Kornfeld is also president of the Folk Music Society of Huntington, a nonprofit presenting organization on suburban Log Island, New York, and forged a locally heralded partnership between FMSH and LI’s Cinema Arts Centre. He also coordinates the annual Huntington Folk Festival that is presented each summer in partnership with the Huntington Arts Council. An award-winning strategic communications and public relations professional, Kornfeld launched AcousticMusicScene.com, an online publication for the folk, roots and singer-songwriter communities, in January 2007. He arranges and hosts artist showcases and song swaps under its banner during various music conferences and festivals.

For the 12th consecutive year at the NERFA Conference that drew some 730 people, Kornfeld hosted a popular AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot featuring several singing folk DJs and 40 independent recording artists/acts from throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as an O Canada celebration featuring nearly 20 Canadian artists/acts. He also moderated a panel discussion on online presence for artists and offered some one-on-one mentoring during the conference.

Led by Kornfeld, current and past board members paid tribute to Dianne Tankle, NERFA’s founder and conference director since its inception, who stepped down from her leadership role following 24 years at the helm of the conference. “My board colleagues and I are grateful to Dianne for all of her efforts on behalf of our organization and community over the years,” wrote Kornfeld in a letter published in the printed conference program & directory. “She and her team have devoted countless hours and put considerable thought into conscientiously designing our conference to help [attendees] forge connections and build community, while also providing learning opportunities that can help enhance [their] professional and personal lives.”

Named as interim conference director for 2019 is Courtney Rodland, who has been assisting NERFA with social media, served as associate director for the 2018 NERFA Conference and coordinated its mentoring program. A new NERFA logo was also unveiled during the conference.

Re-elected as NERFA board officers, along with Kornfeld, were secretary Ethan Baird of Pesky J. Nixon and Tribal Mischief Productions and treasurer Justin Nordell, executive director of the Philadelphia Folksong Society. The board’s new vice president is Barbara Shiller, co-president of CT Folk, who succeeds Kathy Sands-Boehmer of the Me & Thee Coffeehouse in Marblehead, MA, who opted not to seek re-election to the nine-member board.

NERFA’s volunteer board of directors has been engaged in efforts to make it more of a year-round organization in order to best meet the needs and serve the interests of Folk Alliance International members in its region. The Mid-Winter FolkFest at Club Passim in Cambridge, MA that was also streamed online via Concert Window in late January is an examples of this. So, too, are the NERFA Presents Young Folk showcases that have bee presented over the past several summers in partnership with a few music festivals in the U.S. and Canada, as well as several NERFA Showcase concerts co-presented with several venues and presenting organizations in the region. A Spring FolkFest, another one-day online music festival emanating from Club Passim; is slated for Saturday, March 23, from 12-4 p.m. EST. Coordinated by Sands-Boehmer, it will feature a number of artists who had official juried showcases during the recent NERFA conference and who have never played the famed Harvard Square folk club.

Featured artists — each of whom had a juried official showcase at either the 2017 or 2016 NERFA Conferences in Stamford, CT or was part of NERFA Presents Young Folk showcases at summer festivals — include Jeremy Aaron, Banjo Nickaru and Western Scooches, Bethlehem and Sad Patrick, Sophie Buskin, Quentin Callewaert, Alyssa Dann, The End of America, Heather Mae, Austin MacRae, Christine Sweeney, and Robinson Treacher.

Here’s the afternoon schedule for the Mid-Winter FolkFest:

12:00: In the Round: Austin MacRae, Christine Sweeney, Bethlehem and Sad Patrick

1:00: Young Folk: Jeremy Aaron, Quentin Callewaert, Alyssa Dann

2:00: The End of America

2:30: Banjo Nickaru and Western Scooches

3:00: In the Round: Heather Mae, Sophie Buskin, Robinson Treacher

NERFA (NERFA.org) is a regional affiliate of Folk Alliance International, a Kansas City, MO-based nonprofit organization that seeks to nurture, engage and empower the international folk music community – traditional and contemporary, amateur and professional – through education, advocacy and performance. (More than 700 performing artists, presenters, promoters, agents, managers, folk DJs, and others actively engaged in contemporary and traditional folk music attended its 23rd annual conference in Stamford, CT last November). NERFA is governed by a volunteer board of directors that has been engaged in ongoing efforts to make it more of a year-round organization in order to best meet the needs and serve the interests of FAI members from the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC to the provinces of eastern Canada. The Mid-Winter FolkFest is an example of this. So, too, are the NERFA Presents Young Folk showcases that have taken place over the past two summers in partnership with a few music festivals in the U.S. and Canada, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Grassy Hill Entertainment, as well as the NERFA Showcases co-presented with several venues and presenting organizations in the region.

