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News Of Note | Jan 21 |Nov 12 |Oct 1 | Sept 9 | Aug 14 | July 7 | May 28 | March 2 | News Archive

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January 21, 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Katryna and I took an appropriate Solstice-y holiday break in late December. We ceased work on our new CD. We stopped bugging our producer about our DVD. We didn't write a word on our book All Together Singing in the Kitchen: The Musical Family. We did not gig.

But we did make music. My favorite thing about Christmas is getting to sing carols and other seasonal songs. I love that they come once a year. I love that I know the words and the harmony by heart. I love hearing the different parts my family members sing. This year was extra great because our cousin John Colonna came via Berklee School of Music and played piano with us. Dave, our father and I played guitar. Tom, Amelia, William, Lila and even Johnny played the drums. At one point, Amelia, William and Lila were all sitting in a row behind the coffee table with their full focus on their drum part to Deck the Halls. I wish you could have seen their little intent faces. It answered the question, "What are we for if not for this"––in spades.

There were other musical, familial highlights of the season. Amelia was in a wonderful production of Dicken's A Christmas Carol. Many of us went to see the Christmas Revels in Cambridge. Lila was given the new Dan Zanes DVD, and William got Paul McCartney's DVD of his tour last summer (which we wrote about in August--remember how we met his bodyguard at the Nova Scotia baggage claim?) and now William has multiple paper guitars laid out in front of the TV so that when Paul changes guitars, William can change too. Lila and Johnny also got They Might Be Giants Here Comes Science, which has made her decide that she wants to be a songwriting doctor when she grows up. I told her to talk to Hugh Blumenfeld. Also, she is mad at me because I won't schedule a playdate with John and John. (She was amazed to discover, "MAMA! Did you know that They Might Be Giants are REAL? And they live in BROOKLYN?") She says they do too know who we are because we watch their DVD so often.

She has a point. Katryna and I have not met all of you who read this or who listen to our CDs, but we feel like we know you anyway.

And we CAN meet you if you come to our shows, for this month, we DO have shows! Check out the tour page for some amazing shows coming this spring!!

Love, Nerissa

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November 12, 2009

Hello fun friends!

We Nields are about to embark on the creation of our 16th (!) CD! We are most excited about it. Those of you who have been at our recent shows have been treated to some in progress versions of our newest compositions. We debuted "Which Side Are You On" — a Nerissa recreation a la Sister Holler — and "Can I Love You Too Much" at the Iron Horse. Also appearing on the new cd will be "I Am Half My Mother's Age" - the Ash Wednesday/ Merry Christmas, Mr. Jones sequel, "Good Times Are Here, Johnny", "Between Friends" and a bunch of others. We have songs! We have songs! Oh, it's so much fun to be writing and learning new songs! Nerissa sang "Back at the Fruit Tree" at her church the other weekend, and we have some more that we might work up for Saturday. Maybe. We have been having a tremendous time of creativity recently, capped off with a weekend Creativity retreat entitled I Wanna Be a Woman Like Me! Oh we had fun. All this creating is going to be taking up loads of time in the coming months. (After rejecting Motherlode as the title for fear of alienating half our demographic, we are flirting with calling it Full Catastrophe. But Katryna just called Nerissa up and said she wanted us to name it What Are We For If Not For This and for Nerissa to use that line (for the third time) in a new song. Thoughts?)

As a result, we have only 3 shows left this year AND two of them are THIS Saturday, November 14, 2009.

We are returning to one of our very favorite places. The Steeple Coffeehouse in Southborough, MA. The people who run this coffeehouse should probably be the ones revamping our healthcare systems. They run a beautiful, friendly coffeehouse. We liked it so much last time that we are playing TWO shows this time. The 3pm show is aimed at kids and their grown ups. We have been delighting in these family shows of late. Come and hear your favorite songs from YOUR childhood plus some Nieldsian inventions. The family shows are very interactive. Just imagine, a whole hour when YOU do not have to entertain your child. We will do it for you! Telephone: (508) 599 3339.

The 7:30 pm show will be one of our grown up Nields shows, packed with new songs and pearls of wisdom. Plus they make amazing mixes of music. I discovered many a wonderful tune last time we were there.

