'Search for a jam leads to a band...'

By Orla Swift
Record-Journal staff

    New England has many attributes that lure outsiders to relocate here, from its mountains to its beaches, and even its long, snowy winters. But Amy Gallatin stayed for a different reason: synergy.
    Gallatin was visiting Connecticut in 1990 when she saw a sign in an East Hartford music store from a Dobro player looking to jam. Gallatin was doing long-term gigs at guest ranches out West, so she called the Dobro player, Matt Nozzolio of Meriden.
    The pair did a few open-mics, which Gallatin enjoyed so much that she returned a year later. That's when Kevin Lynch a mandolin & guitar player, and longtime member of the Bluegrass band Traver Hollow, heard about Gallatin and stopped by to check her out.
    "I really liked her voice," recalled the Coventry musician, echoing the praise of many Gallatin converts. "It can't really be compared to anybody in particular."
    When Gallatin told Lynch she yearned to make an album, he promptly offered to produce. Lynch is a representative for the Holland-based Strictly Country record label. After playing on those sessions in '93, Lynch caught the Gallatin bug and signed on for good.
    After releasing the debut, Northern Girl, and tying up some loose ends in the West, Gallatin returned to Connecticut, finally calling it home.
    New England's affinity for acoustic music, as well as Gallatin's affinity for her bandmates, has kept her here ever since. Rounding out her band Stillwaters, was the last member to join, upright bassist Tara Rickart of Southbury.
    All four play on Stillwaters' latest album, Sweet Gatherings, named after the Glastonbury coffee house at which the band often performs.
    The album features several songs written by Gallatin's songwriter friends out west, as well as, "Late Night Radio," which Nanci Griffith also recorded, and Bill Miller's "Forever Ride."
    Among the highlights are John Denver's "Matthew," in which Gallatin's bell-like soprano voice rings clearly above the lively instrumental arrangement. Steve Brechter, one of many guests, adds a bright plucking undercurrent to the gentle, breezy "One More Day" as well as "Late Night Radio," a Nozzolio showcase.
    While Gallatin's strength is in the bright, upbeat numbers, Stillwaters shimmers throughout the dozen-song collection, its chemistry evident as they slip forward into solos or pull back to join an undercurrent.
    Gallatin is particularly appreciative of her bands devotion to performing, and to the type of music she most enjoys singing - a blend of country, folk, Bluegrass and western swing.
    "People say to me. 'Oh. I used to have a band. You' re so lucky have a band that meshes with you as far as what you want to play." she says. "You can get people with varying degrees of motivation. But I've got people who are highly motivated to play."
    The band also agreed to avoid playing at bars, opting instead for coffee houses and festivals. Their repertoire of covers - albeit mostly unfamiliar songs - has lost it some gigs at places that shun non-songwriters. Gallatin confessed.
    But she refuses to muster a limp writing Muse just to nab a gig.
    "I'm not driven to express myself in that way at all." she says. "I fooled around with it in my younger days. But there are many good songs out there that you can kind of take and make your own anyway. And you do find people who are out there singing songs they wrote that are not great, but by God they're their songs and they're going to sing them. I don't want to say. 'Here's a song about my cat.' For me, the performance is the thing and the singing is the thing."
    "People can understand the stories that she's singing about." says Lynch, who praised Gallatin's diction.
    "She's fortunate enough to have friends out West who write good material, good stories, things people aren't familiar with; not just the cowboy thing, but life in the Rockies...things like that.
    "I think people are just up for a change." he says. "I don't really mean to bash singer-songwriters, but people are up for something besides what's wrong with the country, political things. A lot of her songs are about people's lives."
    Playing covers hasn't hampered the band's success, judging from its full performing schedule. which has spread beyond state lines.
    They even toured Holland, Belgium and Germany this spring, and they hope to return there and eventually tour the States.
    "As far as I can take it. I will take it." Gallatin says. "I think that being able to take it as far as we have, playing with people I enjoy playing with, even if it stopped right here - even with our trip to Europe, which was the pinnacle for me - that would be cool."

-- Record-Journal
Meriden, CT -- Friday, June 14, 1996

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