Nancy McCallion is best known as the songwriter and vocalist for original Celtic-Norteno-you-name-it folk-rock cult band The Mollys.
McCallion teamed up with high school music partner Catherine Zavala to form The Mollys in 1989, developing a solid following and racking up seven indie releases and countless rave-reviews (including a listing in the Washington Posts top 10 CDs of 1997) touring the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand before the group disbanded in 2003.
The daughter of an Irish-Scots immigrant and a Texas farm girl, McCallion grew up in Tucson, a cross-cultural border town. She heard, and was obviously influenced by, the Norteno sounds of her Southwest Side neighborhood, her older sisters Beatles records, and 1970s and '80s radio rock, mixed with her dad's Irish trad and her mother's Texas old-time country. Throw in adolescent Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and Pogues fixations and you've got the cultural stew that emerged as The Mollys' drop-jaw repertoire.
She never quit writing, and resumed live performance and recording as a solo over the last seven years. Her new songs are an eclectic mix of folk, roots, and country, with a little Tex-Mex Irish, reminiscent of The Mollys. Although often compared favorably to Lucinda Williams and other leading female writers, McCallion's sharp takes on life lived small also bring to mind Tom Wait's dark, quirky tales.
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Look for Nancy's new CD, "Take a Picture of Me" to be released in November 2009!
