September 27, 2007
Words from Katryna
Hello friends! Here comes fall and here comes our celebration of our newest cd, Sister Holler. On October 1, 2007 we are officially partying in honor of Sister Holler's release. We will be at the Northampton Box Office for a few tunes and some yummy treats to announce to the bustling Northampton streets that we have a BRAND NEW CD!!!! It'll all happen at 5:15 and be over before you know it. The CD is officially available in stores the following day, October 2.
For Columbus Day weekend we are heading to our nation's capital. We will play the gorgeous Barns of Wolf Trap Saturday, October 6 with Dave Chalfant and our Dad, John Nields too.
October 13 we will be at our beloved Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton for Sister Holler and for the beautiful autumn that only New England can deliver. We have invited an incredible band to accompany us. It will be grand. A grand band in the land but not the sand. Sorry a little Dr. Seuss in our house.
We will round out the month with a kids' show at the Northampton Center for the Arts on Oct 16 at 10:30 in the morning and a grown up show at the New Moon Coffeehouse in Haverhill, MA on October 20.
Don't forget our September dates in Westport, CT, Friday Sept 28 and our kids' show Sunday afternoon, Sept 30 at the Chocksett School in Sterling, MA.
The recent shows have been so great. Thank you for coming out. Thank you for singing along. There is a lot going wrong these days. This train is bound for glory. Come join us and sing loud.
katryna
Words from Nerissa
Dear Likers of Nields,
When Katryna and I were first starting out, living in the van and traveling all over the continent all year long, we devised a Perfect Travel Plan. California in January, then slowly east through the South West in Feb. Texas in March, and the rest of the south, hitting Northern VA on Katryna's birthday, April 30. Then back out west (via Chicago, Wisconsin, Minnesota) towards Colorado for June; the Pacific North West for July and head home across Canada in August, arriving in New England in time for our favorite season in September and October. We always begged our booking agents to let us play our hometown club The Iron Horse in October. And we always tried to get to Northern VA for our father's birthday in late September.
And thus began a tradition. Please come see us on October 13, which just might be PEAK LEAF DAY!!!! We will be playing with a full band: Dave Chalfant (guitars, etc), Paul Kochanski (bass), Lorne Entress (drums-Dave Hower is in Maine. Lorne played drums on Love & China and parts of This Town Is Wrong and also on The Right Road), Dave Dick (Banjo) and prehaps some other special surprise guests.
And on October 6 we will be at our beloved Barns of Wolftrap, with our marvelous father as special guest, if we are lucky. It won't be PEAK LEAF DAY on Oct. 6 in Virginia, but we promise a great time anyway. (If you recall, Katryna and I have serious issues with PEAK SEASON. It makes us neurotic, but in a charming way. We are much more comfortable with Post Peak when the pressure's off.)
I do love this time of year, crazily much. I love the way the air feels, smells, interacts with my lungs; I love the turning of the leaves, the kids crossing the streets to get to their buses, the crisp tartness of a Macintosh apple plucked from a tree, the sweetness of delicata squash, the heightened enthusiasm for life everyone with whom I come into contact seems to evince. Somehow, even the busyness belongs and makes sense—I seem to have energy to match the demands.
I heard recently that when Buddhist novice monks and nuns train, they are told to be close to their masters, to spend much time with them, because the masters are like burning logs. Close proximity will surely lead to oneself catching fire. You burn when you are near those who are filled with enthusiasm. This month, I plan to celebrate these people in my life: the ones who make me laugh; the ones who get it, the ones who teach me. I also plan to spend this month watching the leaves change.
Lila and I were having lunch yesterday, listening to a mix which included Dan Zanes, All Together Singing in the Kitchen and the Beatles Anthology 3. When "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands" came on, she pointed at the speakers and said "Cheena" (her name for Katryna.) "Yes!" I said, "Very good!" Then "Let it Be" came on, and I said, "That's the Beatles." She knows them because I have them on my pocketbook. She nodded. As the song ended and went into the last chorus, she pointed at the speakers and said, "Bee-uls!" "Yes!!" I screamed.
Life with a gregarious child encourages me to connect in some unusual ways. My friend Karen suggested that we contact Day Care Centers around the country and send them free copies of All Together Singing in the Kitchen to play for the kids. We are hereby soliciting YOU, just in case you know of a day care center. Please inform!
Lots to report about Sister Holler. First and most importantly, we love singing the songs live. I can't tell you what a huge difference that makes to an artist. It might sound ridiculous, but it gets exhausting singing certain songs, which, while fun to write and challenging to record, get old quickly on the stage. Not naming names. But so far, all the SH songs feel delicious in the mouth and on the guitar, and people seem to pick up on them and sing along more quickly than on other albums.
We have Michaela O'Brien on board once again to handle our publicity. So if you have a radio station, TV show or newspaper (or blog, magazine, zeen, YouTube drama, etc.) contact her for an interview (with us. Not her.)
Goldenrod will be handling our distribution. If you don't see Sister Holler in a CD store, ask, and they will order it for you. Soon it will be on Amazon.com and other ubiquitous web outlets.
My dream is to sell Sister Holler (and all our Mercy House Music and Books) through local food co-ops and coffee shops. Not to add any nails to the coffin that is the CD retail business, but frankly, some of us don't have time to go "shopping" anymore, and I am sensitive to this, since I am one of those somes. The only places I ever put down actual money anymore is my coffee shop and Whole Foods (though as soon as the River Valley Co-op opens, I will be frequenting the latter). (Although we LOVE Whole Foods AND the one in Hadley is selling All Together Singing In the Kitchen and Sister Holler.) So, if you own a food co-op or coffee shop and would like to sell our CDs, give us a ring!
This is what it's like being your own record label. You get to actually do all the hair brained schemes you wanted the label to do. And you might sometimes see why the label wouldn't do them. But mostly you have fun.
Happy Autumn!
Love, Nerissa
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