© Nancy K. Dillon 2010
Okie Dokie Folkie
Opening with the strongest track on the album, ‘All The Pretty America’, Dillon releases her second album after a six year hiatus.
Whilst the PR that accompanies this release enthuses madly about the album (as is their job), it doesn’t list the opener as a
“recommended track”. Strange that, as it’s the one of the best here.
There are many descriptions to cover the gamut that makes up Americana these days, but here’s a couple used to described
Dillon’s work that may be new to you; avant-garde folk (WTF?), okie-roots (WTF2?) and even mythopoeia (WTF3?.. it’s the
process for creating myths apparently). Not only does Americana-UK inform but, we educate you. Bit like the BBC.
Dillon provides some useful song notes that explain where these songs come from and the thoughts behind them. I always
find these useful, as they rarely correspond with what I think they’re about. But that’s the beauty of well written tunes,
they can be whatever you want them to be.
‘Roses Guide To Time Travel’ covers memories of childhood, trains, murder mystery ghost ballad, cowboys getting dressed up
in their white shirts for a night out, Paul Kelly and Townes, affection for Portland plus driving through Texas storms.
Dillon has a quiet laid back approach, but she doesn’t have to hoot and holler loudly to get her message across. ‘Sweet Honey’
has echoes of Vika and Linda, ‘Last Down The Line’ chugs along to emphasise the train theme, ‘Desert Song’ revisits Gram and
Emmylou territory and ‘No Goodbyes’ references not only Paul Kelly but also Townes van Zandt.
A well written and beautifully paced contemporary bluegrass/folk/acoustic rock album. Please don’t leave it another six years next time Nancy!
Nancy K. Dillon,
Roses Guide to Time Travel
(Rose Rock, 2010)
Nora Jane Struthers,
Nora Jane Struthers
(Blue Pig, 2010)
Here are two CDs by singer-songwriters you probably haven't heard of. Of course, I could say that about two of a whole lot
of singer-songwriters. The difference: chances are, you'll fall in love with both of them by your second listening, and
probably sooner. As I have had occasion to express in this space before, I'm as cynical about singer-songwriters as they come.
I also tend to assume the good ones are the ones I already know. Believe me, it is good to be surprised once in a while.
Nancy K. Dillon and Nora Jane Struthers reside on opposite sides of the country (Portland, Ore., and Nashville, Tenn.,
respectively), and more than a few years separate their ages (Struthers looks barely in her 20s). But aside from a common,
richly realized talent, they share a deep affection for America's traditional folk music. From it, they have fashioned
something that is in one sense old-fashioned and in another modern, in the best sense. The music speaks movingly to the
continuity of past and present, where the place you were takes you to the place you are and will be.
The landscapes, though, aren't identical. Struthers' is Appalachian country, and not just in the sounds of fiddles and banjos
and in the occasional bluegrass touches. (One hopes, by the way, that bluegrass bands take notice of her and start covering
her material. Even the songs she does in non-bluegrass -- if always acoustic -- arrangements are easily adaptable to the genre.)
Dillon's, on the other hand, is the Pacific Northwest, and her generational experience acquaints her with Woody Guthrie, Fred Neil
and Townes Van Zandt, among the most audible (though hardly defining) influences. Guthrie is even a character in Dillon's terrific
family chronicle "Last Town on the Line," which follows the opening cut, "All the Pretty America," a melancholy lament for a lost
nation, a sort of counter-"This Land is Your Land."
If a communicator of life wisdom, Dillon never preaches but always feels like splendid conversation, a shrewd and compassionate
storyteller with an ear for melodies that are quick to please the ear and slow to leave the memory. The production melds her
acoustic guitar with the sound of a small, semi-electric band periodically incorporating banjo, fiddle, cello and more, none ever
taking up unwanted space. A consistent delight, Roses Guide to Time Travel carries a whole lot more substance than your standard
rootless singer-songwriter fare.
