The Neilds

I'm pretty new to the site, but I keep seeing references to the Neilds. Are they a good band? Are they anything like Fruvous? I didn't see any reviews of them on the music review page.

Don't answer that Nate. :)

Now now. I can be civil when I want to be. ;)

The Nields are two sisters... they've written some good songs, and had a band with a really talented bassist/drummer combo for a while. They're now playing as a duo.

Basically, you either love or hate their voices.... as you can probably tell from John's comment, I fall into the latter category. I tried to adjust.. but... I just can't. heh They're very..... screechy and atonal.

But they are talented songwriters.

There, see? I was nice. :)

Very good Nate, I admire you being civil.

What makes them atonal to some ears is their INTENSE vibrato and Nerissa's wide vowels on the high notes.  The vibrato leads some to guess as to where the pitch is, and Nerissa's high notes can be piercing.

I know when I first starting listening to the Nields, I thought their voices were a hard thing to get beyond.  However, I did, and now they really put emotion or bite to songs.  Their recording of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" is one of the most beautiful recordings I've ever heard.

I think everyone agrees though that Nerissa's songwriting skills are matched by very few.  I STILL have to listen to Love And China, maybe I'll actually buy CDs at Falcon Ridge this year.

*sigh* Ok... I love Nerissa and Katryna's singing style. I loved it from the first time my sister popped a Nields tape into the tape deck of her car and said "you have to hear this!" I love that it's raw. I love that it stings on the high notes. (e.g. Nerissa: "If You Can't Hurt Me, NO ONE Can!"... beautiful) To me, these qualities do not detract at all but are rather something that makes their music unique and beautiful. It is not that I don't hear the same things that you guys do, it's not that I don't know anything about vocal technique. I do, and I do. And I still love their voices and the way they use their voices. It has always grabbed me in the good way.

I agree. Their voices fit their songs better than any else's would. Honestly, I never really thought of them as even being that high-pitched until I started to hear people complain about that.

People tend to have strong opinions on the Nields. Most fruheads love them. Most of the rest hate them. I'm in between. I won't go out of my way to see them but I dont' run away from the either. I've seen them dozens of times because they play with bands that I like. I first saw them opening for Fruvous.

Sisters Nerissa and Katryna Nields are currently touring as a duo.  The band "The Nields" featured them and a bunch of guys named Dave, and is no longer touring.

They play a lot of folk festivals that Fruvous used to hit, and a number of Fruheads are huge Nields fans.  Others are not.

I personally adore their song-writing, but am not crazy about their singing style.  Check their website out: http://www.nields.com/

 

one more vote for the great songs, crappy voices option! :) and i'm with gordon--i won't avoid them (saw them last month open for EFO), but i DEFINITELY won't go out of my way to see them.

i've even been known to voluntarily bring up their stuff in winamp, but only when i was feeling particularly whiny and angsty. lol.

*shrug* take 'em or leave 'em, as you will...but for the love, girls, get some voice lessons.

me: warbling and caterwauling =/= singing!
anonymousnieldsdefender: warbling and caterwauling =/= nields.

Yay for being with me. Now I just have to get you to not be afraid of Maura Kennedy.

Who could be afraid of Maura Kennedy??

*shrug* I always thought voice lessons usually did more to destroy a person's voice than to help it. It destroys anything distinctive save for small details. Not everyone in the world needs to be a *trained vocalist.* I sure as hell am glad that I'm not one. I'm not saying that vocal training is always bad... if you *want* to be a trained vocalist then that's fine, more power to you. If you are tone-deaf and need ear-training, that can be beneficial. I personally do not think that the Nields should be trained vocalists. It would ruin them completely.

I'm divided on the Nields. I've always liked their full-band stuff (though the voices turned me off at first). Once it became just a duo the voices began to bother me again. (Plus, I just don't like the latest crop of songs as much.)

But I don't think that their voices are BAD. What I really wish is that Nerissa would stop using the yodeling hook type thing. I think she sounds perfectly fine when she's singing a note normally. It's when she purposely cracks her voice that I cringe. And Katryna's voice I find much more pleasant in general.

I don't have a full idea if my turning away from them is more about the duo and the vocal dynamic that brings to the forefront, or if it's my dislike of the newer songs. I definitely dislike a lot of songs on L&C but I don't quite have a bead on WHY. I think it might come down to style more than their voices.

I'm babbling. I'm just trying to make sense of my waffling fandom of the Nields.

