Sunday for our family stage set and some time on the small stage, swapping songs with friends.  If you have never been, make it a point this year to come.  Cheryl Wheeler will be there.  DO you need any other encouragement?  You do?  Well, our kids would tell you that there are delicious Nutella crepes to be had.  And I would tell you that you will be in the midst of a warm, joyful, relaxed community of folk music loving folks.  Falcon Ridge is in Hillsdale, NY about 10-15 minutes from I-90.  It is right where Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York State meet.  Give yourself a treat.  Come dance on the hillside or lie on your blanket and take in the tunes.
 
July was pretty awesome in Nields-land too.  Katryna went to the UK with her family.  Mostly, we did things for the kids like Harry Potter tours and Sherlock and even visiting the set of Doctor Who and meeting the Doctor and pushing buttons on the Tardis.  Yup.  Couldn't take photos because that is not allowed, but it's true. AND we got to watch them film a scene from an upcoming episode,but if we repeated the lines we heard, we would have to kill you, and we don't like killing.  Here is what we did for the grown ups:
 
 
Meanwhile, Nerissa held retreats in the Adirondacks AND Northampton, feeding hungry retreatants, building her labyrinth so they could solve problems in their novels and poems. She also wrote two new songs which just have to go on the new album: "Delilah" and "You Don't Have That Kind of Time." We played our annual show at the West Cummington Church and debuted a few new songs, including our cover of "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream." Music is everywhere.  

 Happy August, and see you at Falcon Ridge!

Love, Katryna and Nerissa 


 

Nerissa & Katryna_Kris1
We Endorse
Katryna
1. My fabulous salad:  Greens- mine come from my awesome horse-powered CSA, but any greens will probably do.  Then toast some salty almonds in the toaster for a little while.  When they start making the house smell delicious and the children stream into the kitchen saying, "What are you making????", chop them into little pieces.  Sprinkle them over the greens, add gorgonzola cheese crumbles, add a sliced up peach.  Use a vinaigrette.  I use Annie's Shitaake Sesame vinaigrette. (I usually also add leftover grilled chicken)  Toss.  Eat.  YUM!!! 
 
2. Hyperbole and a Half.  I am sure I have recommended this before.  It is just brilliance on top of brilliance.  And if you are close to anyone who suffers from depression, check out her piece on her own depression. Amazing. But here's something a little lighter from Allie.
 
3. In Montague, MA there is an old mill which has been turned into a used bookstore with the famous slogan "Books you don't need in a place you can't find."  We've played music in this building and browsed their amazing book collection.  Earlier this summer, I ate the food at their incredible new restaurant, the Alvah Stone.  It was delicious.  I got to sit on the deck with the water babbling by, laughing with friends and eating the most scrumptious fare.  The highlight for me was a deep-fried, house-made ricotta stuffed Squash blossom.  I dream about that food. 

Nerissa
1. Music, Language and the Brain 
A great article about why, though just listening to Mozart might not make kids smarter, playing an instrument will.  
I am thinking about this a lot, as we just spent the last week at Suzuki Camp (the Western Mass Suzuki Academy). I wrote about this here, if you are curious. Suffice it to say, I need a lot of encouragement to keep on keeping on with the daily practice--for my kids, and for me as I continue to take piano lessons and endeavor to get better on guitar. 


 

2. A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan. This book was so excellent. I read it on vacation, and it was the perfect beach read: clever, engaging, I couldn't put it down. It's kind of like a record album, with 13 beautifully crafted discrete stories that interlock, but they bring the reader in and out of different character's lives over the course of 40 years. It's about the music business--but it's really about Time the Goon.

 
 
 3. Black Bean and Corn Salad--easy and delicious!


My kids decide, at times, to be vegetarian, usually when they don't like the dinner I've cooked. We tried this recipe and loved it so much that I made it for my writing retreatants at the Writing it Up in the Garden Summer Camp. If you live in the Valley, be sure to get Golonka corn, on the roadside of Rt. 5 in North Hatfield. It's the best corn in the universe, and I am not exaggerating.

