Friday, December 17, 2010

Revisiting Lucinda with Nancy Walker

Lucinda the Mountain Mourner - that title seems custom made for a sad song. This blog has shared Lucinda's story; her book is available at our town offices and recently was also listed as available to order in reprint through the New York State Archives Partnership Trust.
Singer Nancy Walker has now given voice to Lucinda's story in her song "The Mountains Are Calling." Nancy contacted me while she was creating her song, when she discovered Lucinda's story on my blog. She was awarded a grant through the Saratoga County Program for Arts Funding (SPAF) which partially funded her final product, a CD named True Colors.
According to Nancy's website at http://www.nancywalker.net, SPAF is a re-grant program of the New York State Council of the Arts (NYSCA) Decentralization (DEC) Program. The program supports the arts and cultural programming in Saratoga County communities through Project Grants and Artist Grants.
Yesterday, a complimentary copy of True Colors arrived in the mail and I heard Lucinda's story as sung by Nancy for the first time. The acoustic guitar and echoing background of Nancy's retelling of this young woman's tragic life evokes the sad inevitability of Lucinda's shame, her family's unquestioning acceptance of the morals of their times and the potential consequences in earlier and less forgiving times of an unwise choice. My hat is off to Nancy!

1 comment:

Tristan said...

Nancy Walker is one of the most gifted musicians that upstate New York has ever seen. The new CD is brilliant.