Likewise Struthers' self-titled disc. Any doubts on that score are quashed instantly. The very first cut relates a grim story titled
"Willie" -- yes, the same relentless psychopath who stars in any number of bloody murder ballads, only this time as seen from the
point of view of his victim. "Willie" is exquisitely crafted, and it's shocking in its unflinching, unsentimental maturity. Still,
as an introduction to somebody's music, it is awfully heavy going. Surely it would have been better placed in the latter half of
the program. One has to wonder at the decision that led to such a sequencing decision. Why, in fact, wasn't the second chosen to
be first? The cheery "Mocking Bird," one of several pure bluegrass tunes, would have opened the door with a welcoming grin, not
with a knife ripping through flesh (an actual image in "Willie").
Oh, well. Struthers offers up many pleasures, both down-hearted and high-spirited. If Dillon sings and writes from the experience
of a longer life, Struthers seems to do so at an angle beyond her limited years. A strikingly effective singer with a sometimes
spooky alto, she convincingly inhabits the personas of a range of rural Southern characters, even as she is herself is a product
of New Jersey. She came to Appalachian music through her father's passionate love for it. (When she was a little girl, we learn,
she waited every day for his return from work so that she could yodel to him. Awww....) That performers who grew up far from
the Southern mountains -- Gillian Welch is another -- are able to make real music in that voice surely proves that Appalachia's
ballads have become as broadly American as Mississippi's blues.
"Cowgirl Yodel #3" is her tribute to Patsy Montana, fondly recalled for "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart." It's a pity she
didn't live to hear Struthers, whose song is as ridiculously entertaining as Montana's was in its time. The yodeling swoops
down upon unsuspecting listeners to transport them -- on horseback, presumably -- to that rangeland in the sky. The disc closes
on a graceful note with an inspired reading of the traditional "Say Darlin' Say."
Growing up in the dusty plains of Oklahoma just six blocks away from Route 66, this closeness to one of
America's legendary transportation highways must have made an impression on a young Nancy due to the evident
quality on these eleven songs. Like other respected artists that were raised close to places of travel, her
longing to get up on her feet and see what's out there is evident on many songs as are other subjects of life.
With an old timey feel in the same vein of the Carter Family, "Looks Like Rain" moves along at a fine pace
and is in fact the best song on the album when you consider the originality of the accompaniment, in particular
the fiddling and mandolin picking. "Portland" is sparsely done but this is to the song's benefit. It paints a
delightful picture of the city which leaves its audience longing to visit its shores. Having no previous urge
to visit this Oregon location it is a triumph of a song which leaves a previously unwilling person wanting to
go there simply because of a four and a half minute song.
Nancy's songs are superior when compared to even the most successful of contemporary Nashville artists,
and the movers and shakers of Music Row should sit up and pay attention to what she has to say. Having shared
the stage with the likes of Gretchen Peters, Guy Clark and Ray Wylie Hubbard you realise when listening
to this album why those openings have happened.
No idea who Tom Petersen is but he's a clever, not to say, well-read, bastard. Covering "Just Let Me Dream" (Rose Rock 2004) in
Victory Review, he said, "The fancy term for Dillon's kind of writing is mythopoeia." The word was coined in the 30's by JRR Tolkien
to describe the process of integrating mythological themes and archetypes into fiction, and a clear example on the Oklahoma-born,
Seattle-based Dillon's second album is 'Last Town on the Line' - discovering that her great-grandfather had been a Missouri-Pacific
trainman, she got to wondering if he ever met hoboing Woody Guthrie. The later is also invoked on 'No Goodbyes', "I left my home
in a yellow Rambler American/following the footsteps of Woody and Jack Kerouac," which also quotes Townes Van Zandt. Come to think,
'Snowin' On Raton' could well be seen as a key to Dillon's concise and intelligent songs that open with a lament for America's lost
innocence and, via trains and depots, driving into a storm, dancing in the desert, a murder ballad/ghost story, renewing neglected
friendships, a hymn to Portland (OR) and the faint hopes of an aging rock star, closes with falling petals and a guttering candle.