The only other shows of 2009 are family shows in Northampton, MA for First Night. (Dec 31st)

We can't wait to see you!

Meanwhile, our dear friend Jonas created a new video for Easy People which you can see here on YouTube or here on our blog.

Nerissa is going to be part of the annual WriteAngles conference at Mount Holyoke College on Saturday November 21. More information here.

Ongoing: we are updating the blog once a week. We are active on Facebook as NerissaandKatryna Nields and on Twitter as NerKat. We had a fabulous time at our I Wanna Be A Woman Like Me Retreat, during which we wrote, drew, painted, sang folk songs in 3 part harmony, ate delicious food, made collage vision boards and even did a little yoga. On Saturday night, as she was being taken up to bed, three-year-old Lila said, "I want to be a woman like me." William dressed up as John Lennon circa 1966 for Halloween, complete with dark round glasses and a cut out Rickenbacker guitar. Amelia went as Medusa. Johnny is throwing peas at our dog George Harrison who has fleas. (We are dealing with the fleas. It could be worse, people.)

AND! Our family DVD Kick A Hole In The Sky is almost finished! We hope to have copies available in limited supply for Christmas. To see a sample, go here.

Happy Thanksgiving, folks! Don't forget to play Dysfunctional Family Bingo. Eat some good local food, love and forgive your family members, make some homemade music and thank the good earth. We love you.

Nerissa and Katryna

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October 1, 2009

BIG SHOWS!

This Saturday Oct. 3 we are at the Walton Theatre in Walton NY, very near our aunt Elizabeth who says she is coming!
Friday Oct. 23 IRON HORSE!!! With Lucy Wainwright Roche opening! YIPPEEEEE!!!
Saturday Oct. 24 The Egg in Albany. We are opening for Dar Williams! YIPPPPEEEEE!!!!!
November 6-8 The First EVER Nerissa & Katryna Living It Up in the Garden Creativity Retreat here in Northampton. Just 5 spots are left! For more about this retreat, see below.

Hi Dear Friends,

Fall Foliage We're putting the storm windows up today. Here in New England the maples have turned red and are balding rapidly. HooteNanny has started, and we are getting ready to film some cutie pies dancing to Mango Walk in the hopes of finishing our DVD by Christmas. (A gal can dream...) It's been really fun making this DVD. Last weekend my parents visited us to watch the Pete Seeger Tribute and to play the roles of Granola Gramps and Waffle Woman. We might have to leak some footage on YouTube.

Our kids keep getting bigger. Amelia and William have discovered the Beatles and now know more about who sings what song than we do (almost). Yesterday Katryna and William came over and I played "Your Gonna Lose That Girl" and he sang the backgrounds. Lila made two different drum layouts: a music room version composed of our small drums, and a kitchen version made up of all the big metal pots. She wants to play the violin like her cousin Amelia. Johnny has been shaking a wooden maraca and plucking the strings on my guitar one note at a time. "Young ones stronger," for sure.

Speaking of music and family, we have a contract from Shambala to write a book called All Together Singing In the Kitchen: the Musical Family. It will be a How To and a Why To. Katryna is writing the How To and I am writing the Why To. The book is slated to come out in 2011. We will be asking you periodically questions about your own experiences with music within your families via Facebook and Twitter, so follow us and friend us! On Facebook , we are NerissaandKatryna Nields and on Twitter, we are NerKat.

We loved the Pete Seeger Tribute. My father and mother were holding hands and whispering during Emily Greene's version of "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream." It turns out back in 1961 they realized they were in love (or rather that the feeling was mutual) at a Pete Seeger concert during which he had sung that very song.

Music is it, man.

About that Creativity Retreat! Some specs:
You will arrive at 5:30 on Friday and be greeted by Katryna, Nerissa and various members of Nerissa's family, possibly including George Harrison, unless we can pass him off to Tom's work colleague. You will be fed an amazing meal cooked by us excellent cooks: a meal that is healthy but you'd never know it, it's THAT GOOD! After dinner, we'll go around and introduce ourselves, set intentions and Katryna and I will talk about bringing the creative into your daily life. We'll have our first creative session during which all will write. You can plan on being back at your hotel by 9pm.
Saturday: Arrive at 9:15 for light breakfast, coffee, tea. Weather permitting, Katryna will take the photographers and artists outside while Nerissa works with the writers and musicians inside, but we may all end up together. We'll do one session in the morning, one in the afternoon, with a break for lunch. After another fabulous dinner, we will do some group singing for those inclined!
Sunday we will arrive again at 9:15 and work/play until noon.
All kinds of artists are welcome, and we will craft a program specifically for you.
Cost: $200
Register: here.