Editor’s Note: I am president of the NERFA board of directors. My thanks to Kathy Sands-Boehmer, our vice president, for all the time and effort she has devoted to organizing this special event. Thanks also to our partners at Club Passim: Matt Smith, Courtney Rodland and Abby Altman.

NERFA fosters and promotes member initiatives primarily in the following U.S. states and Canadian Provinces: Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Greenland, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Rhode Island, and Vermont, as well as three counties in northern Virginia.

Kornfeld also is president of the Folk Music Society of Huntington, a presenting organization on suburban Long Island, New York, and forged a locally heralded partnership between FMSH and LI’s Cinema Arts Centre. He also coordinates the annual Huntington Folk Festival that the Society presents each summer in partnership with the Huntington Arts Council. An award-winning strategic communications and public relations professional, Kornfeld launched AcousticMusicScene.com, an online publication for the folk, roots and singer-songwriter communities, in January 2007, and arranges and hosts artist showcases and song swaps under its banner during various music conferences and festivals.

For the 10th consecutive year at the NERFA Conference that drew nearly 800 people, Kornfeld hosted a popular AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot featuring several singing folk DJs and 40 independent recording artists from throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as late-night music showcases. He also moderated a panel discussion on The Folk Revival of the 1960s that featured acclaimed artists David Amram and Tom Paxton, participated in one on strengthening artist bios and news releases, and promoted a few singer-songwriters and groups.

By Kathy Sands-Boehmer

Mark Erelli is a native Bay Stater who makes us all so proud of calling him one of our very own. His thoughtful and provocative songwriting resonates with soul and dignity. If they gave a folk poet laureate award, he would most certainly be a winner. Hands down! Mark’s musical history has captured a little bit of rockabilly, a dash of bluegrass, and a big ole heaping of folk. I can’t help but think that Woody Guthrie, Roy Orbison, Jimmie Rodgers, and Sam Cooke would love his songs.

You’re a man who wears many hats: songwriter, solo musician, sideman, producer. Which of those roles comes the easiest and which one is the most challenging?

Of all the hats I wear, the two most important and rewarding are, of course, father and husband. My diverse musical career is simply what I can manage after my marriage and my family. Each of my musical hats comes with its own unique set of rewards and challenges, but the biggest challenge of all is just switching my brain between them all the time. Even the role I’ve inhabited the longest, singing and playing my own songs, can be difficult to just drop back into if I’ve been preoccupied with sideman work or producing. The easy part was finally realizing that I should just go wherever the energy seems to be organically flowing rather than trying to conform to some notion of what I ought to be doing.

You went to graduate school to study evolutionary biology. What were your aspirations at that time? Did you intend to teach or do research?

My aspirations in graduate school were to finish my program and then try my hand at making music for a living. I loved my scientific work, and I’m still amazed daily at the natural world. [However} I had this nagging sense that I would end up a bitter old man if I never had the courage to give music my best shot. But both my parents are teachers. so, in an alternate universe, I’m probably the cool biology professor at a New England liberal arts college, wearing the same flannel shirt every day and showing up at campus open mics to jam on Neil Young songs with the students.

Was there a pivotal moment when you could no longer quell the desire to pursue music?

The thing about science is that it is infinite — every answer leads to more questions. You will certainly never hear anyone tell you your work is finished. So I realized that after I got my degree I was going to have to be the one to give myself permission to play music. I already had a record deal lined up by the time I finished my program, and the day after I defended my thesis I went down to the Kerrville Festival in Texas and won the New Folk contest, so I took those developments as omens that I was making the right decision at the right time.

You were one of the first artists signed to Signature Sounds in the late 1990s. In a way, your career matured much as that prestigious label did. Do you recall getting the news that you’d been selected to join Signature Sounds?

Signature was holding a late night open jam in a hotel room at a music conference, and I was so shy I had to literally be dragged into the room by a friend and made to share my songs. It went well enough that I was invited to go record some demos at Signature Sounds’ studio. After that, the label head, Jim Olsen, began checking out my live shows locally. I still remember the time he showed up with his wife at my gig a couple days after she’d given birth to twins, and surprised me even more by offering me a deal after the show. We ended up making a lot of great records together, and though I’m not officially on the label anymore, I still count Jim as one of my best friends in the business.

