Wonder

Written by: Nancy Hall
Performed by:
Nancy Hall – guitar, vocal
Lee Parvin – Hammond B3 organ

While on tour with Neil Young as part of his “Greendale” musical
I got to meet a whole lot of performers from different walks of the art world. The Tamblin family had been close friends of the Young’s for decades, and Russ Tamblin (West Side Story, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) was the choreographer for the Greendale show. His daughter Amber was already an established actress in her early 20’s and for a short time joined us on the tour and became part of the cast.

At the time they were just getting ready to launch Ambers TV show “Joan of Arcadia” and word got around the tour that they needed a theme song for the show. There were several songwriters in the cast and a buzz started around who might come up with something, submitting it presumably with the advantage of knowing the star of the show! Then we heard that Amber’s Dad was partnering with Crazy Horse bassist Billy Talbot to write and submit a song. The rest of us figured we didn’t stand a chance, and I put it out of my mind.
Only the next morning I woke up with this song in my head, in almost complete form, and I figured it was a gift from the cosmos so maybe I should go ahead and try.

On our next break from the tour I had just enough time to record it with Lee and prepare a package. Amber and I had become friends on the tour (I turned her on to Woody Guthrie, which seemed to cinch the deal… www.woodyguthrie.org). She liked the song and agreed to take it “to her people”.

As it happened we were in LA and Amber invited me to the set.
I sat with all the actors including Ted Danson, Mary Steinburgen and Josh Ritter, while they went over that day’s script.

Did my song “Wonder” get picked? No! They went with the obvious choice - “What if God Were one of us” by Joan Osbourn.

( http://www.nygreendale.com/ is Neil Young’s official Greendale website and if you roll over the squares at the bottom, find the one that says “family tree” and click on Edith O’Riley, it will take you to a recording of Pegi Young and I singing “Don’t Fence Me In”. I am on guitar and lead vocal, with Pegi on high harmony, Jim Kerwin on bass, Michael Tyler on Electric guitar and Jeremy Cohen on fiddle.
Just grab and slide the starter on the record player…)