time to move on...

I’m seeing a Sunday evening blogging pattern. I might have to rename the blog Sunday Afternoon Driver or something equally as witty.
This was a weekend of good-byes. I always joke that I drive men to move out of state, but it really is true. My long-time boyfriend AVS moved to Austin, TX two years ago. It was a great move for the guitar-playing-rock-star-younger-than-me man. He got to tour this summer with Susan Cowsill, the youngest member of the iconic family band The Cowsills. Things are going really well for him. None of that stuff would have happened if we were still sitting on his sofa watching Law and Order and reading library books.

I’ve only really dated two people in the four years since AVS and I broke up and both of them are leaving Indianapolis this week. I met MC at the coffeehouse I was managing. You can tell a lot about people in the ninety seconds that you see them in the morning. MC is handsome, polite and funny. Of course I had a terrible crush on him. MC is moving back to his native California to be closer to his parents, children and grandchildren (I’m old enough to date a grandfather—holy moly!). I’m thrilled for him and he’s been working toward that goal for a long time. MC and I went out right after AVS and I broke up. I was so nervous on our first date that I tripped on the way in to the restaurant and broke my foot. My foot hurt like hell but I didn’t say a word all through dinner. How goofy was that? MC is one of the nicest, best people that I know. I was not emotionally ready for a relationship. I was still pining for (and still occasionally seeing) AVS. I thought I was ready for a more intimate relationship with MC. MC was mature enough to not take advantage of that. He was the voice of reason. I am so grateful to him for the respect he showed me. He and I became good friends and confidantes and I will miss his friendship. We had breakfast and took a walk this morning. He said some thoughtful and amazing things to me this morning. He has always been sensitive and in touch with his emotions, pretty much the opposite of me.

Dr. TW and I dated for a bit last year. He looked great on paper. He is a therapist and musician. He’s age appropriate and well read. Somehow we never quite clicked. I tend to move and react pretty quickly (follow me if there is a fire—I’ve already scoped out the exits and have an emergency plan) and I’m a “glass half full” person. TW is very deliberate and skeptical. I didn’t help that I thought the pauses in conversation were because he was analyzing me. I broke out in hives on his birthday and took that as a sign that the relationship did not need to go farther. TW took a job in Italy, taking the moving out of state to a new extreme. He and I had a farewell dinner Friday night…and no hives appeared.

I guess it is time for me to meet another man to have an awkward relationship with. Wish me luck!

Darden Smith - From despair to hope

First printed in NUVO newsweekly 

by: Nora Spitznogle

Old Centrum

Sunday, Oct. 29, 7 p.m.

$15

Austin, Texas, native Darden Smith has been performing for more than 20 years. He was named for a rodeo rider, and his first songs naturally had a country tinge. His excellent songwriting skills have stayed consistent over time, and his sound now leans toward adult pop. Smith spent the summer touring Europe and playing festivals with musical greats Emmylou Harris, Guy Clark, Jackson Browne and Loudon Wainwright. He has great stories from the tour; from the bad — stolen suitcases (and wondering why they didn’t steal his CDs), bar fights and blackberry patch break-downs — to the amazing — sitting off stage being inspired by Richard Thompson, drinking the perfect Guinness (and missing Kenny Rogers’ set) and sitting on the cliffs of Galway.

Smith’s latest CD, Field of Crows, is much like his tour, shifting from despair to hope. This album was borne from the war in Iraq, the tsunami in Southeast Asia and the 2004 election. “It always strikes me that in times like these, with all the craziness in the world, all the personal loss and tragedy, hope holds a high value. It means something when there seems to be so little of it,” says Smith, talking about the album.

Smith is playing as part of the Acoustic Café Series housed at the Old Centrum Auditorium, 520 E. 12th St. You can expect to hear songs from Field of Crows and music from his expansive catalogue of original songs.

—Nora Spitznogle

taking my sweet time

I really thought I'd be better at updating this. I have not had the time to figure out how to add links and all of that snazzy stuff, so I've gotten a little frustrated with it.
It has been an incredibly busy week. We had a big fundraiser for Second Helpings on Friday. It was a success...I only had to drive one volunteer home (it was a wine tasting event). I worked on Saturday and have spent a chunk of today writing a music preview for NUVO, a weekly arts and entertainment paper. The story was assigned to me. The guy promoting the show kept bugging the paper for a piece. Once it was assigned neither he or the musician would return my calls/e-mails. I wound up writing it from information I found on various Web sites. It felt slightly like cheating, and it took me three times as long to do as it should have, so I'm not feeling the love towards this particular singer/songwriter.
I'm off to do some house cleaning....Chez Pez needs some dusting...

Amy Speace - Coming into her own

first published in NUVO newsweekly 

Amy Speace

Indy Hostel

Monday, Oct. 23, 7 p.m.

$5

From playing at CATH coffeehouse to opening for Judy Collins, Amy Speace has come a long way in the last five years. CATH Inc., the acoustic venue at 54th Street and College Avenue that closed in September 2004, was the second stop on her first-ever tour. Speace has spent the past year as Judy Collins’ opening act and winning folk festival and songwriting awards. Her latest release, Songs For Bright Street, is on Collins’ Wildflower Records.