Tell us about your work with Barnstar! How did that come about?

My involvement with Barnstar! evolved out of my friendship with Zack Hickman who, in addition to leading that band, has also produced my two most recent solo records. He saw something in me that he thought would dovetail with Barnstar!, and I’m glad he did. I can’t pick really fast, so bluegrass had always felt like it was beyond my realm of expertise. But it turns out I can sing really high, so I guess I’m halfway qualified to be in the band. I found the outfit so energizing that not long after we did our first gig, I started writing songs with that particular group in mind. We’re just finishing up our second record now, which will hopefully be released this fall.

Your collaboration with Jeffrey Foucault has been a constant for many years and was capped by the release of Seven Curses. Did you bond over murder ballads? Any thoughts about doing a sequel?

Jeffrey and I bonded over a mutual love of Chris Smither, who we’d both grown up listening to in high schools a thousand miles apart (I’m from Massachusetts; he’s from Wisconsin). I was always the only young kid at a lot of Smither’s coffeehouse shows here in the Boston area, so when I met this other guy my own age who had as deep an attachment to the music, it was a real revelation. I guess I’m glad I met him when I did, because if we’d met any earlier we probably would’ve just quit school and formed a band. Each of our voices is distinctive on its own but, together, we have a deeply intuitive blend. We’re guys, so we’re not naturally inclined to spend a lot of time talking or mapping out who sings which notes when we play together — we just do it. We teamed up again recently on a track for a Chris Smither tribute record,and all the magic was still there. So I hope we’ll get together for another project at some point.

How did you and Lori McKenna first meet, and what was it like producing her last CD?

Lori and I were first introduced to each other by Matt Smith at Club Passim, but we got to know each other a little better when we both lost the same songwriting contest, maybe 17 or 18 years ago. All these years later, she is like my musical big sister . . . I just can’t imagine my life in music without her. Producing her Massachusetts record was big for me; I had never helmed that sort of production before, so her confidence in me was both gratifying and a bit terrifying. I’m really proud [of] how that record showcases her talents. We just recently finished up another record together — just the two of us with acoustic guitars, playing live in the studio for two days, which was completely different from our approach to Massachusetts. Even though we’ve known each other a while, I am grateful we still feel like we are breaking new musical ground together.

Give us the scoop about your forthcoming CD. How would you describe it? Anything different that we can look forward to?

I wish I was ready to start talking about the new record. I’m nearly done with the artistic part, the recording and mixing — all the stuff that really lights my creative fires. I am trying to enjoy that creative honeymoon as long as I can before the next phase of the project kicks in. I know I’ll have to do the promotional stuff soon, and figuring out how to talk about the record so folks are motivated to listen to it is important. But, honestly, that’s my least favorite thing to do. I will say I’ve been toiling on it almost entirely on my own for the last six months, though I brought in some friends to play and sing in the last couple months, and they helped carry me over the finish line. It will be released this fall, and believe me, when it’s time to start talking about it, you won’t be able to shut me up.

Learn more about Mark on his website.

Like many of us, Kathy Sands-Boehmer wears many hats. An editor by profession, she also operates Harbortown Music, books artists for the Me and Thee Coffeehouse in Marblehead, Massachusetts, serves as vice president of the Boston Area Coffeehouse Association (BACHA) and is on the board of directors of the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA). In her spare time, Kathy can be found at local music haunts all over New England. This and many previous Q & A interviews are archived at www.meandthee.org/blog and www.everythingsundry.wordpress.com, as well as in the Features section of AcousticMusicScene.com.

Editor’s Note: Nerissa and Katryna Nields have been making, performing and recording their special brand of music and quirky and emotive songs for more than two decades. Kathy Sands-Boehmer recently spoke with them about their latest album, The Full Catastrophe, and more.

The Full Catastrophe is their sixteenth album. As you’ll read below, this album may have taken a bit longer than previous ones to produce and release, but it’s been well worth the wait. These two sisters are in it for the long haul — their obvious love for one another and for what they do is unmistakable. And while they admit that their current world is difficult to navigate at times, it’s clear that the folk world continues to clamor for more of their music.

I was just thinking about how long you two sisters have been singing together and, of course, how long you’ve been a part of each other’s lives. What’s the longest period of time you’ve ever spent apart?

