Life-ers:
Katy Davidson
Gretchen Hildebran
Jaime Knight
Jake Longstreth
Marianna Ritchey
Nora Roman
Antonio Roman-Alcalá
Ryan Wise
and featuring:
Allen Bleyle
Jeremy Cole
Gus Franklin
Isobel Knowles
Mark Monnone
Lindy Morrison
Adele Pickvance
Mike Sherk
Kellie Sutherland
Bree Van Reyk
Devon Williams
and many others, thank you!!
TOURS:
Spring 2000
U.S. Pacific Northwest
(W/ Aislers Set & Dressy Bessy)
(Katy, Ritchey & Ryan)
Spring 2000 (pt. 2)
U.S. west coast
(Katy, Ritchey & Ryan)
Fall 2000
U.S. west coast
(Katy, Ritchey, Ryan & Jake)
Spring 2001
U.S. west coast
(w/ Mirah)
(Katy solo)
Fall 2001
U.S. west coast
(w/ Mirah)
(Katy solo)
Spring 2002
Japan
(w/ Mirah & The Fairways)
(Katy, Ritchey, Ryan & Jake)
Fall 2002
U.S. west coast & midwest
(w/ Mates of State)
(Katy solo)
Fall 2002 (pt. 2)
U.S. national
(w/ Family Outing)
(Katy solo)
Summer 2003
U.S. west coast & midwest
(w/ Bellafea)
(Katy, Gretchen & Antonio)
Fall 2003
U.S. east coast & Sweden
(Katy, Gretchen & Antonio)
Summer 2004
U.S. west coast
(w/ Cynthia Nelson)
(Katy solo)
Fall 2004
U.S. east coast
(w/ Cynthia Nelson)
(Katy solo)
Fall 2004 (pt. 2)
U.S. east coast
(w/ The Blow & YACHT)
(Katy solo)
Fall 2005
Australia east coast
(Katy solo)
Fall 2005 (pt. 2)
U.S. national
(w/ Casiotone for the Painfully Alone)
(Katy solo)
Summer 2006
California Central Valley & LA
(w/ The Blow)
(Katy, Jake, Jaime, Antonio & Nora)
Fall 2006
Australia national
(w/ Darren Hanlon)
(Katy solo)
Spring 2007
U.S. west coast and U.S. east coast
(Katy solo)
Spring 2008
Florida
(w/ Casiotone for the Painfully Alone)
(Katy solo)
Influences
Sonoran desert, animal relationships, 21st century cities
This page is a tribute to the band Dear Nora. (Born August 1999, Portland, Oregon. Died February 2008, West Palm Beach, Florida.) This page will also temporarily serve as a hub for all things related to "Katy Davidson." Please stay tuned for information about a new Web site.
Upcoming:
1) New Katy Davidson album
2) New Lloyd & Michael album
3) Lots of other weird things
4) Lloyd & Michael on tour in Australia in late 2008
5) New Web site
Dear Nora's final album There is No Home is out now. You may purchase it from Magic Marker Records in the U.S. and Valve Records in Australia.
Lloyd & Michael's album Just as God Made Us is out now. You may purchase it from States Rights Records in the U.S. and Valve Records in Australia.
Dear Nora was a band of twisted force, a weird entity of surprisingly recalcitrant intent. Katy Davidson (songwriting/guitar/vocals) was the only constant member since the band’s beginning. Throughout the years, Dear Nora featured a cast of rotating members, all quite integral to the band’s ever-mutating sound.
The story goes:
In Summer 1999, Davidson started Dear Nora in Portland, Oregon, with her friends Marianna Ritchey (drums/vocals) and Ryan Wise (bass). They named the band after a Lewis & Clark College music professor who had provided them much inspiration and friendship. After establishing themselves on the scene in Portland, and releasing two 7”s and a handful of self-released cassettes, the band recorded We’ll Have a Time in San Francisco with Amy Linton (Aislers Set), and released it on Magic Marker Records in early 2001. This debut was doubly calm and boisterous, marked mainly by mellifluous melodies and uncomplicated lyrics.
