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Nancy Walker - Singer/Songwriter
Peripatetic. It's the American Way. It's how we are.
Nancy Walker's been there and done that, peripatetic.
Iowa, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Illinois. But now she's
firmly ensconced in Saratoga Springs, NY, a town of
change and growth that's reflective of Nancy's spirit
and the indomitable strength of her music.
A step back. Nancy singing in high school garages,
not the girlfriend, but the frontman. Nancy rocking
in Dallas bars, not quite Joplin redux, but close enough.
Nancy earning her stripes at Chicago open mikes, the
same training camps that produced the likes of John
Prine, Steve Goodman and Bonnie Koloc.
And again back to now. Nancy singing her own songs.
Nancy leading her own trio. Nancy earning a New York
State Council on the Arts grant to pursue her writing.
Nancy putting her organizational skills to work, developing
the Saratoga Songwriters Panel to bring her gifts -
and the gifts of others - to the people.
Photo by Andrzej Pilarczyk
 Nancy
Walker came to Saratoga Springs fully formed. In Chicago,
her last stop before home, she had been a linchpin in
the quirky, quite successful Sons of the Never Wrong,
contributing her vocals and writing to the band's best
known album, "Consequence of Speech," before
stepping out on her own. Through that project she met
husband and musical partner Larry Clyman, whose guitar
and production work has become an important element
in her sound. Her sound? A little Joni Mitchell. A little
Buffy Saint-Marie. A little Patsy Cline. All Nancy Walker.
The world becomes a little clearer in the mirror of
Nancy's voice.
Where all that peripateticism has paid of it in the
songs. "Quecreek was Water," from Nancy's
shimmering "Layers of Rust and Time," is the
coal miner's equivalent of James Keelaghan's classic
"Cold Missouri Waters" - a mesmerizing narrative,
a true story, a tale for the ages. "When You Go
Down There," from grant funded, community-centered
"True Colors," is
a visit to the local beauty shop, in actual time, and
you are there, too. And "Did You Know John"
is a stunning and tender portrait of one woman's walk
into twilight. "Folk music," Nancy says, "is
my home. We're storytellers. There's a literary component
to what we do."
Onstage, alone, or with her supple, responsive trio,
Nancy is the focus of the room. That feeling, that depth
of knowledge and experience, allows her to inhabit every
song, whether it's singing for the souls of miners or
recalling her Old Town School of Folk Music roots with
"Corinna, Corinna," a hoary chestnut that
comes alive again in her voice and in her heart.
Craftsmanship. That's the American way too. And Nancy
Walker has been there and is still doing that. That's
how you earn a NSYCA grant. That's how you bring so
many hopefuls to a songwriting workshop. And that's
how you make the songs that make everyone listen.
Nancy Walker's the real thing.
The Nancy Walker trio
Big Shoulders. The Zucchini Brothers. And that's just
for starters. Nancy's voice has found a home with the
trio, whether singing her own melodies, classics from
the American songbook or selections from the deep catalog
of the Old Town School of Folk Music. Have you lived
until you've heard Nancy sing "Bury Me Beneath
The Willow?" She's just an comfortable laying back
and letting Larry and Sam stretch out on an original
instrumental, with Larry's guitar snaking along Sam's
expansive drum beat. Some bands get by on style, some
get by on substance. Some, instead, catch the magic
that flashes when the two poles meet.
The Nancy Walker trio is the real thing.
Saratoga Songwriters Panel
Nancy Walker. Bob Warren. Michael Jerling. Has songcraft
ever had better friends? Nancy has the uncanny ability
to fuse the concrete and the gossamer, the actual and
the imagined and the truth and the thought. Bob, whether
creating a new musical, writing an album for another
singer or simply penning his own new classic, is a mastermind
of theory, practice and application. And Michael, who
creates homespun tales, sophisticated dialogues and
aching memories he calls "little movies,"
also knows how to capture every sound on tape. These
varied talents and skills mesh in the Saratoga Songwriters
Panel, which, through its one-day workshops and six
week seminars, puts the tools of the craft into the
hands of everyday people. The process isn't exactly
demystified - what purpose would that serve an art as
personal and powerful, yet so wonderfully esoteric as
songwriting - but it is made clear.
The Saratoga Songwriters Panel is the real thing.
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