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 Country all the
way
to the bank...
In Tune: E. Kyle Minor
You
don't have to go far to hear what passes for country music these days. In the post-Garth
era, when even native Danburians affect Nashville accents, you almost forget what the real
McCoy sounded like before the dobro crossed over to mainstream.
Tomorrow you can refresh your memory, or perhaps hear real country
western music for the first time.
Amy Gallatin and the Stillwaters perform at 7 and 8:15 p.m. at Chase
Manhattan Bank, 234 Main St., as part of First Night Danbury celebrations. "I guess
my first public singing was around a campfire at Lone Mountain Ranch in Big Sky,
Mont.," said the 36-year old Gallatin, "then singing for kids at a sleigh-ride
dinner about 10 years ago."
During this Christmas Eve's storm, Gallatin, who lives in Glastonbury,
was one of the estimated 48,000 Connecticut residents left without electricity. That
didn't stop her from playing, though. It brought memories of her years in the West.
"It wasn't until I came up to the Northeast in 1992 that I ever
needed to plug in to an amp to play."
Then, when Gallatin went shopping for amplification, she found more
than just equipment. Her eyes fell on a notice for fellow pickers posted by Matt Nozzolio,
a dobro player.
Gallatin called him up.
"We just hit it off right away," Gallatin said during a phone
interview. "Matt came from a bluegrass background while I was more Joan Baez, John
Denver. But the two styles worked together."
Soon mandolin and guitar player Kevin Lynch joined the fold - and the
Stillwaters were born.
Since then the acoustic band has played such notable venues as the
Connecticut River Valley Bluegrass Festival in Moodus, the Boston Bluegrass Union, and the
Northeast Indoor Bluegrass Festival in Boxborough, Mass.
They also have a wonderful album titled Northern Girl out on Happy Appy Records. "We
are a combination of Bluegrass, country western and folk," Gallatin said. "The
songs I play come from my days working on the ranches, mostly little-known songs from
writers like Karla Bonoff or Richard Dobson."
Gallatin is a Muscle Shoals, Ala., native who moved to California as a
child. She studied journalism at the University of California at Davis, but chose not to
stay with it too long. "I was a roving reporter for KGNR AM in Sacramento, when they
switched formats. I was out of a Job, so I decided to travel throughout the
Northwest."
Gallatin's wanderlust took her to White Pass, Wash., Cold Foot, Maska,
and eventually back to a ranch in Washington, where she indulged a lifelong fantasy.
"I wanted to be a wrangler. I learned to ride as a kid and always loved horses.
"Hours were tough, getting up at 4:30 in the morning to wrangle
the herd in. I taught people to ride," she recalled. And she soon got to indulge a
second love, music.
She moved to Lone Mountain, a hunting ranch in Montana. "I worked
as a cook. People would come out to the ranch to hunt. Our job was to bring them out to
the mountains and escort them. We'd sit at the campfire, I'd play my guitar and we'd all
sing."
Soon people were telling Gallatin she should present her voice in
broader circles than mountaintop campfires, and the camp hired her to sing from a porch
for its sleigh-ride dinner. A weekly gig followed. "I learned lots of great songs
working out there," she said. "Since we always played acoustic, I naturally
played early American and modern western songs." Listening to Northern
Girl, it's easy to figure how she's come so far in only two years as a
full-time professional.
Gallatin's voice covers a broad range and is well supported on either
end. Her band, which now includes Tara Rickart, has a fullness achieved only with the
finest quality recording.
Rickart's bass is the percussive backbone to Lynch's speedy mandolin
and lush guitar leads. Nozzolio's Dobro lends a distinctive flavor, melancholy on one
track, buoyant on the next.
Gallatin's song selection, her band, and her clear voice call to mind
vintage Nanci Griffith. Gallatin even includes Griffith's "I Wish It Would
Rain" on the record. This is not to say she tries to imitate Lubbock's favorite
daughter. Her phrasing is different, and her voice lacks any sign of a West Texas twang.
It stands proudly in its own right. The album's 12 memorable selections
also include Dan Fogelberg's "Sutter's Mill," Bonoff's "Falling
Star," the traditional Scottish tune "The Bonnie Banks of Loch
Lomond," and the title track, Northern Girl, written
by Cheryl Wheeler.
You will surely hear most of them when Amy Gallatin and the
Stillwaters' make their Danbury debut tomorrow.
"We're really looking forward to it. We like the idea of playing
for new audiences, especially young people," Gallatin said. "Playing for a
roomful of kids and their parents in a bank doesn't sound too different from the old days
in a log cabin on a hunting ranch."
Buttons to admit you to their concerts and the full menu of First Night
Danbury events are $8 for adults and $5 for children and seniors in advance. Tomorrow,
they cost $10 and $7, respectively. |
The Danbury News
-Times, Friday, December 30, 1994