Driven by a desire for a change, Davidson relocated to San Francisco just after We’ll Have a Time was released. There Davidson began playing unaccompanied shows, still using the name Dear Nora. She wrote and recorded The New Year, which resembled much more the attitude and spirit of Dear Nora’s pre-We’ll Have a Time recordings. The New Year was homemade, recorded by Davidson on an 8-track cassette recorder, and echoed lo-fi influences of the GBV-kind, with nature/fantasy-based lyricism and short songs that ran together as if they were not separate units but threads in a woven narrative. Dear Nora released The New Year in time to tour Japan with Mirah and the Fairways in Spring 2002. For this tour, Dear Nora featured its original line-up, plus Jake Longstreth, another long-time Portland friend, on guitar. Davidson also toured unaccompanied as Dear Nora during the latter half of 2002, supporting both Mates of State and Family Outing on their U.S. tours.
Davidson continued the touring machine through 2003. She formed a new version of the band, which featured San Francisco-based friends Gretchen Hildebran (bass/vocals) and Antonio Roman-Alcalá (drums). This incarnation of Dear Nora toured the U.S. and Sweden in 2003. In December of that year, Davidson retreated to the arid wilds of Arizona (her home state) to record Mountain Rock, a stripped-down, simple, and mostly acoustic record involving a metaphorical odyssey through a mountain wilderness. With this record, Davidson revealed a weirdness that had not been fully disclosed on previous releases.
Davidson released Mountain Rock in the spring of 2004, and soon after formed the final incarnation of the band, including Davidson (vocals/guitar), Longstreth (guitar), Roman-Alcalá (drums), Jaime Knight (bass), and Nora Roman (vocals/percussion). This version of Dear Nora was the tightest and perhaps most psychedelic to date. Based on local San Francisco performances, the band drew comparisons to anything from Fugazi to the Grateful Dead. This band became a mainstay on the San Francisco live music scene throughout 2004-07, though was unable to take to the road due to discordant schedules, save for a short-yet-very-comprehensive California Central Valley tour. During those same years, Davidson completed unaccompanied tours through the U.S. with the likes of Cynthia Nelson (Retsin), The Blow, YACHT, and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, made two solo treks to Australia.
Davidson began work on what would be the final Dear Nora album, There is No Home, during Winter 2005. The record, somewhat sonically akin to Mountain Rock, reveals a dark side to which Davidson had only furtively hinted on previous releases. There is No Home is about a landscape beautiful and damaged. In all the ways that Mountain Rock is about hope and magic in nature, There is No Home is about dashed hope, and nature in ruin.
Davidson’s style has always been heady and ethereal, awkward and beautiful, sarcastic and kind. These stylistic traits survived Dear Nora’s different shapes and forms, wending their way through time, creating a constant aesthetic through a series of surface changes.
In spite of this, Davidson decided There is No Home would be Dear Nora’s final release because her songwriting and orchestration style had veered far from its original benchmark, far enough to be established as a something new. Davidson will continue to make music, both on her own and with friends.
Among other outlets, she has started a Los Angeles-based project with long-time friend Marianna Ritchey, called Lloyd & Michael.
I was walking around in springsummer weather today. A drop of sweat fell in my eye. The blurry sight and slight sting reminded me of the hazy heat of California and made me think of you. I'm not sure if the eye+sweat thing and you are related. Perhaps co-incident mind-wanderings.
Regardless, abovementioned thoughts of you were sweet and spring-intentioned. I hope you are SO well.
heyy i'm from the bay area and I'm a big fan of you and casiotone for the painfully alone. Hott Boyz is an epic and funny track. Let me know if you're ever in the bay area. xoxo
i can't believe there are venues in florida. all i can find down there are grandparents and my crazy mom. you have to plan 2 hours to drive 30 minutes because they're in a time warp. it's so great. makes me slow down. and the fashion is right up my alley.
i recently made my mom a roches tape, and she was like "wow! they're great, i love the harmonies! did they have a great influence on dear nora?" i thought that was a particularly cute thing of her to say.
