Claudia Nygaard & Tom Dundee - "Donald & Lydia" (John Prine)

Описание: "Donald & Lydia" is a John Prine duet performed by Claudia Nygaard & Tom Dundee. It was recorded at Murphy's Saloon in Elk Grove, CA in 1994 when the duo was on tour.

ABOUT TOM DUNDEE - From Claudia Nygaard
Tom was part of the Chicago Folk Scene and friends with both Prine and songwriter Steve Goodman (City of New Orleans). After Steve's passing his guitar was given to Tom. I performed with Tom for a short time as a duo, and we toured around the west, from Nebraska to CA. The video photos were taken during that same tour. He was crazy about my dad, and I think he may have written "A Cowboy Born Out Of His Time" about him. I remember one time I called home long after Tom and I had split up and my dad said Tom was there. Tom passed away the day before his 60th birthday from complications after a motorcyle accident. It was huge loss to the folk music community. And a huge loss to me as well. He had a tender heart and tremendous talent, and when we sang together it was magic.

ABOUT JOHN PRINE - From Claudia Nygaard
A few years before Prine's death of Covid 19, I was walking into the Green Hills Theater in Nashville as John and his lovely wife Fiona were coming out. They were kind enough to stop and talk to me for a few minutes as I told John what a huge influence he had been on my songwriting. He asked me how my career was going. I’ve met a lot of artists living in Nashville, and he is the ONLY one who ever asked me about MY career. I replied that I wasn’t playing venues the size he was, but that I was making a living singing my own songs. “Well, you’re a big success then aren’t you?” he replied, and I said “yes, I’m a very lucky girl”. Later I was reflecting on our conversation and out poured a song that would win the Tumbleweed Music Festival Songwriting competition and become the title cut of my new album “Lucky Girl”. It was just hours after he has passed that I found out that “Lucky Girl” posted at #3 on the Folk Music Song Chart, #5 on the Album chart, and that I was the #5 Artist of the month. I was so wishing I could have told John that his kindness and generosity of spirit had been the stem cells for that song. And then again… maybe he already knew?

Claudia Nygaard, 2020


"Donald And Lydia"

Small town, bright lights, Saturday night,
Pinballs and pool halls flashing their lights.
Making change behind the counter in a penny arcade
Sat the fat girl daughter of Virginia and Ray

Lydia
Lydia hid her thoughts like a cat
Behind her small eyes sunk deep in her fat.
She read romance magazines up in her room
And felt just like Sunday on Saturday afternoon.

But dreaming just comes natural
Like the first breath from a baby,
Like sunshine feeding daisies,
Like the love hidden deep in your heart.

Bunk beds, shaved heads, Saturday night,
A warehouse of strangers with sixty watt lights.
Staring through the ceiling, just wanting to be
Lay one of too many, a young PFC:

Donald
There were spaces between Donald and whatever he said.
Strangers had forced him to live in his head.
He envisioned the details of romantic scenes
After midnight in the stillness of the barracks latrine.

But dreaming just comes natural
Like the first breath from a baby,
Like sunshine feeding daisies,
Like the love hidden deep in your heart.

Hot love, cold love, no love at all.
A portrait of guilt is hung on the wall.
Nothing is wrong, nothing is right.
Donald and Lydia made love that night.

Love
They made love in the mountains, they made love in the streams,
They made love in the valleys, they made love in their dreams.
But when they were finished there was nothing to say,
'Cause mostly they made love from ten miles away.

But dreaming just comes natural
Like the first breath from a baby,
Like sunshine feeding daisies,
Like the love hidden deep in your heart.