Mix together 1/3 cup fresh lemon or lime juice, 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, 1 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp cayenne into a jar. Shake it up and pour it over:

2 15 oz cans black beans (rinsed and drained), 1.5 cups roasted corn kernals (if you can't get Golonka's, get Trader Joe's frozen roasted corn!), 1 avocado, chopped up, a bell pepper, a basket of sunburst cherry tomatoes, halved, three green onions, chopped, a bit of cilantro if you like. 

And here is a picture of the finished labyrinth!

  

Fan Of The Month! Theresa Marsik
I formally met Theresa at the Ark, but we got to know her better when, in 2005, she and her family came on the legendary Nields/Susan Werner/Kennedys Falcon Ridge cruise to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. We love her, and are trying to get to MI in 2015 or 16 to return to the Ark.
Q: When did you first see the Nields? 
I'm not positive, but I think it was in the Spring of 1996 at The Ark.  I had seen Dar Williams at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival in January 1996, and when I saw that she thanked The Nields in the liner notes of her album, I went to School Kids Records and bought Greta. After I heard it, I wasn't going to miss seeing you in person, so I kept an eye on The Ark's schedule.

2. Why do you keep coming to their shows?
I can't describe it without sounding corny, but the music touches my soul.  When I'm at a show, I feel like the music is a flowing river and I am floating along for the ride. It's a transcendant experience.

 

 

3. What are your other favorite bands?
Well, I don't typically listen to the radio, so I'm not up on many mainstream artists.  My current favorites are probably pretty similar to other Nields' fans - Dar, Susan Werner, The Kennedys, Richard Shindell, Vance Gilbert, Cheryl Wheeler, Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, Gandalf Murphy/Grand Slambovians, The Head and the Heart, Patty Griffin, Carrie Newcomer, The Decemberists, Erin McKeown, Natalia Zukerman, Patty Larkin, Catie Curtis, EFO, and probably more that I'm going to feel guilty for forgetting. 

4. If you eat bacon, which do you prefer: turkey bacon, soy bacon or pig bacon? If this question is too personal, please feel free to skip it. Bacon can be embarrassing.
Pig bacon.  It's my new favorite pizza topping.

5. If you were a Brady, which one would you be? If you were born after 1979, you might not know who the Brady Bunch are, in which case, substitute your own cheesy TV show, but be aware that WE might not know what you are talking about. 
Man, I haven't watched The Brady Bunch in about 35 years.  I remember I liked Bobby, but I really don't remember anything about him.  I definitely wouldn't be Mike, because he was an architect and I am an engineer, and architects and engineers don't get along. (OK, I took one of those quizzes, and it told me that I'm Greg because I like music and sports and feel responsible for other people. While the description is accurate, I always found Greg kind of creepy).

 

6. Do you play an instrument or sing? If the latter, who do you most sound like? If the former, what instrument do you wish you could play? 
I played the trumpet from 5th to 12th grade and a bit in college, but I'm sure my lip is long gone now.  I wish I had learned to play the piano - I love making up my own "songs" on our piano, but I don't think I'd be able to coordinate both hands to play real songs.  I didn't have to worry about that with the trumpet!

 

7. If you were offered two pills, a red pill and a blue pill, and the red pill made you be able to speak all languages on earth, and the blue pill made you be able to play all the instruments of the earth, which would you take. (There would be no nasty side effects.)
I would choose the blue pill.  Always music.

 

8. When you were between the ages of 7-12, what were your obsessions?
Writing detecive stories with my friend Paul, climbing trees, playing hockey, riding my bike to visit the old Finnish ladies who lived a mile or two away, etc. Oh, and Star Wars.

