Nancy Elliott

My Southwestern Americana concert is filled to the brim with songs, stories and the occasional poem about the Desert Southwest and her people. The music is rich and full, guiding the audience along through the story and imagery in the vocals; yet never too loud or overbearing, it flows through a meticulously crafted set list, designed to take the listener away from their "everyday" and into the heart, mind and world of the desert dweller.
The songs are mostly original, yet I include some great B-side favorites from the Cascades, Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton and the like; songs written by other great songwriters of the West and Southwest, including Ian Tyson, Jon Cook, Tom Russell, Jon Messenger, and my friend and co-writer, Stewart MacDougal, as well as Emmy Lou, John Prine and Guy Clark, to name a few.

Mom and Dad bought a Kimball Organ when I was about seven years old. That purchase came with six weeks of free lessons for the family and I was always excited to for a new song each week so I could practice it with Mom. We sat side by side on the organ bench while we played and we sang the songs she loved from Moon River to Don't Fence Me In. My thirteenth summer we took an extended working/vacation and I became very ill and could not go out to play. A friend of the family, who went with us and was a guitar player, told my Dad he could teach me to play if I had a guitar. Dad bought one for me at a department store and Ralph sat with me every evening teaching me simple songs. The next year, I got my first "real" guitar and, with John Denver, Batdorf and Rodney and America as my inspirations, I began writing simple songs and playing folk music at campfires, weddings and local festivals.
The years after High School found me in California working for the park service and playing evenings in campgrounds and restaurants. Abilene,Texas was the next stop. With its wild and woolly mix of a low drinking age (that being 18), public dance halls and private clubs, I found my self singing Linda Ronstadt and Willie Nelson covers behind chicken wire. I had the honor of playing one night a week for several months at Mel Tillis's "The Old Sawmill", The Town Crier Steakhouse, a pool bar, whose name I can't remember ( might be a good thing ) near the back gate of the base, and a fund raiser for the Veterans Hospital with Rex Allen, Rex Allen Jr and Johnny Gimble. I got out of Abilene with my guitar, my 1970 Chevy Impala 350,some real good stories and 10 stitches around my eye from one of those nights there was not enough chicken wire in the state Texas to protect the band.
Back in Ohio and of age I hit the local Dayton folk scene once again, including playing Sam's on 5th, The Trolly Stop in the Oregon District and was a performer on opening night at Mick Montgomery's Canal Street Tavern, where I also later tended bar. Brisco's Lounge, Winds Cafe, Tuty's Inn, my goodness, it was time of stage hopping with friends and solid, paying gigs, many of them sit downs where a player could make a living. I took 10 plus years off from professional performance after ending up back in Texas (not Abilene) and raising my two daughters alone. I did not quit playing though, often sitting in with friends.
Coming to Arizona in 1990 I discovered the Western & Cowboy music. Katy Creek Band resulted in 2001, lasting a good 13years and four albums. This lovely but tiny genre provided inspiration to grow in my song writing and performance abilities. Now, seeking wider and broader opportunities, including for my registered and branded “The Heart of It All” workshops, I once again perform in the Folk genre, particularly my self coined "South~Western Americana".
After a ten year hiatus, the Tall Tree album released in January of 2019. Recorded for Mi Casa Records and produced by Maestro Ismael Barajas, Tall Tree was the first in my self coined South~Western Americana. The drum styles, arrangements and rhythms, the wide open shelving of instruments against vocals, and the instruments themselves, are a direct reflection of life in the Desert Southwest.

My second album of South~Western Americana, “Bluebirds Singing On The Buffalo Road,” is bare bones, just me and my guitars with harmony vocals on a few songs. It includes “Lightning Woman Danced,” “By Moon or No Moon,” and “The Ruby Handled Knife,” a poem inspired while writing my book, “Autumn’s On Its Way," which released October of 2023.

I am an acoustic player and want to keep a warm, full acoustic sound no matter the size of the hall.
I carry two guitars; my Baden, which sounds best with a mic, and my Washburn Spalted Maple with pugs in nicely.
I work a mic for a softer/louder vocal sound, and prefer to have that ability rather than "eating the mic"
Monitors are nice, but not always necessary. They should give me exactly what the house is hearing across the board.
House lights - I prefer to be able to see the entire audience, even to the back row of the room.