Nerissa: I think the longest we ever spent apart was when Katryna went to Nepal for 3.5 months, and I was just out of college and living in Virginia. Not only were we halfway around the world from each other — and this was years before the internet, so we communicated by airmail which took three weeks! — but we were also in completely different worlds. She was in a learning environment, and I was in my first (and only) job out of college. But it was during this amazing period that Katryna decided she wanted to be a singer, and that she wanted to sing with me. She was having a conversation with a Nepalese teacher who asked her, in Nepali, what she was going to be when she grew up. She said, “How do you say ‘lawyer’ in Nepali?” He looked at her, confused. “But aren’t you going to be a musician?” She realized, “Oh, yes. I am.”

Nerissa, tell us about FAWM (February Album Writing Month). You’ve been dedicated to this practice for a while now — how do you get yourself psyched up to write so many songs in one month’s time? How did it go this year?

Nerissa: I first did FAWM in 2009, I believe. I hadn’t heard of it until a HooteNanny mom posted on Facebook that she and her family were doing it. I thought, “If they can do it, surely I can!” I set the bar very low for myself. I don’t do it officially (there is a website: FAWM.org). I just try to write 14 songs in 28 days. Some of the songs that first year were extremely simple and short. To wit:

I want you to appreciate the boo
I want you to appreciate the boo
I want you to appreciate the boo
And while you’re at it, appreciate the view.
(My then two-year old Lila would shout “Boo!” after each “boo.”)

But this silly song turned into a much better song, “Between Friends,” which we put on our CD The Full Catastrophe. That idea of appreciating the view turned into the second verse of that song:

I have a friend who has
A view of the Hudson River
He works all week just to enjoy his little sliver of view
Sometimes he forgets to look

I wrote several songs that ended up on The Full Catastrophe, both that year and the next (2009–2010) including “Good Times are Here,” “I Am Half my Mother’s Age,” “The Full Catastrophe,” and “Ten Year Tin.” In 2011, I wrote a bunch of very silly songs. I think I didn’t even try in 2012.

This video for “Ten Year Tin” celebrates Nerissa and Katryna’s time together as a duo.

Last year (2013) I did try, and it was a disaster. I’d been working hard on a novel I’m writing called The Big Idea, and it was as if I’d forgotten how to write songs. This really scared me. I realized I needed an overhaul in my musical life, and I began listening again. I instituted a “music zone” into my daily life. Sometimes this would entail just playing a song someone else wrote, or figuring something out on my guitar. Sometimes just listening. Sometimes trying to write. Eventually this morphed into my taking piano lessons, which I am loving. So when this year’s FAWM rolled around, I was ready. I was poised! And it’s been the most productive and most fun FAWM ever. I have my 14 songs, and it’s not even March 1! Some are silly, but they are all substantial and useful.

I think it’s great for songwriters to write songs, at least sometimes, just to work those songwriting muscles. I have put in my 10,000 hours of practice. I have probably averaged one song a month since about 1988. That’s over 300 songs. And of those, we’ve recorded around half of those (16 CDs, at least 10 originals per disk. . .). So I know how to write a song. Still, sometimes, when I am sitting with my guitar or at the piano, it’s as if I am a pure beginner again. That first phrase is the hardest.

One last thing I’ll say, and this goes for any kind of writing, too: it helps to give yourself permission to write a really bad song. Or to say to yourself, “I’m going to do what Phillip Price (from the Winterpills) does, which is to write five versions of this song.” That takes the pressure off!

You’re not just a songwriter but you’ve also written a young adult novel, Plastic Angel, and a how-to book, How to Be an Adult. How would you compare the writing process for books to songwriting?

Nerissa: It’s not that different; in both cases, you just have to sit down and do the work. You have to be willing to be uncomfortable with doing nothing. You have to be willing to write badly, or write what you don’t love. To sit with the yuck factor and have faith in yourself is not really as bad as you think; there is such a thing as a second draft, that you’ve done this before and you can do it again.

That being said, I vastly prefer songwriting! Mostly because once the song is done, you can sing it and get immediate feedback. With a book (fiction anyway), you have to wait a very, very long time for a response from the world. That’s why I run writing groups. I love to get feedback, and when one writes with a group (the kind of group I run, anyway), you get that immediate feedback on your work. I also like writing blog posts for the same reason I like writing songs. You work, you polish, and then it’s out there.

You’re also a trained life coach. Do you find this kind of work rewarding? Does it teach you as many things about yourself as you teach your clients?