Happy October, folks! Enjoy that foliage and planning your Halloween costumes. Lila says she is going to be the Sidewalks of New York.

Love, Nerissa & Katryna

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September 9, 2009

Hello, dear ones!

Can it really be September? Wasn't it just March? Where did the summer go? Here in Massachusetts we had weeks and weeks of Seattle-in-the-fall-like weather where the only way you knew you weren't in Seattle in the fall was because the "sun" went down at 9pm.

By the way, did you know that if you looked at Jupiter with binoculars, you could make out the moons circling it? Couples: try that for date night! Make a moonlight picnic and go somewhere where the city lights don't block out the stars.

September means back-to-school for many of us. In the Nields-Duffy house, Lila's been at school since July. She's a pro. She even has a best friend. Amelia and William are at school too. Johnny is not at school, but he is playing the piano by standing on his sister's rocking chair. He is also walking!

Katryna and I are reviewing the most recent cut of our new DVD Kick A Hole in the Sky. You can see a cut from it ("Aikendrum") at www.nields.com. While searching on Youtube for it, I found this footage of our dad interrogating Ollie North in 1987.

Now for our gigs! Last spring when I was overwhelmed with All Things Two Kids, I said "NO!" to doing a show on a Tuesday morning in September. It was really hard to say no to Katryna, but I am super busy what with raising kids, writing books, making music, coaching, seeing friends, trying to get rid of 10% of my possessions and studying yoga. In general, I am really bad at saying no. In 1991 I went to one of those ridiculously overpriced seminars with has-been music professionals telling hapless artists like me how to break into the business. The only good thing I heard there was SAY YES TO EVERYTHING! Which I did for the next 17.5 years. But now I am learning how to say NO! However, here's what happened last week (an actual word-for-word transcription):

Katryna: Hey, Nerissa. Dave can't do the Tuesday Northampton Center for the Arts kids' show with me anymore. Can you do it?
Nerissa: Sure.

So, what is currently listed on our site as a Katryna Nields Only show is now both of us.

THIS weekend, I am running a writing retreat out of my Big Yellow House. It is full. BUT! Katryna and I are doing a Creativity Retreat the weekend of November 6-8 which will be SO MUCH FUN YOU WON'T EVEN BELIEVE IT, as Lila would say. It is filling up fast, so sign up soon. My friend Penny Schultz sent me this link to an amazing piece by Brian Eno on the three best ways to improve the quality and quantity of your life: dancing, camping and singing in a group. So as part of our retreat, we are going to be doing some organized group singing (NOT Camping).

Next weekend, September 19, Katryna and I are going to Jim Thorpe PA for a show at the Mauch Chunk Opera House. To find out why the town's name was changed from Mauch Chunk (which is a very cool name) to Jim Thorpe, see here.

Then on Sunday, September 20th to NYC for a show at 7:00pm at the amazing Joe's Pub which is GORGEOUS with Red Molly, who are also gorgeous. Please come!

On September 26, we are honored to be a part of a Tribute To Pete Seeger, a benefit for our beloved friends at PACE (Performing Arts Center of Easthampton, where we recorded portions of All Together Singing in the Kitchen). The event starts at 7pm and is at the beautiful and historic Academy of Music in Northampton. Our father John Nields will be joining us!

Check out the blog! We update it several times a week!

There is a spot left in my Monday night writing group and one in my Tuesday afternoon writing group. For more information, go to www.nerissanields.com.

There is free stuff at www.lifecomposition.com!

We love you so much. Thank you for being such excellent employers. We are glad our jobs are not being shipped overseas.