Delivered in a clear and lovely voice that one commentator compared, not without reason as they share a gentle precision, to Eva
Cassidy's, Dillon once again defies easy categorization - if only Americana meant something, life would be so much easier - but I
guess avant-garde folk comes close.
"Just Let Me Dream" was the title of the debut album which Seattle resident and singer-songwriter Nancy K. Dillon released
to the world in 2004. She reaped a lot of positive criticism in the professional press but the large commercial success
then nevertheless stayed away.
Six years it has been before a follow-up for that first album comes on the market. Now eleven tracks appear on Roses Guide To
Time Travel with songs all composed by Nancy herself. Nancy K. Dillon grew up in a very musical family and has had the opportunity
to share the stage in the past years with several artists such as Jimmy LaFave, Kevin Welch, Guy Clark and The Everly Brothers.
They could make a broader public warm for her own country music and bluegrass inspired folksongs and this second cd can also count
on more approval than her debut album.
The songs on this cd find her singing about different subjects. Thus she looks back musing on a pure and unspoiled America from
her youth in the nostalgic-sounding "All The Pretty America", her love for everything related to trains in "Last Town On The Line"
and "New Train" and bleak weather phenomena such as a severe storm in the bluegrass song "Looks Like Rain".
She also sings about the unconditional love she could see between her parents** in "The Ground She Walks On", her parting feelings
on the death of a close friend in the rocker "Good Old Friends" and she brings a musical tribute to the atmospheric city "Portland"
in the U.S. state of Oregon. The final song played on acoustic guitar, "Sweet Honey", is due to its austere simplicity one of the
best songs on this CD.
Striking on this cd is that the instrumentation on most of the songs has been kept very minimal and as a result the emphasis is moved
automatically more towards the lyrics. With her music on this album Nancy K. Dillon can count on recognition of the music lover who
melts away in the songs of bands like The Dixie Chicks or The Indigo Girls. We can thus recommend "Roses Guide To Time Travel" to them warmly.
** here is the actual note about "Ground" from the liner notes which accompanied the album....a little something was lost in translation I'm afraid ;-):
The Ground She Walks On - This started out to be a sweet love song about my mom and dad’s enduring love for one another and then somehow the brand new adventure of tuning my guitar to dadgad turned it all dark and wrong-headed...I ended up with a murder ballad ghost story on my hands. It is set in the town where they met and fell in love but has nothin’ more than that to do with them...writing Ground was exactly like writing down a dream
I could say you had me at the cover for this CD. ‘All the Pretty America’ is a wonderful showcase of Nancy’s voice and wonderful use of harmonies. The melody line of the key phrase, not to mention the phrase itself, is intriguing. ‘Last Town on the Line’ is train song with the best of them and a little kinder to Woody, “life was hard for a trainman…” The vocals are powerful and the lyrics are well crafted. The rhythm and the instrumentals are as good as it gets: fiddle, slide guitar, mandolin. ‘No Goodbyes’ is another gem for lyrics and a fine chorus. It’s not hard to resonate with the sentiment of ‘Good Old Friends,’ or with the steady beat behind the lyrics of ‘Portland.’ You’ll love the singing on ‘Glory Days,’ and in fact on the whole CD. Catch Nancy whenever she passes through.
