A Conversation with Stephanie Winters (continued)

SW: But then Walter started asking me to do more and more. And then people really liked the combination that the two of us made. And then, from playing with Walter, I started getting my chops back. But it really took about two years.

And then Walter made our first record. And the first record we had was very well received. There were these synchronistic things, like the record came out and Timothy White from Billboard came to a show that we did--he wasn't coming to hear us, I don't think. I think he just happened to be at Schuba's in Chicago and heard us play. Our record had just been out a couple of weeks. So I asked Timothy White, "How does a band like us"--I always thought of ourselves as a band because originally we were a band, then we stripped down to a duo just because it was the only way to survive--"How do we get reviewed in Billboard?" He said, "Well, someone like me buys a copy and listens to it." And the next week we had a review in Billboard.

PM: Wow.

SW: Then we had a showcase at NACA. And our agent, Scott Wolfman, booked us a ton of--

PM: Oh, you went over at NACA, and then you got a bunch of gigs. [NACA is the National Association for Campus Activities.]

SW: Yes. And those paid. I think we booked something like $25,000 in gigs in one weekend.

PM: [laughs]

SW: And then we were in North Carolina and we hustled a gig at the Black Mountain Festival. And I had to quit my teaching job, because I thought, "Well, this is what I really want to do, and I can't do both." So I quit. Actually I'm telling this out of order. First we got the Black Mountain gig and I said, "I can't teach," because classes were going to start then and I couldn't miss the first class or something. I had to make a choice, do the festival. But I had no idea how I was going to make a living. And we did the festival, and then in November we booked the NACA gigs, and that's what pulled us through.

PM: Wow.

SW: And then we were doing it full time. We did it full time for the next bunch of years.

PM: So it's very significant that you made the leap before you got all those NACA gigs.

SW: Yeah.

PM: That was very brave.

SW: It was really a little bit nutty, almost. [laughs]

PM: Yeah, well. And so then--let's keep traveling chronologically--then the Nudes went on for quite a few years, and how many records?

SW: We did three records. We started in '91, and I think we went for eight years.

PM: And the Nudes kept you both alive, more or less?

SW: Yeah, we did the Nudes full time. That was our only source of income. We toured around and we did what we needed to do to make it work.

Then I got a gig playing with Dar Williams for six weeks on her End of Summer Tour in I think it was '97. So Walter and I took a break. I mean, the career hadn't gone to the level that we wanted it to go, the level that we kind of felt we deserved--whatever that means. Also we'd been a couple a lot of those years, which complicates things, especially after that aspect comes to an end.

PM: Right.

SW: And so it was a really hard period. We toured for another year, and then we decided to disband the group. But we wanted to keep our commitments and sort of do a farewell tour, try to go out with some dignity. So once we decided to quit, we spent another year or so wrapping it up.

PM: Wow. And you guys are still pretty good friends today, are you not?

SW: It was not bitter or angry or vengeful in any way. And so there wasn't that kind of baggage to get over. But there was incredible enmeshment--you know, touring for eight years together, six of those years a couple, and together 24 hours a day, every day, doing everything together.

But we got through all that. Walter and I started playing together again recently because someone offered me a gig at a college here in Manhattan. And it paid a thousand bucks, and I was like, "Who do I want to help out here, because this is a tasty little gig for an hour at the cafeteria."

[laughter]

PM: Indeed.

SW: I said to Walter, "Why don't we just do this cafeteria gig?" This was last September. And the next thing you know it was like, "Well, why don't we..."--and now we're sort of playing together again. But it always seems like we get pulled into it, you know?

PM: Yeah.

SW: I try to be pro-active. I think of myself as pro-active, but I realize a lot of the major twists and turns have really come from just responding.

PM: From without, yeah, counter punching. So when you got that Dar gig, I assume that was the first real significant gig that opened up a whole new world of various singer songwriters and various records and gigs.

SW: Well, I had played with David Wilcox before that, but it was more a one-off situation, it wasn't like a tour or anything. But, yeah, Dar was the first freelance tour thing I did.

PM: And you said it was a six week gig?

SW: That was a six week gig that turned into like a two year gig. I think I played ninety dates with Dar that year, because it just kept expanding. The six week tour as a band, but then she and I started playing duo. And I think I did almost all her shows that year. So from Dar--well, then, Rachael Sage, I'm touring now with Rachael. I fell into a similar thing with her, where it started as a band and then she began using me duo, and then I was doing most of my dates with Rachael. And that's what I've been doing the past couple years.

PM: And a lot of that is duo now, right?

SW: It was, and now she's sort of changing again. Now we're sort of going back. And she's actually doing duo with some different people now, like she's doing duo with the trumpet player and duo with the drummer and duo with me. But she has an album coming out in August, and I think she's trying to figure out what to do, and who's going to fit in the van.

[laughter]

SW: But yeah, I did a lot of duo dates with Rachael. I think there's a little bit of a female thing where, when you're going to go from a band down to one person, there's camaraderie. And the cello can cover a lot of territory: it can solo, it can be support, people like it, and it's a little unusual. It has all these things, which is why I ended up doing that stuff with Dar, and then it happened again with Rachael. continue

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