Nerissa and Katryna

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August 14, 2009

Hi everyone,

We were so busy recovering from Falcon Ridge and getting ready for the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Fest that we forgot to send our August news. Read on to hear the whole story and see pictures. For now, let me tell you about our upcoming gigs:

August 16, Sunday Armadillo's Keene NH
This show is at 6pm!!! SO get there early and eat some yummy burritos. The burritos seem to stop being served at 5:45. The show is at 82 Main Street Keene NH 603 358 3700

August 22 Saturday Heath Festival, Heath, MA http://www.heathfair.org/
We are on the stage at 1pm. This is rumored to be the sweetest of the hilltown fairs. I have never been and I am so so excited to partake in the start of the fair season. Come hang out with us!

August 25 Tuesday Transperformance
It's a Woodstock re-enactment. Nerissa and Katryna are going to be Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell. It will be fun. It will be cool. It's at Look Park. In Northampton MA. It's the annual event to beat all events.

August 30 Sunday Pinkney Park Rowayton,CT http://www.rowaytonct.com
We have the great pleasure of opening for Dar Williams. If you haven't heard her new cd, you are in for a big treat. We go on at 5pm, so come early and bring a lovely picnic. This is a lovely park. You will have a great time. See you there!

Also, visit the Nields Blog for a Postcard from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia!

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July 7, 2009

Hello, dear ones,

It's July! It's the month of Falcon Ridge!!!!

Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. It's just that we wait all year for this month, and I am so giddy with gladness that it is once again upon us. Meanwhile, here's what we're up to:

We just got back from the Festival of the Eno, our other annual folk fest. Eno is in Durham, NC. Usually the weather at Eno is 97 and hazy-humid. "EZ Bake Oven," is the Carolina shorthand for it, and walking from stage to stage one feels one needs flippers on one's hands. This year, it was 65 and rainy, which was especially weird since it's been 65 and rainy for pretty much all of June here in Massachusetts. I didn't mind, though. It was so marvelous to see our NC friends again after a 4 year hiatus. (Katryna played Eno with Dave Chalfant in 06, but I haven't been there since 05). My highlight was watching from the stage as Katryna demonstrated the ABC Dance during our Kids' show. Her son William and several other intrepid youngsters joined her.

This Saturday, July 11, we play a 7:30pm Nields show at my church in West Cummington, MA. This is the third or fourth year in a row that we've done this show, and in the past we've paid homage to Woody Guthrie since we always perform close to his birthday (7/14/1911). This is one of the best places to see Nerissa & Katryna Nields all year; trust me. The acoustics are great, but what's really special is the vibe. Quite simply, this is a magical place for our family; William was baptised here, as were both of my kids, and Tom and I were married here. Penny Schultz, the music director, is way up in our pantheon of musical greats, right up next to Pete Seeger and Jack Langstaff. So come! Experience the magic of the Hilltowns in July. Have dinner first at the legendary Cummington Creamery.

Then there's Falcon Ridge. Ahhhhhh. Tom, Lila and Johnny and I got a tent the size of Hawaii and we might even sleep in it. I need suggestions about where to pitch it. I can't wait to bring my new guitar, Babe, formerly owned by the great Tracy Grammer. Babe is a Martin 0015 or something (it's a parlor guitar, that much I know) and I love her love her love her. I still have my Taylor ("Hate Free Zone") because I just couldn't part with her, but I sold my John Osthoff to someone with bigger hands than I. May it be played sweetly ever after.

Our DVD is coming out in about a month or so. We'll have a preview on YouTube very soon.

Katryna and I are hoping to have a creativity retreat the first weekend in November. I've been running writing retreats out of my house since 2004, and they are about the most fun I get to have in any given year. What could be more fun? Adding Katryna to the mix! With her gifts and skills as a visual artist and photographer, we are opening up the retreat experience to anyone who wants to explore their creativity (including writing, photography and drawing) in a safe, productive, fun and loving environment. Plus you'll finally get to try our world famous roast chicken with yams.

We are now on Twitter as NerKat or NerissaKat Nields. Don't ask me why we are called that. I didn't have a lot of options. Anyway, we are Twitterrific. Also, the blog is active and healthy and now syndicated on both www.nerissanields.blogspot.com and www.howtobeanadult.com. Enjoy!