Raised from a musical family on the dusty plains of Oklahoma, Nancy K. Dillon knows her music enclosed in the spirit of nostalgia. A bit 'restless dreamer' and a bit provincial America, this album is really interesting to see as the quality combines with a musical vision of lucid and poetic material. During her career (this CD Roses Guide to Time Travel is six years in following her debut with the disc Just Let Me Dream) Nancy K. Dillon has shared the stage with great names like her countrymen Kevin Welch and Jimmy Lafave and then Guy Clark, Ray Wylie Hubbard, the Everly Brothers, the talented songwriter Gretchen Peters and Briton Clive Gregson, musicians who in one way or another have left a mark on her songwriting. The stories all have an intriguing appeal which contributes to the success of a substantial and inspired album. "Last Town On The Line" and "New Train" celebrate the myth of the railroad, "Portland" pays homage to the eponymous city, "Looks Like Rain" has a bluegrass sound and tasty treats with a story of grace 'tornado chasing' in a place like Oklahoma where she used to live with such natural phenomena, "The Ground She Walks On" is a remarkable 'murder ballad', "No Goodbyes" is yet another (but still valid) way to America in the footsteps of Woody Guthrie and Jack Kerouac, "Glory Days" is a mix of nostalgia and hope, like "All The Pretty America" where the desire is to believe in a nation more open and tolerant. Well, Roses Guide to Time Travel is a disc whose lyrics are notable for wit and wisdom, and whose music moves between a pleasant vein of solid songwriting and country-tinged roots and folk.
Having Grown Up in Oklahoma, just 6 blocks away from the Route 66, Nancy K Dillon comes from a musical family with roots in the dusty plains of Oklahoma. Roses Guide to Time Travel is the much anticipated and long awaited follow up for her 2004 Debut “Just Let Me Dream”.
A showcase for her authentically Ookie roots and an intelligent take on Americana music are the main ingredients for this album that brings a mixture of contemporary bluegrass, traditional Americana and some folk inspired tunes. Among the better tunes on this album are tracks like “Last Town on the Line”, “Desert Song”, “Looks Like Rain” and “New Train”.
The main ingredients on this album are trains, depot stations, aging rock stars and fading beauty! Add to that a murder ballad and the picture is complete. Next to the enigmatic voice of Mss Dillon, you’ll find some very interesting musicians lending a hand as well! Amongst them you’ll find Chris Parks (Any Trouble), Gavin Sutherland (Sutherland Brothers & Quiver) and Danny Barnes (Bad Livers) to name but a few! All this creates a mature and soulful Americana sound with big influences from both bluegrass & folk that longs for an extra spinning in the end.
Roses Guide To Time Travel is a well accomplished effort with eleven self penned tunes. It was worth waiting for this follow up album, although six years is really a bit to long if you ask me! I truly hope that we won’t have to wait over another half decade for the next album, in the meantime Mss Dillon announced an extensive tour on both sides of the Ocean.
There's no explanation in the press release as to why there's been six years between the Oklaholma singer-songwriter's debut and her apostrophe-challenged sophomore album, so just be grateful that it's finally here.
Featuring contributions from such musicians as Danny Barnes, Gavin Sutherland and Stacy Phillips, as before, it's a desert dust coated brew of bluegrass, folk, honky tonk, blues and country in service of songs about small towns, trains, highways, drifters, loving and losing, leaving and hanging in as, per the title, years pass by.
With a voice somewhere between Nanci Griffith, Judy Collins and the young Lucinda Williams, she opens the album with arguably its strongest song, the weary waltzing, concertina and banjo flecked All The Pretty Americans, an Obama dawn lament for a country's loss of innocence and a hope for its awakening from its sleep.
While the focus may be micro rather than macro, it's a similar theme that informs the album's second standout and catchiest chorus, the penultimate Glory Days, a song about a faded rock star still clinging to memories of the past and hoping for a revival of his fortunes, even though 'songs that used to run now can barely walk'.
Ringing a personal note, drawled and streaked with hillbilly blues and slide guitar, Last Town On The Line stems from the discovery that her grandfather was a trainman working the Missouri-Pacific line, and sets her to wondering if he might have encountered Woody Guthrie riding one of the box cars.