When asked about Judy Collins and Wildflower Records, Speace felt like she was giving a pageant contest answer: “It really has been a dream to open for Judy. She’s one of the first voices I remember from the radio … and she has always been that voice, so iconic.

“As a singer-songwriter working in a folk-based idiom, there are maybe a handful of artists that all want to hear us and nod their approval, and Judy is certainly in that group.”

Speace says that standing backstage listening to Collins sing is incredible. The first time she met Collins, she was distracted by the color of her eyes. Speace managed not to blurt out “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes” and instead greeted her with a very proper “nice to meet you, Ms. Collins.”

Songs For Bright Street is a great collection of Speace’s songwriting talents. Her music is pop-folk with a bit of alt-country tossed in. She will be performing that album and has promised some new songs.

Speace is looking forward to playing in the house concert intimacy of Indy Hostel and enjoying a good run on the Monon Trail.

For more information go to www.indyhostel.us or www.amyspeace.com

—Nora Spitznogle

my first time...

...and there is a lot of pressure.

It took me forever just to sign up for at blog. I couldn't get past what to name it. Or the address to pick. I protested for the longest time about picking a user name. What do you mean that my name can't be Nora? A name with four letters is not good enough? I've got plenty of letters in my last name...Don't need so many in my first.

Naming the blog was a challenge. I felt like I was choosing my identity for life. I am many things, and PEZ dispenser collector is one of them. And that is not the nerdiest. Trust me.

I have a great job that I love as the director of volunteers for a food rescue, job training and hunger relief agency in Indianapolis. I write an observational column about music for the Broad Ripple Gazette, a twice a month newspaper. I occasionally write music previews for NUVO, the weekly arts and entertainment paper in Indianapolis. If that is not enough, I work most Saturday nights at the Red Key Tavern, an Indianapolis institution. The Red Key is a great bar frequented by neighborhood folks, politicians , musicians, writers and cool kids. The owner is eighty-eight (and a half), curmudgeonly as hell, a WW ll POW and one of my favorite people.

I am very active in my neighborhood. I managed a group of coffeehouses and a bakery for eight years. I became president of my fairly powerful neighborhood association (one of the first non-attorney ones and the only one who *gasp* rents her house).

I'm a old punk-rocker that now listens to angst-ridden singer-songwriters

As you can surmise from the above, I'm single and have no children.

I'm sure this blog will be about my many jobs (I didn't mention Marigold yet--it gets a little embarrassing to tell folks that you have three jobs), music stuff that does not fit in to the paper, my neighborhood and the challenges of being forty-something and dating. Or wishing for a date.

Phew, not that that is over I can move on. Or at least start writing my column that is due...um...now.

Psychic rehearsals

Susan Cowsill returns to Indianapolis

by: Nora Spitznogle

first published in NUVO newsweekly 




After Katrina, Susan Cowsill found Indianapolis a welcoming shelter. She took refuge here during the post-hurricane chaos of gathering her family and forming a plan for the future. She’s happy to be visiting this time under better circumstances.


Cowsill is the youngest member of the iconic pop family band The Cowsills. The Cowsills enjoyed great success in the late ’60s and early ’70s. She joined the band formed by her older brothers when she was 7 years old and was soon singing in front of thousands of fans, appearing on television shows and passing out a Grammy Award to Glen Campbell.

The Cowsills were offered a television series, but the producers had already cast the mother, so the family declined. The show? The Partridge Family.

The Cowsills disbanded in the early ’70s. The boys had grown up, and the constant touring had taken a toll on the family finances. There were a couple of reincarnations of The Cowsills over the years, and they have reunited for a few concerts. All of the family continued to perform in various bands and solo projects.

Susan Cowsill joined up with Vicki Peterson of The Bangles in 1991 and they played as the Psycho Sisters. Cowsill and Peterson became permanent members of the Continental Drifters the following year. The band eventually moved from Los Angeles to New Orleans, and Cowsill spent the next 10 years with the band, touring extensively, recording several critically acclaimed albums, winning awards and starting a family. Cowsill and her husband, Continental Drifters drummer Russ Broussard, left the band in 2002.

And so began her solo career. Her songs are introspective and full of history. The beautiful “Crescent City Snow” was recorded this year, just one of the songs she says are lined up, patiently waiting to be finished. The song is full of hope for New Orleans, recalling good memories and fun times. It also includes a favorite joke: “I can tell you where you got those shoes.” I guess the Broad Ripple bridge kids didn’t make that up. Her record, Just Believe It, was released in Europe in 2004 and in the U.S. Oct. 11 of last year, after the hurricane.

Which brought her to Indianapolis.

She and her husband were able to reconnect with their daughter in Nashville, Tenn., and they made Indianapolis the next stop on “the ol’ evacuation tour.” Their friend Tim Cohn took them in and held an impromptu concert to generate money for them until they could access their bank accounts. It was an amazing and emotional show. Peter Hosapple joined Cowsill and Broussard for several songs. It was the first time they had performed together since the breakup of the Drifters.