Let's have a firefly counting contest. Let's eat a lot of corn on the cob and tomatoes and blueberries and peaches and support our local farmers. Eat more kale, etc. Let's stay up too late with our easy people and sing to the stars.

We love you.

Nerissa and Katryna

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May 28, 2009

Hi all,

The peonies are popping which lets us know that June is right around the corner! But before we turn that corner, we have to tell you about a super cool special show this Saturday May 30 at the Guthrie Center in Stockbridge. The Guthrie Center is AKA Alice's Restaurant from the famed Arlo Guthrie recording circa 1967. Arlo Guthrie is instrumental to our being residents of Western MA. For some reason, while I was in college in New Haven I had a vision of my future in Western Massachusetts, fed only by the vague knowledge that Arlo lived here and made a happy musical family life in the hills of the Berkshires. So when we came of age, we showed up here, too, and I can't imagine a better place, allergies, mosquitoes, 8 months of winter and all. So come on down to the show. You can get anything you want...

Speaking of all that, I am missing my 20th college reunion this weekend. I just can't imagine it would be that fun to show up with a baby and a three year old, even though I know people who do that. They have better nervous systems than I do, or they're just more comfortable with chaos. I am going to spend my weekend instead remembering my college days fondly, seeing one old friend, taking my kids to our first CSA pickup (YAY!!!!) and doing this great gig. Hope to see you there.

June 2-Nerissa's BIRTHDAY! And the anniversary of the day Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in the US. (Both occurred in 1967, as did "Alice's Restaurant." How cosmic!)

June 7-Appel Farm We are part of a really exciting day of music called With A Little Help From My Friends. In place of the usual festival, Appel Farm is hosting a benefit for scholarships to their Young Artist Camp. It's the coolest of line ups: Guy Davis, John Gorka, Vance Gilbert, Grey Eye Glances, Livingston Taylor, the Kennedys, Jeffrey Gaines and more... 2pm-6pm. I am quite sure there will be a lot of musical intermingling. I think this will be a remarkable show.
http://www.appelfarm.org/concerts/benefit/index.html

June 20-Nields Double Header! Cambridge/Watertown MA!! We are performing as part of SummersDay Revels in Watertown MA at 3pm and then doing our own show at Passim in Cambridge at 8pm that night. For those who don't know, Passim is second only to the Iron Horse as Most Favorite Gig, and Revels is one of the main reasons Katryna and I chose this gorgeous lively twisting road called Life As Folksinger. Revels "celebrates the seasons and cycles of human life through the arts, the songs and dances, and the stories from traditional cultures. Audiences recognize the events, desires, and dilemmas from another place and time as their own... A Revels production brings a volunteer chorus of children and adults and professional actors, musicians, designers, and directors into community. At each performance, this community invites the audience to join it. The audience always accepts the invitation, to make noises, to sing carols, to join hands with strangers and dance. Audience participation is the hallmark of Revels."

Hmmm. Sounds like a Nields show.*

* Amelia at age 4 coined the term, throwminating. Def. The act of including the audience in the play. Breaking down the fourth wall and bringing the play into the theater. I had not even taken her to a Revels event yet. I will this year. I have to. There's going to be Irish Step Dancing. That's her favorite.

June 24 Wednesday at 6:30 pm We will once again break all the rules and sing at the library. This time it is the M.N. Spear Library in Shutesbury, MA. We are responsible for kicking off the summer reading program with some singing. Full disclosure, we are actually singing behind Town Hall, but it sounds so cool to say that we are going to be singing in LOUD voices in the the library. You'll have to imagine that. This will be a family show with a mixture of songs for kids, grown ups and maybe even a bit of singing along. Dontcha know.

June 28 Greenfield Energy Park 10th Anniversary Celebration! We are on at 7pm. Greenfield Energy Park is a community greenspace featuring renewable energy exhibits, gardens, native arboretum, caboose museum, concerts, and public art in the heart of downtown Greenfield. Site of former train station. Headquartered at the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA). What's better than supporting renewable energy on a beautiful summer night and listening to music at the same time?

