[NOTE:  You can view the album art and credits here: https://nancykdillon.net/photosvideo - Scroll to bottom of the page - use right & left arrows to view the artwork, song list, credits and song notes]

Album Notes: On her newest album, "A Game of Swans," Dillon hearkens back to her immigrant roots in the Old Country. Like her forebears, her gaze is firmly forward as she listens to dreams and watches for signs leading into a new future. The 12 tracks on "A Game of Swans" reveal ancestral strains of Celtic folk culture migrated to America, strains that have always flowed just beneath the surface of Dillon's music.

New songs for the album include originals and collaborations as well as covers by Drew Nelson & Janni Littlepage and Pat Long. The songs draw characters from lost gold mines, haunted pioneer cabins, railroad hobos and immigrants' prayers for Civil War last chances. Simpatico musical support from uber-talented friends in America, Britain and Scotland color this new project with the perfect tones.

Inspired by the varied migratory paths taken by both her Georgia Loyalist and Scots-Irish Presbyterian forebears as they aimed towards better futures, Dillon herself took flight from her beloved home state of Oklahoma into the vast American West. Settling in the verdant beauty of the Pacific Northwest allows for road trips that still the mind and feed the imagination.

As a patchwork quilt holds pastel memories of summer dreams and dresses, Dillon's song-catcher sensibilities capture ephemera of the American story. Have a listen....hearken back....and lean forward.

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A Game Of Swans

From "Just Let Me Dream" CD ~ Released June 2004 on Rose Rock Records
Copyright 2004 Rose Rock Records & Nancy K Dillon

O Susanna

From "Roses Guide To Time Travel" CD ~ Released March 2010 on Rose Rock Records
Copyright 2010 Rose Rock Records & Nancy K Dillon

All The Pretty America

Recorded live at The Royal Room in Seattle, WA on April 18, 2015.

Live at The Royal Room

10    Turn The Lights Down Low (NKD)  

Personnel:
NKD – acoustic guitar/vocals
Chris Parks – acoustic guitars/slide guitar
Ollie Collins – acoustic bass

A Game of Swans Final Master

Turn The Lights Down Low

9     Write Me A Letter (NKD)  
Peppy / poppy little number about the demise of using pen & paper to communicate – mild double-entendres
Personnel:
NKD – acoustic guitar/vocals
Chris Parks – electric guitar
Garey Shelton – bass
Chris Leighton – wood blocks/D.O.T. barrel

Write Me A Letter

07     Ice & Bone (NKD) 
Chronicles the demise of a relationship – pretty much speaks for itself 
Personnel:
NKD – acoustic guitar/vocal
Chris Parks – Electric guitars
Ollie Collins – acoustic bass
Chris Leighton – Conga/shaker

Ice & Bone

03     Annabelle (Nancy K Dillon / John Hadley)  
Woman left all alone in 1800s pioneer cabin goes slowly mad. Inspired by a visit to Don Evan’s homestead outside of Nashville, Tennessee.

Personnel:
NKD – acoustic guitar/vocals/stompboard
Chris Parks – acoustic guitars rhythm & lead

Annabelle

01	Dutchman’s Gold (Nancy K Dillon)  
A song about greed, death & Jacob Waltz’ secret gold mine in the 1860s Superstition Mtns - I found the clues he left about how to find it on the internet & put them in the chorus – Legend has it that the Mtns are cursed because of the gold
Personnel:
NKD – acoustic guitar/vocals
Ian Lang – acoustic guitar/Fender Rhodes piano
Chris Parks – electric rhythm & solo guitars/slide guitar
Garey Shelton – electric bass
Chris Leighton – shaker/anvil
Gavin Sutherland – harmony vocals

Dutchman's Gold

02	St Jude (Drew Nelson / Janni Littlepage)  
Song about immigration during Civil War time - St Jude is the patron saint of seemingly lost causes, miracles, and 11th Hour salvations.  This was the first song recorded for the album.
Personnel:
NKD – acoustic guitar/vocals/native American drum
Ian Lang – acoustic guitars
Ollie Collins – acoustic bass
Michael Connolly – fiddle
Wes Weddell – mandolin

St Jude

05     Fire In The Hole (Pat Long)  
Pat Long was an Oklahoma friend/musician/songwriter – now deceased – he wrote this true story mining disaster song set in the mountains of Tennessee - 	It is the first song anyone ever *e-mailed* me !
Personnel:
NKD – acoustic guitar/vocals
Stacy Phillips – resonator guitar (dobro)
Michael Connolly – fiddle
Olllie Collins – acoustic bass

Fire In The Hole

08     White Dove (NKD)  
Old-timey secular gospel song about freedom & redemption – crooked tune
Personnel:
NKD – acoustic guitar/vocal
Stacy Phillips – resonator guitar (dobro)
Michael Connolly – fiddle
Ollie Collins – acoustic bass

White Dove

04    Game of Swans (Nancy K Dillon / Ian Lang)  
Celtic-tinged title song co-written with UK singer-songwriter Ian Lang – title is collective name for a group of 2 swans – poetry & imagery about time & change
Personnel:
NKD – acoustic guitar/vocals
Ian Lang – acoustic guitars
Michael Connolly – uilleann pipes /penny whistle

A Game of Swans

12    White Dove Reprise (Instrumental) (NKD)  
I always wanted to write a fiddle tune in waltz time having loved the old tunes like "Midnight on the Water"  and "Ookpik Waltz." Once we'd finished recording the 'song version,' we decided to see what it sounded like sans vocal....voila !
Personnel:
Stacy Phillips – resonator guitar (dobro)
Michael Connolly – fiddle
Ollie Collins – acoustic bass

White Dove Reprise (Instrumental)

In The Bleak Midwinter (Single)
Nancy K. Dillon

Produced by Ian Lang

Nancy K Dillon: Lead & backing vocal
Chris Parks: Electric guitars
Nora Michaels: Backing vocal
Gavin Sutherland: Backing vocal
Ian Lang: Acoustic guitars, piano, bass,
bells, big drum

Christina Rossetti’s poem was written before 1872. Music by 
Gustav Holst was added in 1906 and it became a popular carol.  
Inspired here by Bert Jansch’s version with lyric adaptations by Nancy K Dillon.

Original painting: "Blue Flowers" by Gavin Sutherland.

Recorded at:
Nursery Studio, Stoke-On-Trent, UK
Garey Shelton Studio, Mercer Island, WA
Seatown Sound, Banffshire, Scotland

© 2017 Rose Rock Records | Nancy K Dillon

In The Bleak Midwinter ~ A Christmas Single

In The Bleak Midwinter

Buy at BandCamp

In The Bleak Midwinter (Single)

Independent Review for "A Game of Swans" from Marc Higgins (Northern Sky Magazine):  "Eleven songs and an instrumental to close, this is an album of smooth Folk Blues and Country by a fine vocalist and songwriter. It flows around you, comfortable, comforting, well crafted and warming, like a familiar vintage coat on a fresh woodland walk. "  January 2019

I'm a performing songwriter based in Seattle originally hailing from Central Oklahoma.  My latest CD is "Roses Guide To Time Travel" (2010 Rose Rock Records).  New cd in the works now "A Game of Swans".

"Dillon has a quiet laid back approach, but she doesn’t have to hoot and holler loudly to get her message across. ‘Sweet Honey’ has echoes of Vika and Linda, ‘Last Train On The Line’ chugs along to emphasise the train theme, ‘Desert Song’ revisits Gram and Emmylou territory and ‘No Goodbyes’ references not only Paul Kelly but also Townes van Zandt."

Nancy K Dillon

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