 

 

9. What is your favorite state in the US?
I have only been to half of the fifty states, but I would have to say my home state of Michigan.  Specifically, the Upper Peninsula. Even more specifically, the western half of the UP (where I grew up).  There are more than 125 named waterfalls in Michigan and all but 1 are in the UP.  Plus, you can't beat the shoreline of the Great Lakes.

10. What is your favorite Nields song? Why?
This is a hard one, because I have so many favorites and each for their own reason.  I almost feel like I am betraying the rest of the songs by not mentioning them.  One of my favorites is All My Pretty Horses, for a few reasons.  First, it makes me think about what my grandpa may have felt when he struggled with Alzheimers. Second, Nerissa and Katryna played it the last time they were at The Ark (the day before my eldest was born). Third, when I had to go back in the hospital a week after Hannah was born, just hearing that song on my iPod helped me get through that ordeal.

Editor's Note: All My Pretty Horses is FREE on BandCamp. Check it out.

FRFF 2003
Polaroid From the Past

Falcon Ridge-First Kids' stage show, 2003

 


 
Nerissa's Blog

07-24-2014 11:12:00 AM

Things I love about what's happened so far: Monday, we met with Michele Marotta, awesome fundraiser for The Cancer Connection, to brainstorm about ways to raise money to pay for this album. More to come on this ....�

07-22-2014 17:02:00 PM

Words can't really begin to express how much I loved the Writing It Up in the Garden Summer Camp experience. I am homesick for it already, even though I am still in the same home the retreatants gathered in. It was so much fun to gather daily, to keep my house clean (with the help of Liz Bedell and my wonderful new intern Kay Carambia), to try out fresh summer recipes, to walk the labyrinth in the morning, to take a vigorous post-lunch power walk with the other writers in the park across the street, to hear the new work, to immerse myself in my own writing. I can't wait for next summer. ....�

07-20-2014 16:54:00 PM

Elle and Jay and I spent the week at Suzuki Camp, lugging our violins, soccer ball and a gigantic cooler full of snacks into the air-conditioned sanctuary of Easthampton High School. Shinichi Suzuki's breakthrough was the realization that music is a language, and like any language acquisition, can best be learned from a very early age. As we learn to talk before we learn to read, so young musicians can learn to make music well before they learn how to read music; hence the stereotype of Suzuki kids playing Bach before they enter kindergarten..�


How to Be an Adult
Looking for the prefect graduation gift? Nerissa's How to Be an Adult is full of practical advice, funny and wise with a slight spiritual twist. Get it as a paperback or ebook for your favorite grad!
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In This Issue
We Endorse
Fan of the Month: Theresa Marsik
Polaroid from the Past
Pre-production week
Summer Tour Schedule
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Summer

   

August 1-3

Falcon Ridge Folk Festival

Hillsdale NY

www.falconridgefolk.com

 

August 26

Transperformance

Look Park, Florence MA

We will be the Dixie Chicks, with Tracy Grammer!

Time TBA


Click here for complete tour schedule.
 
Photo by Sarah Prall




New Web site is here!

photo by Sarah Prall
First every Nields Family HooteNanny!
photo by Sarah Prall
Nields Family Hootenanny!

Nields Family HooteNanny

 (NFH) is on summer vacation. We'll start up again in September!

 For more information, email 

HooteNannymusicclass@gmail.com.

 

photo by Sarah Prall

The Nields offer small moments of joy and sorrow that linger in one's memory as a kind of quiet paean to the mystery of who we are and what it is we are about. Consumable.com
COF4.13
photo by Jake Jacobson
"A review of a Nields concert described their music as "equal parts Beatles, Cranberries and Joni Mitchell." iTunes
They're cheery, these two, but not Pollyanna. They know that life is hard, and making art while tending to our other obligations, especially as women, is a painful struggle. The Artery
Nerissa & Katryna_Kris1
photo by Kris McCue
There's a profound state of aesthetic arrest that some singers can put an audience into, and singers like that are worth their weight in gold. Not many bands manage to have two of them. Pop Matters
N&K 1996 by Kathleen Hill