quick q and a with nicole reynolds
 by Kathy S-B  ·  15 October 2009

i first got to experience nicole reynolds at the Club Passim campfire show a couple of years ago. it’s hard not to be taken by her somewhat quirky lyrics and delivery but as she says below, everything she writes is with true honesty. learn more about nicole by going to her website and catch some of her vibe on this video.

your website is entirely in lowercase. do you have anything against Capital Letters? ;-)

yes, i do like to type in lowercase. i like to keep things simple usually. i guess capitalizing a certain letter seems weird sometimes. See? see?

i venture to guess that you’re the only touring musician in the world who also works on an organic sheep farm. what have you learned through your time spent with sheep? (i’m serious)

living on a farm has made me view life completely differently. i grew up in the suburbs of pittsburgh and ate either spaghettio’s or random tv dinners. now almost all of what i eat comes from what i raise or grow myself, including the sheep. it’s given me a lot of perspective to help a lamb be born and care for it every day for years and then to slaughter it.

i had been a vegetarian for years before i got here, but the life cycle and the respect for life all makes a lot more sense to me now. on a farm, there is birth and death every day, and it’s incredible to be a part of that. our society seems to have gotten a little lost by trying to be too comfortable and removed from the source of things, like our food. it makes for a lot of scary situations.

to answer your question in a totally different way, spending time with the sheep is amazing. they are very simple animals, which is comforting because sometimes i feel like us humans are too complex for our own good.

you’ve had some incredible opportunities — opening shows for some of the greats like janis ian, tom paxton, and dan bern. do you have any vivid memories on your on stage appearances and do any jump to mind as true career highlights?

it’s really hard to list only a few because every time i perform there’s something special about that show to me. the musicians that i look up to and who i have played with have been extremely welcoming and encouraging… and wonderful teachers.

dan bern has taught me so much about songwriting. now no matter how offensive i think some of my songs might sound, i just think of the song he wrote about jesus being “well hung” and then i end up writing exactly what i want to instead of holding back.

if you had to describe your music in three words — three words only — what would you say?

as honest as possible. yes, that’s 4 and now it’s 11.

do you feel like your musical style has changed over the years?

i think my musical style has expanded. i majored in jazz guitar in college, which i don’t really play much of anymore. then i started writing union songs, which were very folky. then i’m not sure what happened… i guess i got dumped for the first time and i started to understand things a little differently, which i think made me play a little differently.

what’s your next cd going to be like?

my last 2 cd’s were very much about my first broken heart and then being in love again.

i’ve started writing more about other things again. those other things include mountaintop mining, growing up gay, and a bunch of other surprises. the album will be out in december.