Jammin Java, Sounding Board, First Encounter
Celebrating our 35th birthday by sharing old newsletter cartoons!
Dearest friends,
We’re coming up on our 35th birthday of being “The Nields” not just personally, but professionally! (June 7, 1991 is when we chart our origins, though of course we’ve been singing together for much longer than that). In contemplating our career over the last thirty-five years, we think of the miles logged on America's highways, the stages we have been lucky enough to play, our amazing musical colleagues, the studios where we created our CDs. Most of all, we think of you: the community of people who have come to our shows, bought our CDs, listened and sung along to them in cars and showers, worn our t-shirts, spread the word about our little band, read our books and blogs, commented on our ridiculous status updates. You are our employers. You are also the reason we do this. You are definitely the reason we are still able to keep doing this after thirty-five years. We thank you from the depths of our hearts and souls. We choose you because you're funny and kind. And we thought it would be fun to share with you some old memories along with our updates––scroll down to see a newsletter from 2003, when we were already the ripe old age of 12.
To kick off our birthday season, we’ll be at Jammin Java in Vienna VA Friday April 24. Joining us on keyboards will be our dear friend Kit Karlson, producer of our album XVII and currently making magic with our Big Idea project. All of which means “Normandies” will definitely be in the set list.
Then just a week later, May 2, we’ll be at the Sounding Board in West Hartford, CT, one of our favorite rooms. Another homecoming of sorts, since we began our music career in nearby Windsor and owe so much to WWUH and Ed McKeon and John Ramsey who championed us early on.*
And the weekend after THAT, May 9, we’re bound for First Encounter Coffeehouse in Eastham MA, a magical little room on the forearm of Cape Cod (facing the bay, see photo below.)
We were super honored to be given a shout out in Andy Revkin’s wonderful Substack newsletter titled it “Tyrants Always Fall” after Viktor Orbán went down in defeat on Sunday. He even created his own video using our song.
*Speaking of radio stations, we were so honored that the wonderful WKZE in Red Hook NY sponsored our concert last weekend at the Buttonball Barn. Nerissa got to do an interview with Adam Schartoff, recorded here, and we got to meet him at our sold-out show. We will be back again to that sweet barn. It was so good to see so many long-time fans. There was even a girl there named Greta who had been named after our song!
Meanwhile, our Welcome Table Chorus played a sold out show at Bombyx in Florence and raised over $3500 for Jewish Family Service and Center for New Americans. Stay tuned for the next concert
We love you!
Nerissa and Katryna
NIELDS SHOWS! 2026
April 24 Jammin Java, Vienna VA
May 2 The Sounding Board, West Hartford CT
May 9 First Encounter Coffeehouse, Eastham MA
May 29 Parlor Room as part of Jillith Fair, Northampton MA, with Vance Gilbert, the Winterpills and many more
July 24-26 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival with our awesome full family band!
And many more shows to be announced soon!
BLAST FROM THE PAST!!! Nields Newsletter from 2003
Come back to Folks Fest in Lyons!