Painter Nellie Clay has deep affection for the classic country song “Satisfied Mind,” which was a 1955 No. 1 hit for Porter Wagoner and has been covered by many artists, including Mavis Staples on her new album. Clay sang the song and others with friends around campfires in Alaska, and her career as a Western folk singer-songwriter began.
The song “happens to be one of the first songs I started singing around the campfire and one of the only songs from that time I have consistently continued to play over the years to audiences and myself,” says Clay, who was born in Oklahoma and now lives in Illinois. “I love what the song says so much. The first recording I heard was in some documentary, and Joan Baez was singing it with her sister Mimi. Holy shit was that beautiful! Then the next version and recording I heard was Porter Wagoner’s rendering. Of course, like everybody else who has sung it, I made it my own.”
Clay, who went to art school for painting and did conservation work for the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis, expected a short stay when she traveled to Alaska in July 2006 but stayed until December 2014. She performed that year at the WoodyFest, the Woody Guthrie celebration in Okemah, Oklahoma, and performed annually for the festival through 2023.
“I sang ‘Satisfied Mind’ at WoodyFest at the closing hootenanny in the Crystal Theatre and can remember how it hung so beautiful and melancholic in the air,” recalls Clay, who has recorded Guthrie’s “Ranger’s Command.” “Emotions always ran high and raw on the final performance of a four-day festival. You know, that collective sadness of leaving magic land and saying fare thee well to your friends, combined with festival exhaustion.”
Clay has released two full-length CDs and three EPs. Many songs are available at Bandcamp, and she plans to soon release A Passion Project: Crossing Paths With Inspiring Souls, a book about fascinating people she met during her life’s adventures in Alaska and elsewhere. She is writing new songs and has been recording music in Chicago for the past six years but is unable to perform live for an audience after developing postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) during the coronavirus pandemic.
Clay’s initial public performances were in various small towns in Alaska. She played at the Moose Pass Summer Solstice Festival and numerous venues in Hope, Cooper Landing, Homer, Talkeetna and Anchorage.
“With wash tub basses poking out of the snow, I started singing around campfires with friends and neighbors and taught myself how to play guitar,” she recalls. “I immediately started writing my own songs. I moved around Alaska a lot, often living with no plumbing or electricity, playing for food and tips.”
After Alaska, Clay moved to Nashville and performed at various notable venues, including the Bluebird Cafe, The 5 Spot and the City Winery. She also performed in Austin and at New York’s Rockwood Music Hall.
“I’m not formally trained in music, so it’s always been 100% instincts and honesty,” Clay says. “Each song I write is kind of a baby of mine, each from a different father — ha — and a different moment in time. Storytelling, for sure. I enjoy swimming in deep waters. When people would ask me about my years in Alaska, I’d laugh and say, ‘It made me the man I am today.’ Funny, but in all seriousness, a young woman alone in rural Alaska living in dry cabin shacks, it’s safe to say that I have seen and experienced some shit. Ha, and like everything in life, it was excellent material for the soul, and I was compelled to convert and create something beautiful out of it all.”
Being self-taught, other artists weren’t influential in Clay’s development as a musician. She also can’t point to the best concert she attended or one that influenced her music or songwriting. But she does recall some very meaningful shows by other artists.
“How does one compare the experience of seeing the Rolling Stones with thousands of people to an intimate solo show from a poignant songwriter?” she asks. “Sierra Ferrell and Gillian Welch were amazing, but I can choose two favorite musical experiences. One was Neil Young (Jan. 7, 2014) at Carnegie Hall. Extra special, because I was with my partner at the time who was Neil’s personal chef, so I was present for the soundcheck, sat in the second row and had all backstage access. An incredibly special night all around. Neil was amazing, and he brought me to tears that night more than once.”
Clay says she had fun at “face-melting rock shows” when she was younger, but she has come to realize that her love for other musicians’ performances is measured in tears.
“Did they make me cry?” she says. “That brings me to another standout night of music which also brought me to tears. I was completely moved by John Fullbright’s performance of ‘Stars’ under a full moon in 2014 at WoodyFest. Sitting cross-legged in the grass on a hot Oklahoma July night with a bunch of the nicest folkies you’d ever meet, I watched John bare his soul in a way that had me crying my eyes out. John is very special and very kind.”
Clay also has affection for J.G. “Joe” Shadid, who has produced and played on many of her songs, including the recent “Freedom Song.”
“If you listen to the words, it’s pretty obvious it’s about an inside job,” she says. “The kind of freedom that exists within us, that no one can take away. Freedom of the mind. I cannot talk about my music without talking about Joe. He’s amazing in many ways and has a much deserved Emmy nomination for a film score he composed. He’s my producer, sings with me, plays lead guitar and piano and is a friend who more closely resembles family.”
Few producers can write a string quartet for a song, but Shadid can, and he understands her musical sensibilities, Clay says with a smile.
“He has handled me bringing some of life’s worst tragedies into the studio—myself barely holding together—and helped me turn it into beautiful music,” she says. “I write the songs by myself, and they’re fully realized songs by the time I’m in the studio. But the instrumentation and aesthetics, which we almost always completely agree on, are made possible by Joe and the lovely musicians he brings together for a project. It’s a great experience every time. We click musically so well, and I love his harmony vocals. I know there are a lot of great options out there, but I can’t imagine working with anyone else at this point.”