Guthrie's invoked again on No Goodbyes, a tale a verse song about a Kerouac highway odyssey, a senorita shooting her cheating lover and a young man heading out to find fame with his guitar. Death rears its head too in The Ground She Walks On, a folk blues Southern gothic murder ballad ghost story that apparently began life as a tribute to her parents' enduring love. Such are the strange tangents the creative mind can take.
Innocence and experience loom large. The first stirrings of a relationship form the heart of the bluegrassy Desert Song where, to Barnes' banjo backing, the singer and her new beau go dancing down town as, giddy from his flaming gaze, she wonders 'what will go down'.
That's followed immediately by the sprightly hillbilly Looks Like Rain where, with what could be the same couple some years later, she observes that the summer's gone and the storm's bearing down fast. "I want to take off running" she sings, and, as she writes on the thumbnail sleevenotes, themes of escape and redemption are also woven into the sonorous desert blues New Train and the fairground waltzing paean to Portland.
All this and, in the line about how 'a hummingbird has to drink a thousand times a day' amid the romance metaphors of the bluesily soulful Sweet Honey, a lesson in natural history too. A good year for the Roses, then.
"Just let me dream ..... "
No doubt "Sweet Honey" Nancy K. Dillon in 2004 dreamed of a very successful career and, to be honest, with "Just Let Me Dream" and
valued contributions to the albums of other artists including Michael Hill, John Nelson, Gavin Sutherland, Ian Lang and MJ Bishop, there were legitimate reasons.
Moreover, the lady from Seattle at that time captured my heart with her version of Jimmy Lafave's "Give Your Sweet Love To Me" – a fine cover.
So we had to wait until now before the successor 'Roses Guide to Time Travel” saw the light…but…patience is a virtue and clean as the music brings a kind
of pleasure which human nature can not do without.
Nancy K. Dillon clearly appreciated our repeated message to the singer/songwriters to include the lyrics
on the album inlay and she was also kind enough to add a note to each original song of her authentic Okie-roots music. You can through CD Baby for the mere
sum of $15 or $10 - in one ear- and eye-catching way - witness songs about time, trains, forgiveness, redemption, lovers dancing in the desert ...
plus a murder ballad ghost story !
The ticket "An original new talent" again from the dust will probably get a bit exaggerated, but for those who only now hear the efforts of this
avant-garde folk/Americana singer-songwriter will probably be caught with open mouth to enjoy gems such as "All the Pretty America" (I kept thinking
how much prettier and more innocent America seemed when I was a girl), "Looks Like Rain" - with Steve Smith/mandolin, Paul Elliot/fiddle & Grammy
award winner Stacy Philips/Resonator guitar and "The Ground She Walks On" - with Danny Barnes/National Steel guitar. There are other sometimes "Good
Old Friends" of the party on this disc: co-producer Michael Hill/guitars - vocals, Gavin Sutherland (Sutherland Brothers & Quiver), Chris Parks
(Any Trouble), Ian Lang & MJ Bishop make Nancy K. Dillon as comfortable as possible to return to link up with the "Glory Days" in 2004 which
took a brilliant start. "No Goodbyes" .... no, you ain’t seen the last of me .... despite the fact that nature, time and patience are the three best
doctors, please not that long.
"To Nancy ~ who knows more than a little about making musical magic!"
"A fine, fine release from a rising star on the local scene..."
"Raised in Oklahoma and now living in Seattle, Nancy K Dillon deals a pretty neat line in singer-songwriter-isms tempered with folk, country and western swing; she oozes the road in her style, to the extent that JLMD sometimes feels like a travelogue, but a personal one, relating people, places and feelings that passed by on the journey. There is no Lucinda Williams style emotional evisceration going on here, though, and the confessional dial is turned down several notches - much is evoked and implied rather than simply on display for all to see. Denton TX man Michael Hill (a sometime Slobberboner, if that's the expression) contributes guitars, backing vocals and co-production, though there are many extras playing mandolin, cello and fiddle amongst other sounds. JLMD is accomplished, mature and soulful and NKD is a real standout amongst the ranks of roots based acoustic artists out there at the moment - file alongside early Lucinda or perhaps Kasey Chambers."
