nancy k dillon
press kit

Nancy K. Dillon is an emerging Americana artist from the Pacific Northwest quickly making a name for herself. “An original new talent” mining a musical vein akin to Lucinda Williams or Kasey Chambers says respected UK country music journalist, Alan Cackett (Maverick-UK). Nancy is a gifted singer, songwriter and recording artist based in Seattle, WA. She masterfully weaves the textures and rhythms of American folk and country music into mythic road stories of “small town claustrophobia” and the “surreal euphoria” of traveling America’s byways. Her songs evoke the vistas and horizons of the sprawling American West.

Descended from an Irish Mason employed by the Missouri Pacific Railroad, Indian Territory evangelists and circuit-riding preachers, Dillon was born on the plains of Oklahoma during the second Dust Bowl less than a half-century after Oklahoma became the 46th State of the Union. Immediately upon acquiring a formal education, she hit the road without so much a plan as a desire to accumulate as many varied experiences and memories as possible. These included a 1980 circumnavigation of the globe, crisscrossing the western United States in a 1966 yellow Rambler American and jobs as a computer operator of IBM dinosaurs, a University of Oklahoma Indian Housing research project administrator, a photographer’s model and a keypuncher for a Seattle race-car parts company. All the while she pursued her musical dreams quietly performing in bands and on recordings until at last, conquering nagging stage fright, she began writing and performing her own original songs releasing her debut solo CD Just Let Me Dream on June 8, 2004.

Since its release, Just Let Me Dream is generating a continued buzz receiving international radio airplay, song contest honors and landing on several “Best of…” lists. Hailed as “accomplished, mature and soulful”, the CD has a sparkling windswept sound captured by Grammy-winning engineer Garey Shelton (The Believers/Danny Barnes/Rachel Harrington). Nancy co-produced the album with Austin, TX-based Michael Hill (Slobberbone/12 Lb Test). The album features virtuoso performances by Hill as well as John Reischman (Tony Rice/Jaybirds), Paul Elliott (Michelle Shocked/Alison Brown) and Grammy-winner Stacy Phillips (Dobro). Brit-folk rocker, Clive Gregson (Any Trouble/Gregson & Collister) makes a stunning cameo appearance on backup vocals and a searing solo at the end of the title track. John Conquest (Third Coast Music) observes, “Hints of honky tonk, Tex-Mex and cowboy music, intertwined with bluegrass, country, gospel and traditional folk, make this a true Americana album that could easily have come out of Austin.”

Nancy sings about escaping her native red dirt Oklahoma on the opening track of Just Let Me Dream. She may have left town but she is still the girl who grew up in Oklahoma City six blocks from Route 66. “You can leave Oklahoma” she says, “but Oklahoma never leaves you. I go there as often as I can. The land and the people deeply inspire me. My hope is to infuse my songs and sound with a feeling of that red dirt, spaciousness and the simplicity and drama of the elements." A subtle sweetness inhabits Nancy's voice that makes it instantly appealing. You can hear the wind in her voice. Sometimes you can taste the dust, too, and feel the hot summer sun. "I grew up in an extraordinary musical environment,” Dillon says. “My dad is a composer of modern classical music who played in a big band jazz orchestra on weekends. In between all of that he was a Professor of Music at the University of Central Oklahoma and directed the church choir. My mother sang her favorite hymns around the house and taught vocal music in Arkansas before I was born."

NW Folklife Festival - 2006

Nancy is a former folk radio programmer at KBCS/Bellevue-Seattle. She was a founding member of the renowned cowgirl band Ranch Romance and performed as a duo with Rounder recording artist, John Miller. It is her Southwestern roots that continue to nurture her though—and her soulful voice polishes the music until it gleams and sparkles like fire in fine jewelry. Listen to her perform sometime and see if you don't agree.