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 Gallatin
& Stillwaters are a delightful blend...
By Jeffery Kurz
Record-Journal staff
MERIDEN- Amy Gallatin &
Stillwaters produce the kind of music that has a certain quality, even if it doesn't have
a certain name.
"There really isn't a name for it," acknowledged Gallatin. She was on the phone
from her home in Glastonbury, talking about the group's upcoming performance at Unitarian
Universalist Church in a benefit concert Saturday.
The music, sometimes called "Americana," is distinguished by its folk roots and
its lyrical orientation. The instruments come from bluegrass.
Though Gallatin was born in Alabama, her roots are in the west, where she worked as a
musician and horseback riding instructor in Washington, Montana and Idaho. Much of her
music is inspired by those western influences.
In 1991, while she was in Connecticut for the winter following a trip to Europe, Gallatin
answered a notice for musicians posted by Meriden resident Matt Nozzolio, a Dobro player.
The two formed Stillwaters and produced their first album, Northern Girl, in 1993. The
album Sweet Gatherings followed in 1995.
"When I met Matt, he was into bluegrass and I was into folk," Gallatin recalls.
"I wasn't tuned into the bluegrass thing at all, and there's so much really great
music."
Gallatin recorded a solo album in Nashville, called The
Long Way Home, early this spring. The band
followed with a month-long tour of Europe, highlighted by a performance at the European
World of Bluegrass Week in the Netherlands.
Stillwaters features Nozzolio on Dobro, Kevin Lynch on mandolin and guitar and Bob Shaw on
upright bass. And, of course, Gallatin's vocals.
"A song has to move you personally," Gallatin said about the music she selects.
"You have to connect with it emotionally or you can't sing it. You don't just sing
any old song. It has to mean something to you. People are looking for the emotionally
experience that you bring to a song." |
-Record-Journal,
Meriden, Conn.