Caroline Doctorow-Narrow Lane Records

Caroline appears on Bob Dylan Uncovered courtesy of Narrow Lane Records. Singer-songwriter, Caroline Doctorow grew up in New Rochelle, New York and currently resides in Bridgehampton. Her style of music falls into the folk-pop genre. She has released four records on the Narrow Lane Records label. Other credits include the performance of a song on the PBS series, Freedom - The History of Us narrated by Katie Couric, which aired on public television in 2003. Her compositions appear on many compilation disks including, The Best of The Eclectic Café and on an Ars Nova Productions release, featuring independent folk performers. Caroline's latest CD release, Carmel Valley Ride, is a concept record about the 60's folk duo, Richard and Mimi Fariña. This recording has received outstanding reviews. "This CD takes the listener on a fascinating journey, with most of the songs in some way relating to the Fariñas... Carmel Valley Ride spins from the disk with a driving fury and conviction", Sing Out Magazine, 2004. "A brainy, heartfelt tribute... #15 Best CDs of 2003", Eric Alterman MSNBC. "An uplifting mix of sublime originals and covers that's positively enchanting... Best 20 Discs of 2003", Jim Musser of the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Today Caroline tours the country performing with her band, "The Folk Dogs". She is the daughter of author, E.L. Doctorow. "I learned to play the guitar at the age of eight. There was always music in our household. I always wanted to be a singer and a performer, and in one way or another, music is something I have worked on nonstop, from a very early age." JOAN BAEZ When I was ten or so, my father was not yet a full-time writer. This was in the late 60's. He was still working in the publishing business, and coming home after a long day, eating dinner and then going upstairs to the third-floor study and working there until late at night on his own writing. Now that I have kids of my own, I find it amazing that he was able to accomplish this. It never seemed to us that he was unavailable in any way, and I think we probably went up there and interrupted him endlessly. During this time he worked for the Dial Press. He had the idea to publish an autobiography by Joan Baez. While this project was in progress, Joan would visit our family every few months or so. The first time was one Thanksgiving evening at our home in New Rochelle. Joan was at the height of her career in those days and I remember her sitting in front of the fireplace on a small wooden chair, singing for us. We were all amazed by her beautiful voice, her good looks, and her intense charisma. She would spend lots of time with my brother and sister and I and she was surprisingly kid oriented. We all spent a weekend together during the summer in a rented house in Sag Harbor, a couple of miles from where I live today. Joan and I walked into town together one morning. She was wearing a yellow peasant dress and had no shoes on. The phone rang constantly while she was home with us. She loved to sunbathe, so we went to the beach everyday. But most importantly, Joan took the time to teach me some chords on the guitar. I had already begun to play before I met her, having been inspired by my parents, who had a Weavers-style folk band as a hobby. I remember hearing lots of folk music records that my parents played around the house. I also remember visiting Joan backstage at her sell-out show at Carnegie Hall. I think this was also in the late 1960's. She spoke of eating chocolate bars in between her sets to keep up her energy. She gave me a bunch of beautiful yellow daffodils that my grandmother put in the refrigerator in order to preserve them. When I look back on this time, it occurs to me that she was able to entertain with one voice and one guitar. Very different than the music stars of today, with their extravagant stage shows. FOLK FESTIVALS As you can imagine I was at a very impressionable age, so I dove further into my study of folk music, and started learning everything I could. I began to teach guitar to younger kids once I got to junior high school, and I started to travel by Greyhound bus to folk festivals along the east coast with a bunch of friends. These festivals, as I recall, were extremely overwhelming in a way. They were almost too much of a good thing. The settings were invariably beautiful, wild and far out in the countryside. The performing musicians and the paying public mingled with one another. There seemed to be a secret little concert or performance around every corner and under every tree. I began to get heavily involved in the art of backup guitar, which means strumming a strong rhythm and adding bass lines to accompany a fiddle tune or other melody. The fiddle tunes were beautiful and either mournful and stunning, or very upbeat and joyful. They all had very romantic names such as "Drowsy Maggie", "Whiskey Before Breakfast", "Soldier's Joy" and so on. One memory stands out. I was at a festival and came across a group of musicians playing away. The fiddle player was very good, and was also blind. I started to play along, and felt great when he complimented me. I was proud that he liked my playing, because I knew he wasnít looking at me as a pretty young girl, but was hearing me as a good musician. MEETING MIMI FARIÑA I continued through high school, learning material of all the folk performers I admired, Baez, Dylan, Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell and of course Richard and Mimi Fariña. I have spoken before about meeting Mimi Fariña during a party in Carmel, California. This would have been when I was in the sixth grade, because my father had taken a teaching job at UCLA Irvine in California that year, so we were already living in California by then. Joan's husband, David Harris, was