Nerissa: Yes, I love working as a life coach. I am from the school of thought that we don’t get to keep any of our hard-won wisdom unless we give it away. It’s in the sharing of the stories and struggles, the willingness to be vulnerable, that we ourselves learn. We see things so much more clearly in another person. And, of course, I learn from my clients. Coaching is a reciprocal process.

Katryna’s daughter, Amelia, is now making music as part of a group called Belle Amie. Do any of the other Nields children have musical aspirations?

Nerissa: My kids, Lila and Johnny, are both Suzuki violinists. They also play the piano whenever they can, and they both want to play guitar. Of course, they both sing and compose. William is extremely musical too. I won’t be at all surprised if they form a band one day. It’s an absolute joy to play with Amelia. She astounds me. I wish I could play bass the way she can.

The Full Catastrophe is your 16th CD. What have you learned about recording since you first entered the studio? Has the process changed for you at all since you recorded your very first album?

Katryna: When we started recording, it was a huge revelation to even hear ourselves on tape. Before we set foot in a studio, the closest we had ever come to recording was on a Dictaphone tape recorder in our basement. Nowadays, we can make pretty good quality videos or even audio recordings right in our living room on our computers. So the mystery of the recording process has really changed during our lifetimes.

We have gone through many different recording styles. There were times when we were paying by the hour at fancy, expensive, well equipped recording studios. Then we built our own studio and had a producer {band mate and husband of Katryna], Dave Chalfant, whom we trusted completely. The last studio CD we recorded as a five-piece band was If You Lived Here You’d Be Home Now. We made the conscious decision to dedicate ourselves to the making of the CD for as long as it took to finish. We had no limits, timing or financial. We decided to let each song speak for itself. There was not an overarching idea of how the whole CD had to sound. We just addressed each song individually and trusted that the whole recording would work together in the end. It was a great way to make a CD and it set the tone for how we would record for years. The difference between that CD and The Full Catastrophe was, well, the full catastrophe that our lives had become! When we recorded in the 90s, our only other obligation was to play shows together. By the time we were recording The Full Catastrophe, we had children, husbands, music classes we were teaching, writing groups we were leading, volunteering in our communities, gardens, laundry, dishes, carpooling, etc. It took months to record If You Lived Here You’d Be Home Now. It took years to record The Full Catastrophe. What was the same with both projects was that we continued to let each song speak for itself and that we gave ourselves the time and space to create, make mistakes and fix the mistakes. Dave Chalfant gave us the same environment he always has, one that was supportive and challenging, without being pressured or stressful.

It’s safe to say that the theme of this particular record is as you you refer to it — the Great Juggling Act. You’re both musicians, mothers, wives, active community members and creative spirits. How do you manage to juggle all those parts of your lives?

Katryna: Well, mostly we accept that we will not really manage it all. We drop balls a lot. And we try hard to take joy in the things we do well in any given moment. We have messy houses, excellent supportive spouses and amazing communities. We definitely tour less than we used to. We have lots of ideas that we just have to write down and hope that we get time in the future to act on them. We consider ourselves very lucky. Life is wide and rich and busy and exasperating sometimes, but we really would not want it any other way. It feels like some kind of a miracle that we have been able to find work that dovetails so beautifully with our lives as touring musicians. We created a host of classes we call HooteNanny. We teach classes for kids age 0–5 with their grown ups, classes for kids ages 4–9, guitar to parents who want a little more music in their family life, and run monthly whole family sing-a longs. Nerissa leads writing groups and retreats. We have both written books. I run a chorus and a cappella group at a local school and we both volunteer in our own children’s schools to bring a little more music to their elementary schools. We drive and walk our children to their various activities. For us, it feels like a full and complete life. We asked for all this craziness. We really wanted the full catastrophe. We wanted to get to keep playing music for people. So we had to create lives that would allow for that. So far, so good.

More information on Nerissa and Katryna may be found online at www.nields.com.

Like many of us, Kathy Sands-Boehmer wears many hats. An editor by profession, she also operates Harbortown Music, books artists for the Me and Thee Coffeehouse in Marblehead, Massachusetts, serves as vice president of the Boston Area Coffeehouse Association (BACHA) and is on the board of directors of the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA). In her spare time, Kathy can be found at local music haunts all over New England. This and many previous Q & A interviews are archived at www.meandthee.org/blog and www.everythingsundry.wordpress.com, as well as in the Features section of AcousticMusicScene.com.