"Songs that rival the likes of Guy Clark or Ian Tyson"
Sing Out Magazine
Claudia Nygaard is the daughter of a California rancher and his city slicker wife. Growing up believing that cowgirl boots are appropriate footwear under a ball gown, she straddled the fence between ranching and urban life in comfort. So it is not surprising that her music with it's roots in the adobe clay of the San Joaquin Valley, should marry with lyrics that tell stories about TV western heroines, wide open spaces, well loved horses and even better loved cowboys. Delivered by a powerful yet sensual alto voice, her riveting storytelling is unabashedly intimate, often irreverent, frequently incisive, and sometimes joyously silly.
Nygaard is currently recording an album called "To Race The Wind", which will be released in 2023. The project is a western flavored collection of songs, significantly influenced by ranch life in the 1960s. Her songs are in the storytelling tradition of Ian Tyson.
Formerly a salaried staff songwriter on Nashville’s Music Row, Nygaard learned her craft well. Her last CD "Lucky Girl" rose to #5 on the Folk Alliance Radio Chart. The title cut rose to #3 on the song chart, and was chosen the winner of the Tumbleweed Music Festival Songwriting Competition. Reviewers loved the album, with Goldmine magazine claiming "Any one of these songs could emerge as a country standard."
Her previous album “Let The Storm Roll In” rose to #1 on the Cashbox Roots/Country chart and #8 on the Folk DJ chart with EVERY song receiving airplay. “Storm” was also highly praised by the press. It received five stars from Americana benchmark “Maverick” magazine, and legendary folk music magazine “Sing Out” claimed the songs “rival the likes of Guy Clark or Ian Tyson”. Two of the songs on the album, "Georgia Boy" and "J.C.", won the Kerrville Folk Festival Songwriting Competition.
Claudia tours tirelessly, and has torn up the highways of all 50 states and nine foreign countries. She has appeared at over 200 fairs & festivals, including The Durango Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the Cimarron Cowboy Music & Poetry Gathering, and the Cochise Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering. At the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in New York this year she was chosen an “Emerging Artist”. Endorsements from merchandisers attest to her strength as a guitarist, and she accompanies herself in performance on a Tacoma Jumbo acoustic guitar, an Eastman hollow body archtop electric, and her tiny but bravado-drenched ukulele.
Claudia is available solo, as a duo with Jim Jones ( winner of Western Music Association's Male Performer of the Year and Song Of The Year), and as a trio called "Women Of The West" featuring a rotating roster of Western Music's best female artists!
LIvestream show Jan 2021
REVIEWS...
"The immigration saga that accompanies “Big Country” and the naiveté of youth recalled in “J.C.” are relayed from both a tender and touching perspective. Yet Nygaard’s also got a scrappy side to her as well. Her sympathetic homage to Miss Kitty of TV’s “Gunsmoke” fame is absolutely hilarious and her plea to a reticent lover in the song simply titled “Say It” conveys both desperation and desire without resorting to self-pity. Nygaard is a knowing soul and Let The Storm Roll In offers a torrent of wisdom and reflection."
Lee Zimmerman, No Depression
And then, there’s the matter of her songs-- that rival the likes of Guy Clark or Ian Tyson in their plainspoken, memoir-like quality, rich with personalized images and a resonant point-of-view.” Gary Von Tersch, Sing Out Magazine
"Self-produced, with hand-selected songs from her vast catalog, Nygaard may have quite accidentally created and released one of the finest singer/songwriter/storyteller collections in recent memory... 'His Left Side' is utterly brilliant." Wildy Haskell, Wildy's World
Claudia Nygaard turns back the clock to black and white television’s longest running unrequited love, telling the tale of “Miss Kitty” and those damn cold out door showers the lady had to take while courting Marshall Dillon in Gunsmoke. Claudia spins her tales out across acoustics with a country heart. Her voice weaves in and out of the emotions of her characters as diner clatter fades under the beating of two hearts (“What’s Cookin’”), the scent of roses fills the air with painful memories (“Twelve Little Red Heartaches”) and the sound of a pipe whistle leads immigrants to a new shore and life (“Big Country”). With a voice that wiggles into narrow spaces, Claudia Nygaard opens up and lets in a lot of love and hope.” Alternate Root
“I have not enjoyed any ‘Evenings With The Songwriter’ as much as this. This elegant lady has so much class she wears her radiant smile as casually as the manure on her boots. Her songs come from the heart, with the help of a watchful eye, and a mindful soul.”
Fletcher Clark, Evenings With The Songwriter”, Lockhart, TX
This livestream show features the songs that were inspired by growing up the daughter of a Hereford breeder in California's San Joaquin Valley. (60 min show)
