From The Pacifica Tribune, 2007
Nancy Hall, Band leader and Rabble Rouser
1. Just to be triple-y safe, who are the performers and what instruments will they be playing Saturday night? And is your concert titled: The Curios 10th Annual Winter Concert or does it have another name?
me-songwriting, singing, guitars, ukelele, xylophone & percussion
lee parvin- piano, hammond B# organ, accordion, two of his own original songs and lead/backing vocals
Mike Tyler- accoustic and electric guitar
Marc Games- accoustic and electric guitar
Jim kerwin ( of the David Grisman quintet ) Stand up and Electric Bass
Pam delgato- ( of popular SF band Blame Sally ) drums and percussion and BG vocals
2. Can you tell your upcoming audience what kind of songs they will be hearing – the styles, the composers, song titles etc?
It's hard to categorize the Curio thing, hence the name of the band I guess, but let's try "eclectic folk-pop". This year we are throwing a little
old-timey-sounding cabaret in since I am really interested in that music right now. I am doing one song by a favorite composer Sam Phillips, and also one song from the soundtrack of an amazing existentialist movie that I love called “I Heart Huckabees”. I write a whole years worth of music based on what I am experiencing and what I want to express in a non-journalistic way; it's all poetic, non-linear, so hopeful we get to feel something.
3. I am almost sure you have written a whole new basket full of songs. Is there a particular inspiration for the songs of this show? Can you share any of the titles?
I call this "my year of tolerance" cause I found myself hanging out with both land developers and people who love Jesus, two groups I generally had not much intentional contact with in the past and , to be honest, had a bit of prejudice toward.
The developers were folks I found myself fiercely negotiating with in a way that became very personal and intimate because I had to express from my heart the why of protecting the land in a way that might help them find the courage to make sacrifices for the sake of the land.
I also found myself in an old-timey bluegrass gospel group as drummer and backing singer and it turned out that our primary venue was church! So I spent a lot of time singing to and about Jesus and trying to soften my heart toward his followers. Both of these events went from uncomfortable to astonishingly beautiful in terms of kind human contact, so I was very influenced by that in my musical life.
4. What have you been up to since your last visit to the Sanchez Concert Hall Stage?
I am trying to get a recycled veggie oil/biodiesel plant build here in Pacifica and that has been no small task. Also, I tried to co-create paradise on my little quarter-acre by inviting 20 different food producing plants to come hang out. They came and they gave abundantly and filled us up body and soul. The earth loves to give and receive. I do my women’s singing circle on Wednesday nights. I also have a big rambling family here in Pacifica including my Mom and Dad, 5 siblings, 9 nieces and nephews not to mention an equally big old Italian clan on the Leone side, so we keep in contact as best we can.
5. And if 4. above does not include traveling with Neil Young, please share some details! (And throw in some of your résumé info.)
Actually I am hoping to do a small side bar to this interview that talks about my being on Neil's bran new CD. I will write it and send it. along...
6. So when did you first realize that music was your thing? And how did you start – on guitar, vocals, both, more instruments? And part three to this question – what instruments do you play now?
I wrote a song in the first grade called “My Heart is Not for Rent” and that kind of cast the dye for everything after that. I still have the little paper I scrawled it on and I could barely make the letters, but I knew some kind of yearning and I had to write about it. I started out as a drummer, but to write songs I jumped to guitar than added dulcimer, xylophone and ukulele just to use a variety of voices to go with my own voice. Little conversations result.
7. Do you come from a musical family?
My Dad is a great whistler. My sister Susan is a very accomplished choral singer who has also done vocals with The Curios from time to time and joined us on the Neil Young tour. Everyone loves to sing and we do sing together at family gatherings sometimes.
8. Was your family supportive of your interest in music?
I think it sort of came out of left field for them that I got so into it, but they are 100% supportive.
9. When did you meet Lee Parvin and how long have you been musical partners?
I kind of gulp at this but Lee and I have been playing together since I was 19. This is our 10th Winter Concert as The Curios, but we have been playing together for over 30 years. Lee is the main reason I got to really pursue music. He encouraged me so much because he heard what I was trying to do
as a writer and told me to go for it and be my authentic self, screw fashion!!
Strangely popular music, at least in the singer/songwriter realm, has come around to where what I do is accidentally relevant.
10. Who came up with the name “The Curios” and why was it chosen?
That was my way of saying “I don’t know what this is, but I like it”. I am a fan of Victoriana, anything from the mid 1800’s to the turn of the century; that crazy time when the popular thing for the aristocracy was to fund expeditions to far away places, sending botanists and anthropologists around the globe to bring back wild stories and collectable oddities. Everyone back then had a “curio cabinet” to display these artifacts. When I was in London a while back, I hung out in the natural history museum and saw a curio cabinet with a Dodo bird in it! I was all excited until I found out it was fake.
11. How come you like playing music with Lee?
Lee rocks. He is a soulful cat.
12. Do you have a favorite Lee and Nancy musical adventure?
Yes, but it is not fit for public consumption, I’m afraid. The music business can be gnarly. OK, well one gig they wisely said “no alcohol for the band” and then there was a raffle and I won a giant bottle of expensive whiskey and let’s just say we got even. But we are good little boys and girls now.
13. What about the other people who will be sharing your stage, (it almost seems like Mike Tyler is the 3rd Curio.) Can you tell us how you got to know each of them and then how it came to be they are in your Saturday night show? (Somehow I think you and Mike Tyler have known each other from
high school as well.)
Marc Games is the newest Curio, a very innovative guitarist, and I met him playing in the Gospel group. I did go to highschool with Mike Tyler, a super insanely talented guy. I call him “the psychic guitarist”.
Jim Kerwin is like family, I watch his kids when he tours with the David Grisman Quintet. He’s been their bassist for 20 years or so, and he’s great.
Pam Delgato is also new-ish; this is her second Curio gig. She’s from a fabulous band of women singer/songwriters called “Blame Sally”. Lee and I did a Neil Young sponsored show with them down in Santa Barbara recently because they are also featured on his Living With War web site where we were invited to post our anti-war songs and videos.
14. Where were you born?
Pacifica, of course! Home of all my favorite pirates, artists, bikers and misfits until we were “discovered”.
15. And you grew up in Pacifica and are still here – what makes you love this place so much!
It’s so freaking beautiful here it makes me cry. Go to the top of Mori Point and spin in a circle and see if it doesn’t break your heart. A lot of people here are completely hair-on-fire passionate about saving the coastal land from over-development, so I love that too. We are a real place in a real landscape with real people. We have not yet been Disney-fied, but it could happen. Then we will have to hire people to dress up like bikers partying at the fog fest and to wear costumes to reenact what the fishing boats bringing back a load of crab to the docks on Pedro Point must have looked like. God forbid! Keep it real, Pacifica!!
16. Why do you think it is so important for people to get out and hear live music?
It illuminates your heart, it can inspire you to do something you have always wanted to do, it can make you walk a little less heavily.
17. How much fun are you going to have at this Pacifica concert?
A whole lot, I hope. The band and the audience always manage to reach a high place together. I have a lot of fun rehearsing for the show cause it is an intense time of playing with such great players and we laugh our butts off at the stupidest things.
18. And how much fun is your audience going to have at your show?!
I can’t control that side of the street, all I know is that this is our 10th annual Winter Concert and the community that has gathered around this yearly event is a sweet and radiant presence in my life and I only hope to lift us all up and let the joy of music come rushing in. What else can we do?
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