"Nancy K. Dillon, Seattle's pillar of western swing, has a more intimate, personal sound these days - call it "folk twang" - and this solo album will be an instant favorite of fans of introspective singer/songwriter material as well as honky tonk stompers. Dillon's record is evocative of the great themes of the west: the road, lonesome struggle, deep faith tested, the vast beauty of it all. She never has to resort to clichéd descriptions or hackneyed styles to call up these spirits, though, as she draws on a wide, complex background in musical Americana to suggest themes that span the human condition. Thus the small town claustrophobia of "Crossing 66" is a dark country blues suggestive of emancipation from slavery, and the hippie-love utopia that is the title tune is actually a sophisticated jazz number. The fancy term for this kind of writing is mythopoeia, and with Dillon we come to understand why a bluegrass tune about driving through Idaho is perfectly sensible, as is the astonishing, "Nothing In Texas", the most beautiful '60s-soul slow dance ever to wear denim. Dillon is backed by various friends from across the country and across the many styles she's comfortable with, principally her collaborator of late, Michael Hill. The picking is top notch and the CD is beautifully produced and packaged. It's one to rush out and get!"
"She may have relocated to Seattle years ago, but Oklahoma native Nancy K. Dillon's roots are clearly cemented in the Red Dirt State. In "Crossing 66," you can almost feel the hum of the rumblin' pick-up as you follow alongside Dillon, chasing a dream throughout the criss-crossed roads of the U.S.A. Pockets of bluegrass, fancy fingerin' and perfect finger-snappin' beats are scattered throughout "Just Let Me Dream." So too are the quiet strums of a lonesome cowgirl, nestled in between thoughtful lyrics of regret, as in "Nothing in Texas" and "Tired Heart." Dillon even included an impressive "O Susanna" in her debut release. I expected knee-slappin,' but what I got was an almost Fleetwood Mac ballad. Dillon and friends will be celebrating a CD release Saturday at the Blue Door."
"There's something about small towns that goes so well with music. It might be the stories each one has that somehow resemble the rest to a
unique "t", or it might be the common aspirations of leaving them. More than likely, however, it's a combination of both. While songs about
getting away from small town America are definitely not a rarity, real people making honest music are. And this is what makes Nancy K. Dillon's
debut album of 2004, "Just Let Me Dream" so special.
A small town girl from Oklahoma, Dillon has always had big dreams of becoming an established singer-songwriter who did things the old-fashioned way
on her own terms. And as soon as she graduated from college, Dillon headed out west to make her dreams come true. "Just Let Me Dream" is a testament
to her determination as well as her accomplishments. A broad mix of Americana at its finest Dillon breaks down genre barriers with ease as she weaves
a vast array of styles that range from sophisticated jazz to 60's soul to bluegrass to broken-hearted country blues into a delightfully detailed quilt
of emotion that isn't quite like any other on the market. And though the album is full of all the right instrumental fixings (such as a resonator guitar,
mandolin, accordion and banjo), the common denominator that ties all the songs together is Dillon's welcoming voice of reassurance that beckons the
audience to join her on her journeys through life and a vast nation of turmoil and triumph.
