T H E . N I E L D S

The following feature story appeared in the campus publication MOSAIC in November, 1997.

David S. Chalfant '98, David C. Hower '89, Katryna T. Nields '91

The Nields: Creating sibling revelry

One evening in the spring of her senior year, Katryna T. Nields ’91 and a friend performed their favorite songs by various artists, including the Grammy-award winning Indigo Girls, for their friends in The Underground. Three years later, Nields, along with her sister, Nerissa, and brother-in-law, David Nields (who assumed Nerissa’s surname when they married), and two friends from Trinity, bass player David S. Chalfant ’91 and drummer David C. Hower ’89, opened the prestigious Newport Folk Festival and performed before a crowd of 8,000 people on the same bill with the Indigo Girls.

What a difference three years, hundreds of dates on the road, and an enthusiastic fan base make! What began as two sisters harmonizing as teenagers in their suburban Washington, DC, home has turned into a folk-influenced alternative band with five independent albums and one on a national label. Quite simply, “The Nields are young. They are hip. They are hot,” according to The Boston Globe. Timothy J. Plant ’98, one of many of The Nields’ fans on campus, believes their music is best appreciated live. “They just energize the crowd,” he says. Their fans had the opportunity to get energized earlier this month when the group returned to campus to perform at Homecoming Weekend.

Katryna T. Nields ’91

Lead vocalist for the group, Katryna Nields was a religion major, active in The Trinity Pipes and musical theater. “Singing with The Pipes honed my musical skills an enormous amount and taught me about harmony,” she says, “and harmony is so much a part of what the band does.” Katryna believes her musical theater experience at Trinity also enhanced her performing. “Nerissa and David choose different narrators in their lyrics and create characters that I get to play.”

An enthusiastic fan of The Nields, Professor of Religion and International Studies Ellison B. Findly recalls that as a student, “Katryna was always interested in exploring the intersection of history, religion, and musical performance. For her, music was an expression of a person’s sense of place, a critical reflection of how to make sense of who one was in a fractured world.”

After graduating, Katryna lived with her sister and brother-in-law, who both taught at Loomis-Chaffee School in Windsor, CT, and performed throughout New England. After David Nields quit his job in June 1995, the band started touring on a full-time basis.

David S. Chalfant ’90

David Chalfant’s world revolved around music even before he came to Trinity. He began studying guitar at the age of nine. By the time he reached high school, he was writing and directing the music for theatrical productions at Columbia Preparatory School in New York. An English major at Trinity, he continued to study music, sang in The Pipes, played in the Jazz Band, and, along with Hower, played in a student band called Ghostshirts. He also wrote music for several theater and dance department productions, including two plays written by Associate Professor of Theater Arthur B. Feinsod. “At Trinity I got to try out different musical hats,” Chalfant observes. “I could either write music or play in a rock band or jazz band. I got the full complement of choices.”

Feinsod remembers that, “It was a great joy collaborating with David. He listened carefully and was able to find very creative solutions to theatrical problems. He wrote rock music, but it had some of the motifs and stylistic attributes that have come into full flower with The Nields.”

After graduating from Trinity, Chalfant became interested in sound engineering and produced a number of musical jingles at Greenhouse Studios, a recording facility in New York. In 1992, he was nominated for a local Emmy award for a pregame television show score that he cowrote for the New York Giants. He started playing with The Nields on a part-time basis in 1993, and in 1994 he became a full-fledged member and produced their third album.

David C. Hower ’89

David Hower says he always wanted to play music. While enrolled at Darien High School in Darien, CT, he played in a wedding band, a new wave band, and his favorite — the Vatican Commandoes, a hardcore punk band that produced and sold its records throughout this country and in Europe. At Trinity, where he majored in English, Hower was in great demand on campus as a drummer. “At a small college, if you’re any good at what you do, you’re going to become quite confident in yourself because you’re going to shine,” he observes. “That helps you move into the larger world with confidence.” After graduating, he moved into the larger world by playing with Chalfant’s band, Top Dog, and Ghostshirts in New York clubs like CBGB and Tramps. He joined The Nields in 1994.

Have The Nields achieved the success they have sought? With their busy touring schedule (often 200 dates a year), Katryna says that she doesn’t have much time to spend thinking about being profiled in Rolling Stone or winning Grammy awards. What is more important, she believes, is the music The Nields are creating. “We have a really cool opportunity to be making really interesting, wonderful music. Our music is hard to define and it’s hard to market. But our fans love it. In a way, that means we’ve arrived.”

-- Suzanne Zack