Cowsill and Broussard are now back in “beautiful, soulful, limpin’-along-like-a-dog-that-got-hit-by-a-car New Orleans. But we’re putting a REALLY big cast on it.” They are leaving their beloved town for a two-month tour of the Midwest and East Coast.

The Susan Cowsill touring band is made up of her husband along with Indianapolis favorites Tad Armstrong and Aaron Stroup. Armstrong and Stroup most recently played together in the band Middletown. Armstrong is squeezing the tour in between gigs with his current band, The Benders. Stroup relocated to Austin, Texas, last year and has spent the last eight months working in a New Orleans relief kitchen. Cowsill says that she, Armstrong and Stroup have been holding “psychic rehearsals.” Indianapolis is the third stop on their tour, so they should be in perfect form by then.

Changing times for acoustic performers

Venues scramble to fill void left by Cath

by: Paul F. P. Pogue Mar 2, 2005  0

first published in NUVO newsweekly 



It's one of the oldest forms of entertainment: the traveling minstrel, a singer/songwriter with nothing but a guitar and a voice, going from place to place singing for his supper. In an age of Internet downloads and stage spectacle, the art of the singer/songwriter remains alive and vibrant in Indianapolis. Mieka Pauley performs at the Abbey Coffeehouse, one of many venues now supporting the singer/songwriter scene in Indianapolis.


For several years, Nora Spitznogle, booking shows at the Cath Coffeehouse in Broad Ripple, was the godmother of the scene. In the wake of Cath's closing last year, the scene has spread out among a wide array of venues. Boulevard Place, the Abbey Coffeehouse, IndyIndie.com, Vic's Coffeehouse, Indy Hostel and Out Word Bound are only a few of the places picking up the slack, and even venues such as the Music Mill are getting into the act, booking performers like Melissa Ferrick.

Robin Coleman, who booked shows for Indy's Music House before it closed down late last year, now books acts through her new site, segmentofsociety.com.

"You've just got to know where to look to find stuff like that," Coleman said. "Ever since Cath closed, a lot of us really stepped up to the plate and have carried on the Cath tradition. They loved Nora in Chicago. Cath became a real weigh station. You weren't necessarily going to make hundreds of dollars, but it was a place to break in and gain new fans. I would go just to find new music. A lot of times people get in their familiar zone of who they like to listen to. Most of the time independent artists, you're either going to pay nothing to go see them or very low cover charge, and you can't beat that. And to me a lot of times the music is better."

Coleman said that the various promoters are forming a strong bond and network with each other, helping each other line up and cross-promote shows, as well as communicating with each other to find venues when one of them gets an offer that they can't fit into their own schedule.

"It's really exciting," she said. "Sometimes I feel like the kid in Almost Famous. I wouldn't mind continuing this as long as I'm able and can keep my sanity about myself. I think there'll always be room for stuff like this, because you'll always have the indie scene. You'll always have kids coming up. It's a never-ending pot of gold. It's where everybody starts out. Stuff like American Idol makes me mad, because it's mass-produced entertainment. That's why there's independent artists out there. They're people who want to do their own."

Cathy Schneider and Joyce Walker, who operate IndyIndie.com and book acts at their neighborhood clubhouse as well as Out Word Bound, started up their work in order to give a stage to female artists such as Michelle Malone, Aerin Tedesco and Andrea Bunch.

"At the time there was no place in Indianapolis for independent female musicians to play," Walker said. "There's a lot of really good little groups out there and no stage for them to be on. And it's really about women's community. We can't seem to sustain a meeting place. We had Utopia, we had a few places in the past, and they just go by the wayside.

"It's to keep the culture alive, keep the art alive," Schneider said. "We're in a Republican situation right now, and art is the first thing that suffers. This is our way of supporting art and keeping it alive. I want people 30 years younger than me to understand."

Tammara Tracy works with Schneider and Walker to coordinate the "Music in the Stacks" biweekly series of shows at Out Word Bound book store.

"The frustration that I heard from many performers saying that there wasn't anyplace to perform," Tracy said. "IndyIndie is a monthly gig, and there are so many other traveling musicians that needed a place. And capitalizing on Indianapolis' geographic location, as being the crossroads as the musicians are traveling the country, they need gas money and stuff like that. I'm hoping to contribute to the viability of the independent musician, and I'm hoping to introduce their music to more and more people."

John Newton promotes frequent events in the intimate living-room setting of the Indy Hostel (Indyhostel.us), including a recent appearance by Jason Wilber and an upcoming series of Sunday afternoon classical performances at 1 p.m. every Sunday from March 13 through all of April.

"These house parties, it's really a different scene. It's more relaxed, people have a good time. I don't make a lot of money out of them, sometimes I lose money, but it gets the place's name out there," Newton said. "Jason Wilber was a standing-room only crowd. Everyone enjoyed it, it was a wonderful show, it was low-key, smoke-free, lot of good food, good drinks. A lot of people made new friends. Another neat thing about a house party is kids can come. I can have high school students visit that are into music and gain admission because there's no age limit."

Spitznogle herself continues to promote the occasional show and a monthly series at the Harrison Center. She also runs an information hub of singer/songwriter events at her Web site, queenbeemusic.com.