Yeah, it's the yodeling and purposely cracking the voice thing that kills me too.

Just makes my skin crawl.
Puberty on command. :D

But I *like* that!
Waaaaah!
Why do I love that and everyone else hates it?
Do you hate the Cranberries too?
*is seriously puzzled*

I like some cranberries stuff, actually... but that always bothered me with her, too. the nields do that times 10, though.

interesting comparison. not one i would've thought of, but it works! i LOVE delores' voice, but still can't handle nerissa and katryna in large doses. gella, i definitely grant that in small doses, i can totally dig them. :)

I'm the other way around. Maybe it's that I like the folkiness of the Nields more.

Dolores O'Riordan at least sang in the right key.

I'm with the like the band, hate the duo group. The only thing that got me past their voices was the Daves. Without them, I'm just not interested anymore.

Um... I hate to break it to you all, but the Nields do not sing off-key.

Well, Katryna gets SHARP sometimes on sustained notes.  I love the CD PLAY but cannot deal with "Innertube."  OW! 

I have to disagree. They pretty much hold it together in the studio, but in live performance they sing out of tune a LOT. I don't really like seeing them live for this reason. For the record, I don't think it's an ear problem... I think it is a technique problem.

You know how Julie Murphy-Wells stands back from her Mic when she's about to blast a huge high note?  Well the Nields don't do that.  I think it wasn't as much of a problem with the whole band.  At The Nields/EFO show in Peekskill, they did Easy People (I think) off-mic, and it was so much better. 

It was off-mic, and yes, best song of the set.  They love to fill that hall with their voices.

though i was 'loitering in the lobby' at that show but -did- pop in and out to see the nields, i agree that was the best song of their set.

but i was -very- dissappointed in SNOWMAN, which is one of my -fave- nields songs.

coz of the blaring-into-the-mic-thing that melissa mentioned.

so..yah.

and i liked them better with 'the daves', too.

 

o/' these are the daves i know, i know, these are the daves i know   o/'

;)

 

 

 

Maybe I haven't seen them live often enough to notice. I've only seen them at FRFF and Clearwater an I think twice otherwise. I have never noticed any significant straying from the key and you *know* that I'm usually pretty quick to notice such a thing... heck I've often had to stifle a wince when the lads deviated. *shrug* I just don't know. I only know that everytime I've seen them I've loved them, and that I adore their studio recordings.

I do that too.  My neck will start to cringe if I hear someone out of tune.

I love it too. My favourite singers are the ones with distinctive voices. Look at Dan Bern. He can carry a tune, and he's easily identifiable, but is his voice formally beautitful? No. It's the way he uses it that makes it beautiful.

Well... yeah... like Tom Waits..... God I love that man's voice. :) He is my god.

Kath - I see that thumbnail!  Hands off Jon!  HE'S MINE!

What about that thumbnail, baby?

*thought the thumbnail was don, not jon*

"Is that not Jon Stewart?" she asked sheepishly.

(Baah)

Uh... no... it's Don McKellar. It's a still from Twitch City.

Uh.... huh. I don't know who "don mckellar" is... or what "twitch city" is. :D

But it sure looks like Jon Stewart to me. So I'll consider it to be him. :)

Umm... "don"?

yeah. don mckellar, as stated above. and defined above, actually. generally, when that doesn't seem to be enough of an answer for me, i use this nifty thing called google. aside from that, rent last night and the red violin.

Saw the red violin.. who was he in that?

Gella, don't change your voice at all.  It's totally and utterly beautiful.

*blush*

Are we sure that they've never had voice lessons? I somehow kind of thought that they did as kids.

And sign me up for the LOVE them category. I think you people who don't like their voices are nuts!

well, ok. i love the nields. in any incarnation. i've seen them full band at frff, just nerissa when she did a mini-tour with pam houston, and nerissa and katryna this fall. i think love and china is far and away the best album to be released in 2002. if it was a cassette i would have worn it out.

so. there you go.

THANK you Jaci!

Should I put the Neilds under "aquired taste"?

It sounds like they are worth checking out, and I shall! Thanks everybody for all the information.

Maybe not even so much an aquired taste as a polarizing experience. :) Most folks seem to love 'em or hate 'em pretty quickly. (More love than hate on the whole, I think.)

Yeah, just like Dan Bern. People either love or hate him too. Oh, and the other Fruvous connection for the Neilds is that THEY are Fruvous fans.