While the music is diverse and Dillon's voice top notch the album would not be as successful or smooth without Dillon's lyrics. Whether she's
singing about the surreal euphoria of the title track, small town claustrophobia ("Crossing 66"), or treks across the US ("Nothing in Texas"),
Dillon stays true to her roots and soul remaining careful to stay away from clichés and close to the things she knows best. Such experience is
priceless in her songs as is her unwavering spirit making "Just Let Me Dream" one of the greatest albums to hit the shelves in a long time and
Dillon an artist to keep an eye out for." Grade: B+
"For all she's spent the last 20 odd years in Seattle, making a name for herself singing folk, country, R&B, jazz and Western Swing, Nancy K's still the girl who grew up in Oklahoma City, six blocks from Route 66, and her album, which she describes very neatly as 'twang-folk', has plenty of windswept Southwest in it. Specific references are to Oklahoma (Crossing 66), Texas (Nothing In Texas, with The Nancy Boys) and New Mexico (The Ballad of Mabel Dodge), but 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. With the smooth relaxed warmth of Nancy's vocals, stellar backing and production and twelve strong originals (plus a cover of Jimmy LaFave's Give Your Sweet Love To Me, of which the highlights are Almost To Idaho and Play 1-4 Susie, well, what's not to like?" - @@@@ (4 out of 5 flowers!!)
"We've reviewed an earlier title by Nancy, and that one was a bit more Country. This one seems aimed at more of an Americana audience, although there are still Country elements and tracks. It seems no expense was spared, there are some stellar players on this including Stacy Phillips on Dobro, Paul Elliott on fiddle, John Reischman on mandolin, Chris Leighton on drums, Keith Lowe on bass, Jeff Simmons on Vox organ and several others. Not all on every cut of course. All the songs are original except Jimmy LaFave's "Give Your Sweet Love To Me", with a couple having co-writers. My favorite tracks are the Bluegrassish "Almost To Idaho", the Country Rock, "Play 1-4 Susie", and the waltz "Fire and Soul", but I like it all. The arrangements and recording are sparkling."
"This is a really fine album of singer/songwriter fare with a bit of an old-timey feel in spots. I like this CD a lot. The songs are well-written, tuneful and intelligent."
"Thank you very much for sending me your more than beautiful release. I've enjoyed listening to your great songs and music and I will give your disc regular airplay in my radio show, because you're damn good!"
"... great from beginning to end. We're planning to play the title track on our show tomorrow and hope our listeners will enjoy your music as much as we did."
"Strong album from Seattle-based singer/songwriter..."
"Oklahoma-born Nancy K. Dillon has performed in various groups for years in Seattle. Her solo debut, Just Let Me Dream, has a lot going for it. I can't recall the last time I singled out an album for being so well-played. Resonator guitar, clawhammer banjo and mandolin are used with particular grace. But it's countrified folkie Dillon's welcoming voice that pulls the album together. The accordion-driven "Play 1-4 Susie" sweetly describes the yearning folks who return to clubs regularly and occasionally find what they're looking for."
"Nancy blends country, blue grass, and her own unique sound with lyrics that combine old-fashioned rhyming rhythms with the language of the most sophisticated post-modern spirituality. Every song can be heard as a straight-forward ditty, or as a deep metaphor for the spiritual journey to wholeness. For example, my unbiased favorite is "Nothing in Texas": "Ain't nothin' in Texas to stop the wind It just keeps blowin', remembering Ain't nothin' can stop these songs that I play They just float up as the stars blaze away Melody plays by the light of the moon She laughs as she dances and sings her new tune" Don't we all have a new tune to sing now? A new dance to dance? And isn't the moon sending us the dreams to guide us there?"
"Like a distant dream you can almost hear, a Southwestern wind blows through opening track "Crossing 66", a haunting portrait of a small portion of that historic route. Nancy refers to it as a "love song to a highway", one which lay mere blocks away from where she grew up in Oklahoma City. She has called Seattle, WA home for the past couple of decades, and in that time has established herself as a warm and striking singer of folk, country, R&B and Western swing. Just Let Me Dream lets her showcase her versatility through a sweet, easygoing set of folk and country tunes. Hints of traditional, bluegrass, honky tonk, West Coast country, Tex-Mex, and cowboy - or cowgirl, in this case - all emerge throughout this twangy folk offering, which was produced by singer/guitarist Michael Hill (12lb Test, Slobberbone)."
