1. NSM
Can you tell us more about yourself outside of being a musician? What do you do fun, what do you do for a living, where are you from originally, etc.?

Tracy - For fun I like hiking (esp in Oregon), cross-country skiing, playing with my two cats, dining out (Asian foods are my favorite).

I was born in Homestead, Florida, but I, like, totally grew up in, like, Southern California. In 1986, I fled SoCal to study English and anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.

2. NSM
Did you have any musical training or are you self-taught?

Tracy - I took violin lessons from the time I was 9 until I was about 14, and I played in elementary, junior high, and high school orchestras as well as the county honor orchestra. I am self-taught on guitar, mandolin, and vocals. I did sing in the elementary school choir, and I honed my public singing skills on Sundays in a karaoke bar in Modesto, California.

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Name a few of your musical influences as well as why and how these people have an effect on you and your music.

Tracy - My guitar-playing dad was my first influence. If he wasn't playing "House of the Rising Sun" or "All My Loving," he was trolling through his Neil Diamond, Willie Nelson, and John Denver songbooks to find songs for us to sing together. I turned the pages; he strummed the chords. We made a good team and I learned early what fun it could be to sing with other people.

I started playing violin at age 9. My stand partners in junior high and high school orchestras -- April Law and Dianna Attard -- taught me the joy of duet playing. April and I even took duo lessons together outside of school. From them I also the learned how to listen closely, trying to blend so well that our two instruments sounded like one. This was a challenge, because they were a seat ahead of me.

Mary Chapin Carpenter and Shawn Colvin are the performers who most inspired me to learn to play guitar and sing. Not only are these women brilliant lyricists, but they are powerful singers with tremendous emotive range. I learned so much about nuance from trying to harmonize with their albums.

4. NSM
Tell us about touring with Joan Baez.

Tracy - Joan was amazing to work with ~ motherly, girlish, spontaneous and serious ~ and she holds her status as a folk legend lightly and with gratitude. I felt part of the team from day One. Somehow being with Joan and the band stripped me of my normal layers of self-consciousness and doubt and gave me permission to play full out, to sing with every cell in my body, to be the musician I always felt I could be. It was, for me, an occasion that called for my best musical self, and I was delighted for the opportunity to find out just what that looked like.

The tour with Joan was a bus tour, my first one. Everything you need (except a washer and dryer) is on the bus -- fridge, microwave, toaster, sink, bathroom, TV, stereo, bed, even a personal light and a fan in your cozy bunk. Joan likes candles so we had a lot of beautiful light in the bus, which I loved. Living this way for five weeks was a trip. We'd get on the bus after the show most nights and start heading to the next town. Everyone would be in the mood to party, so someone would choose some upbeat music and Joan would dance in the bus aisle and try to get us to join her. Everyone would share a bottle of wine (or two; or three) and a few beers and get progressively sillier. After a while people would start to fade; somebody might put in a South Park DVD and guys would laugh themselves to sleep on the couches. Eventually everyone would head to bunks except for me and JD, the sound guy. We'd stay up super late, playing cards at the lounge table, talking story, sharing secrets. Bonding on the bus happened fast with this group. We were like a family inside a week, and I cried when it was time to say goodbye to them all.

5. NSM
I read that your musical partner Dave Carter passed away in 2002. Instead of falling apart and quitting the music scene, you kept going. You’re still out there touring, recording, releasing songs the two of you did together, etc. Was it difficult to continue on as a musician?

Tracy - Well, it wasn't the most graceful transition, but you're right, I never shied away from touring. 2003 was a very rough year for me and I was something of a mess on stage, but the music was the vehicle for my healing, and sharing it with fans was the only thing I knew to do to get myself across the river of grief and onto brighter shores.

6. NSM
What do you feel has been your highest musical achievement?

Tracy - I'd like to think my highest achievement is to come, but I've had a few thrills already. I was invited to play in the All Southern California Junior High Honor Orchestra. This was big for me back then, a huge honor. I co-produced FLOWER OF AVALON with John Jennings, my first time in the driver's seat on a studio album, and I am very proud of that work.

7. NSM
What are some of your favorite memories (performing, touring, recording, etc.) from being a musician?

Tracy - When Dave Carter won the Kerrville New Folk contest in 1998, I felt so proud of him, and of us. I felt the momentum beginning for us, and long-overdue recognition of his genius finally coming to light.

Singing into the blown-out bottom of a paper cup on "Crocodile Man" after we'd tried a bunch of high-tech solutions to get that AM-radio vocal sound. The whole process of recording TANGLEWOOD TREE was charmed, it was my first time in a "big" studio where, heh, someone else was footing the bill.

I remember a late-night drive, and a full moon hanging low over Interstate 80 in Nebraska. That light stays with you, you never forget the way it makes the road into a shimmery ribbon... The moon has been my friend on countless drives but it was particularly beautiful then. We pulled over to take in the starry night sky.

Joan telling me (with love) to "shut up and sing" when I told her a part was too high for me.

Playing the Aladdin Theater in Portland with a band for the release of FLOWER OF AVALON. We filled the 600-seat theater and had so much fun.

Singing with Mary-Chapin Carpenter on AVALON, and again at the Kate Wolf Folk Festival in Laytonville, CA. My hero, my friend. She is beautiful through and through.

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What do you consider the best and worst things about being a musician?

Tracy - Best things: The community of fans and performers and presenters is absolutely precious to me. The folk world is a family. And for me, music is meditative. It is a time to quiet the mind, to be completely present. It gives me an opportunity to share a side of myself I don't otherwise know how to access.

Worst things: Travel has become more and more inconvenient, uncomfortable, and expensive. The long drives are hard on the body, and the TSA and baggage handlers are hard on my guitar.

9. NSM
Describe your ideal recording environment.

Tracy - I like this when I'm doing vocals: Low light. Late night. I'm healthy, fit, and well-rehearsed. Studio is warm. An unscented candle burns.

10. NSM
Where do you think you will be (musically) in 5 years?

Tracy - I have the urge to go in several different directions right now with music, so it's hard to say. I hope to be playing more of my original material (which means I'd have to write some) and offer audiences an interesting musical configuration. Whatever I do, I want it to ring true to who I am and what I believe. And I always hope that the singing and the stories are serving some good and higher purpose, that someone may find them helpful or inspirational or, at the very least, amusing.

11. NSM
Is there anything you would like to say to the people reading this interview?

Tracy - I hope that others can be as fortunate as I have been, to find work they love and not waste a minute doing anything else. I haven't attained great wealth being a folksinger -- in fact, I rent a small apartment in the woods because I can't afford to buy, and I drive a van with 180,000 miles on it -- but I have sung with my heroes, I have traveled to place I would not have seen otherwise, and I have made friends all over the world through music. This is a good life. May you have a good life, too.

Come see me sometime!