in jail for resisting the draft and Joan had begun her School of Non-Violence in Carmel. Richard Fariña sadly, had died by this time. Iím not sure what the occasion of the party was, or what the other events were that included my glimpsing Mimi. As many people know, she had the kind of beauty that was so intense as to be almost otherworldly. She had huge light blue eyes, dark hair, and a perfect face and a petite dancer's body. She seemed to embody all that was cool and hip during the 1960's, long straight dark hair and a very natural, unmade-up beauty. Both Baez sisters gave off an extremely intelligent, well-spoken air. I also remember being present at David and Joan's wedding in a huge church in NYC and of course, Mimi was there, looking beautiful. A bunch of the folkies got up to sing, including Mimi and also Judy Collins, and it was wonderful. I still have a yellow button that was handed out at the wedding. It has a flower on it, and says, "Celebrate Life". It wasn't until years later, at the time of Mimi's death, that I began to realize what an enormous effect her music had on me. She and Richard Fariña were truly ahead of their time, in terms of the kind of music they were writing and playing. Upon hearing of Mimi's death, I dug up all their recordings, and read everything I could about them. I was surprised at how many of their songs had complex world-beat rhythms, and so many of the tracks stood the test of time and sounded new and vital. That was when I started to write about the Fariñas, and Carmel Valley Ride was born. SIDE MEN One way in which I have been very lucky all these years, is with the musicians that have backed me up. I guess the most famous person who has been on my recordings, and with my band on stage, is Eric Weissberg. Eric is best known for his song "Dueling Banjos". I have done some shows with Eric in larger theater-type venues, and this has been a pleasure. Eric can be heard on my first record Hiding Out in Plain Sight on a live track. Cindy Cashdollar also played in my band for a year or so and also appears on my first record. She is such a dedicated player! Cindy plays dobro and pedal steel, and went on to join Bob Dylan on his Time Out of Mind recording. I have also worked briefly with banjo player, Tony Triscka, and I now work with Barbara Lamb, an extraordinary fiddle player who lives in Nashville. Annie Golden has done beautiful backup singing on my records, and has played with the band now and again, as well. The list goes on in terms of great players with whom I have recorded over the years, and who have credits on all of my records. RECORDING AND SINGING My approach to singing has changed over the years, and what interests me now is a kind of story-telling singing. What I mean by this is, I don't strive to sing with a great big, polished singing voice. What seems to work well for me is the "less is more" approach, where the voice is untreated in the studio and the rough edges are left in. Almost no effects are added to the final recording, such as reverb, or compression. I try to sing as close to the microphone as I can, because I think this is the best way to record my particular voice, which has a lot of high frequencies in it. I also prefer this approach when recording the instruments as well, particularly the acoustic guitars and the upright bass. I also have an aversion to drum symbols. I like everything to sound as raw and "woody" as possible. SONG WRITING The kind of song writing I do requires a lot of research. I tend to take a cerebral approach, and explore the characters and their emotional landscape thoroughly before I really get started. I am at present working on a song about Johnny Cash. Before really knowing what the point of view of the song was going to be, I spent weeks reading several books, articles and Cash's autobiography before beginning. This is the approach that works for me. I guess each writer has his or her own method. I almost never sit down and write a song on inspiration alone. I have learned a lot from my songwriter friend, Hugh Prestwood, who is well- known in Nashville. He and I live in the same area and we've been friends for years. We host song-writing workshops now and again. Hugh comes along and gives talks and spreads some of his magic. He has written songs that have been covered by many well- known country artists such as, Alison Krauss, Trisha Yearwood and Randy Travis, to name a few. One thing that I did learn from Hugh is how specific a song must be. I have come to realize that one must really narrow down the point of view of a song and approach it that way. For instance, the Hugh Prestwood song, "Ghost in This House" is a love song. What makes the song so interesting and universally appealing, is that the narrator is wandering around his home feeling the presence of his departed lover as ghostly. He himself has also become a ghost in his own life, and has ceased to function on a day-to-day level. There is so much more to it than the "I miss you baby" type of lyric. It took a while for me to learn what I needed to know about writing; the way a song is constructed, the use (or non-use) of hard and soft rhyme, different song forms, styles and subjects are things that I have put many hours into learning about. This was a chore at first. I did a little songwriting first in 1991, but lucky for me, I've come a long way since then. The more I learn, the better I like writing songs. People always ask me if growing up in a house with a writer of fiction helped, and it did in the sense that we were always read to, and encouraged to read. Also, in our house, words were important. My mother still corrects my grammar today! Many wonderful poets and writers hung around at our house and I think a part of me was watching and soaking it all in...

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