SONGWRITER NANCY MCCALLION ON TUCSON'S WORLD-CLASS TALENT

By Judy Jennings

Copyright © 2015

Nancy McCallion and the Scarlett Letterrmen
Chris Davis, Karl Hoffman, Nancy McCallion, Les Merrihew

Nancy McCallion is passionate about her new band, the Scarlett Lettermen, as well as about the quality of music that’s generally being performed in Tucson these days.  According to her, many of the players that we take for granted in the Old Pueblo, such as Heather Hardy, are actually world-class musicians.  Those of us who go out to see them would agree.  Here are Nancy’s comments about local talent, her band, and her songwriting process:

“I think we’re kind of like a little Austin in some ways, although we don’t have the same reputation, of course.  It is unbelievable to me, when I walk into a gig where Heather’s playing, or where Grahams and Krieger are playing.  That level of musicianship; you don’t see that in bars in other places. 

“Maybe in Austin you do, because there are a lot of musicians who live there, and they’ll go out and play the local club just to stay working while they’re not on tour.  So you see it in Austin, but I don’t think you see it in other places.  People (in Tucson) don’t realize that this is here. 

“I feel really lucky that I get to collaborate with the people that I do.  And now, with the Scartlett Lettermen, we definitely collaborate.  I bring in the song, the lyrics, the chord changes, and the melody, and sing it for them.  Then we hammer it out together, and everybody makes suggestions, and we try everybody’s ideas.  It’s just wonderful. 

“I love being in a band.  Even though I’m a songwriter, a front person, I still very much consider myself a band member.  Everybody makes the music.  It’s an ensemble endeavor, and that’s what’s fun about it. 

“I’m doing more bridges and using more chords than I used to.  I just finished writing a song that sounds very much like a traditional country song, and then I decided this sounds like so many things that I have written that I am going to write a bridge.  It took a long time of singing the same thing over and over again until I came up with a bridge, and the bridge has a key change in it, and it goes from kind of a country sound to more of a pop-y sound. 

“I haven’t taught it to the Scarlet Lettermen yet, but I can kind of hear the harmonies they’re going to come up with, because Chris and Karl are wonderful harmony singers.  I can hear almost a Beatlesque sort of theme on this bridge, so it’s moving along like a traditional country song and then it has this bridge that becomes a little pop-y, and then it goes back to the traditional country again.  It’s kind of fun. 

“You have to keep changing musically, or you get stuck.  I can’t keep writing Irish songs in an Irish tradition, I have to keep playing and changing. 

“I would like for people to be able to listen to my songs and feel that sense of connection with the human condition.  That’s what I would hope.  One of my favorite songwriters is Hank Williams.  The song 'I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry' means as much now as when it was written.  It addresses a certain human condition that we’ve all experienced.  That’s what I want my music to do.”