Also, just a heads up, but we REALLY love to sing in libraries. Especially on Wednesdays. So look for us in Easthampton, MA at the library, in the morning, on July 1. We'll be the ones not using our indoor voices and telling you to spend the summer reading. Also we'll be singing.

Announcement: due to frustrating shoulder and back problems, Nerissa is in the market for a new guitar, which means I am also in the market to put two of my old guitars ON the market. One guitar is the jumbo John Ostoff I used for many tracks on This Town Is Wrong. It's a nice rich sounding beauty with Koa wood on the back and sides. The other is my Taylor which I play out almost everywhere I go, otherwise known as the "Hate Free Zone" guitar because it has that sticker on it.

If you want to buy one of these guitars, name a price and we'll talk. If you have a light guitar with onboard electronics that is just screaming my name to you, and you are dying to sell it, let me know. Ideally, I'd like a rich bassy sound AND a light body, but that might not be possible.

I am not blogging as often as I was in March and April because Katryna and I are hard at work on our book tentatively titled All Together Singing in the Kitchen, or The Musical Family. Stay tuned. But I still do blog, and my intention is to post once a week minimum.

Do not forget your favorite grad! Give them the gift of passive aggressive guidance by slipping a copy of How to Be an Adult into their post-grad travel bag.

Happy happy spring! Stop and smell them roses.

Love, Nerissa and Katryna

ps- note from Patty...My Birthday is June 8th. Nerissa thinks that if she does not mention it in the Newsletter, she does not have to get me a gift... she is wrong!

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March 2, 2009

Hi lovelies,

March is doing its Lion boogie. It's a stormy snow day here in Western MA and we are home with our kids. Sesame Street is on in the background. The word of the day is "persistent." One kid said, "that's when you try really really hard even though it's not easy, you keep trying." Hmmm.

We just came back from our first "tour" since I gave birth to Johnny. In the old days, a tour was differentiated from a show by the length of time away from our own beds, and by that demarcation, I'm not sure 2 gigs in Florida would have qualified. But given the new regime of multiple children and several day jobs, this most certainly qualified. While in Florida, we played at a wonderful venue called The Craftsman House, which only has concerts once a month. The rest of the time, it's a cafe and a space for artists and fine craftspeople to sell their work. We were dazzled by what we saw: gorgeous glass work and ceramics and textiles. We made a de facto green room for ourselves in a room in the back where I happened upon a beautiful and intriguing coffee table book which was not for sale; it was propped up in front of the display of pots by Tom Coleman, a renowned ceramacist from the west coast. I don't have room here to tell the whole story, but you can find it here on my blog. Suffice it to say, I was completely inspired by Tom's "Mud Pie Dilemma" and have since quit my own day job. Well, not quit--but I have made the decision to minimize my coaching practice for an indefinite period of time while I focus my energies on parenting and my own creative projects. Katryna and I have big big plans for 2009, and I need every spare non-mommying moment to see them through.

Which brings me to...February Album Writing Month! We did it! We have 14 songs! We will debut one of them, a sequel to "Ash Wednesday" and "Merry Christmas Mr. Jones," this Wed. March 4 on Ed McKeon's radio show on WWUH. I plan to Skype him at 7:45, and I think you can get the station online.

This Friday, March 6, once we've dug ourselves out of our snowbanks, we are taking over the Living Room on the lower east side of Manhattan at 7pm. Our great friend and amazing musician, Cadence Carroll will be opening the show! The Living Room is fast becoming our home in the great city of New York. It'll be over by 9 so come early and rock with us!
154 Ludlow Street
(between Stanton and Rivington)
New York, NY 10002
212-533-7237

On Saturday night, March 7, after a lovely day exploring New York and eating Magnolia cupcakes, we will head out to New Jersey- Watchung Arts Center to be exact. The show is at 8pm. It is an intimate venue at a really cool arts center. We are part of a series called Powerful Women of Song. We better play one of those new songs!
18 Stirling Road, Watchung, NJ 07069
Phone: 908-753-0190
E-mail: wacenter@optonline.net

