Dearests,

Life is a’swirl at the moment. But even in the midst of the swirl, we’re gigging away. Two new-to-us venues: On Saturday October 4 we’re at the very sweet Off The Common Coffeehouse in Bridgewater MA (not far from where Nerissa just got to see Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Waxachatchie and Sheryl Crow!) Then, October 24 we’re at the Rosendale Theatre in Rosendale NY, very near Woodstock and Saugerties, after which we drive to Lincroft NJ to return to the Earth Room on the 25th. We can’t wait to sing old songs, new songs, even maybe—who knows?—our covers of “Caroline No” and “Wall of Death,” which we learned and recorded at the request of a friend for her child’s birthday.

Read on for a new song/documentary by Nerissa called “Totality,” her amazement at discovering the duo Ordinary Elephant, an all-new reader poll, and photos from our truly epic show at Black Bear Americana Festival last month. Oh, also we’re opening for Dar at the end of December in the Northeast!!! And our new Welcome Table Chorus is starting a week from today (Sept. 30) in Northampton. We’ve already got eighty people signed up to sing with us, and we’re so excited! Not too late to join. Starting with “Crowded Table,” “Don’t Carry It All,” and “There is More Love Somewhere.”

Love,

Nerissa & Katryna

Where We Are Playing in 2025

October 4 Off the Common Coffeehouse Bridgewater MA 50 School Street, Bridgewater, MA, United States, 02324 +1 508-697-2525 7:30pm

October 24 Rosendale Theatre Rosendale, NY, 7pm

October 25 Earth Room Concerts, Lincroft, NJ, 7:30pm

November 15 Peterborough Folk Song Society at Bass Hall, Peterborough NH 7pm

November 16 The Bread Box Theatre, Willimantic CT 4pm with the Kennedys!

November 22 Passim, Cambridge MA 7pm

December 20 The Parlor Room, Holiday Show, Northampton MA, 7pm🎄🌞

December 27 Stone Mountain Arts, Brownville ME o/f Dar Williams

December 28 The Center for the Arts, Natick MA o/f Dar Williams

December 29 The Kate, Saybrook, CT o/f Dar Williams

December 30 The Bell House, Brooklyn NY o/f Dar Williams

Totality

In April, 2024, Tom and I set off at the last minute to try to see the Great North American Eclipse. Katryna, who had to work that day, kept telling me to make plans, go up to the Adirondacks the night before—because she knew there would be massive traffic heading up to the Band of Totality, a swath that reached from Texas to Canada. In our vicinity, the closest we’d get to the shadow of the sun, by road map, was Montpelier, Vermont where I’d gone to grad school. But we delayed committing to a plan and only decided the morning of April 8 to set out. We left around 9am. Here’s what happened.

Ordinary Elephant

I fell in love with a duo at the Parlor Room called Ordinary Elephant—so named because even an ordinary elephant is quite extraordinarily magnificent—as are we all. As songwriter Crystal Damore says––I’m paraphrasing––it’s up to each of us to be our own ordinary selves, because in truly bringing forth what is inside of us, we inevitably become magnificent.

Their music is familiar and new all at once, reminding me a bit of Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, and even of Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer. They dress as though they stepped right out of the dust bowl, and their onstage set-up is equally authentic, with Gibson and Martin guitars, banjo and (what I think is) a baritone mandolin mic’d rather than plugged in. Their voices are captured by old-fashioned ear trumpet mics. They’ve lived on the road for the past umpteen years, giving away half their belongings to keep the weight at the right max for safe RV travel. If you don’t know about this thoughtful duo, start with this from their latest album:

Poll