On Friday, March 13, we are headed to the northwest corner of the fine state of Connecticut. We are playing a GORGEOUS venue called Infinity Hall. Built in 1883 but newly renovated it is an amazing club dedicated to an impressive and eclectic calendar of music. The calendar has everyone from American Idol's Bo Bice to the Average White Band to Judy Collins. They are trying to do something really remarkable and we are so honored to be a part of it. Not far from Hartford, Great Barrington and of course right over the border from our beloved Falcon Ridge. I really think this is going to be a special room to be playing. Come out. We'll do a new song or two. We'll also do your very favorite song. After all, we have esp.
http://www.infinityhall.com

On March 21st we head back to the Boston area. The Circle of Friends Coffeehouse is located in Franklin, MA. This is one of our very favorites. So many great memories of shows here. Let's make some more! RUNA and Shannon Lambert-Ryan will be opening. Circle of Friends Concerts are held at the
First Universalist Society Meetinghouse, 262 Chestnut St, Franklin
Franklin is equidistant from Boston, Providence, and Worcester on I495, about 25 miles southwest of Boston, half way between the Mass Pike (I90) and I95.
http://www.circlefolk.org/index.html

On Saturday March 28 at 3pm we will be making Nields history. This will be our very first FULL BAND Nields show for kids and families. We could not be more excited. The great radio station here in Northampton- The River is sponsoring a fabulous day for kids. It is called Meltdown: The River's Family Music and Book Bash. A Day of music, book readings, food, activities, vendors, and more for kids and the whole family. Saturday, March 28. J.F.K. Middle School. 10 am - 4 pm. Oh it will be fun.

And just a heads up that we are coming to Jammin Java in Vienna VA on Friday April 3, the Iron Horse on April 25 (celebrating Katryna's 40th! birthday), plus at the end of April we are going to be a part of a cool inspiring workshop at Kripalu in the Berkshires with Eliza Gilkyson, Val Denn and Gretchen Peters...

I am terrified that having given up my day job, I will simply default to sleep mode; after all, I am the mother of two tiny insane dictators, and I mean that in the kindest and most compassionate possible way. So I have set myself a challenge to insure that I use my creative time well. I vow to post on my blog at nerissanields.blogspot.com every single day for the month of March. Please join me!

Looking forward to the Lamb days at the end of the month,

Nerissa and Katryna

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Review of How to be an Adult

Wednesday, May 28, 2008
DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE
Book Bag

By SUZANNE WILSON Staff Writer

"How To Be An Adult: A Musician's Guide to Navigating Your Twenties"
Nerissa Nields
Illustrated by Katryna Nields

In her introduction, Nerissa Nields writes that this book was originally her younger sister's idea. Katryna, she says, "had just graduated from college and felt clueless ... while trying to figure out things like how to get health insurance and how to pay her taxes on the nonexistent income of a budding folk singer. How are we supposed to know any of this stuff?"

Excellent question. The result is this book, a collaborative work from the sisters who live in this area and have been making music together since 1991. Though the book is written in a breezy, often entertaining, manner, it is in fact packed with practical advice gleaned from interviews the author did with, as she points out, "over 35 actual adults."

The table of contents by itself is worth the price of admission. Among the chapter headings: "How to decide what you want to be when you grow up"; "Failure"; "Organized religion"; "Eight cheap forms of therapy"; "Trash"; "Finding roommates"; "Should you buy or rent"; "Debt"; "Mail clutter"; "Laundry"; "How to fix a broken toilet"; "How to keep in touch with parents."

Jill Stratton, associate dean of students at Washington University in St. Louis, writes that, "As someone who works with college students on a daily basis, I have been waiting for this book to be written. Nields is the big sister and coach we all need when embarking on such an adventure."

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News Of Note

Nerissa & Katryna participated in National Album Writing Month in February 2008, and recorded 14 new songs in GarageBand. You can hear them all here. Liner notes are in the blog, here.
Nerissa continues to teach songwriting and writing workshops in Northampton, for both adults and teens. All the info is here.
A great interview with Nerissa is here.
Read Nerissa's cover story in the New Haven Advocate here.
Listen to Nerissa & Katryna on NPR's Here & Now. The broadcast is archived here.
Listen to Nerissa discuss "When I'm Here" on NPR's All Things Considered. The commentary is archived here.
Listen to Nerissa & Katryna's appearance on WFUV's Sunday Breakfast, archived here.

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