Carla Sciaky joins KGNU DJ Meredith Carson to discuss her music career, reflecting on her time in her band Propinquity, growing up and how music shaped her life, as well as her time teaching.Sciaky also shares details about her new album Heart of the Swan and upcoming performances, including shows with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado and at the South Florida Folk Festival. (interview date: 12/20/2024)
Meredith Carson: And talk about “she is something else.” We have something else herself in the studio with us this morning—Carla Sciaky!
Carla Sciaky: I’ve never been introduced that way, Meredith.
Meredith Carson: There aren’t many people as rare as you, Carla. You and Pixie are a couple of them. If you’ve never heard Pixie and the Partygrass Boys, make an effort next time they’re in the area. They’re fabulous, and they don’t just play bluegrass, which is important to me. I have a fear of banjo—it’s…
Carla Sciaky: Oh, you poor thing, I know.
Meredith Carson: It’s very sad, especially in an area like this where bluegrass is so enormous. You’ve managed to get away without playing a lot of bluegrass in your career, your long career.
Carla Sciaky: Yeah, it’s true. I grew up on it though. My dad, it was my dad’s first or second love, old-timey and bluegrass.
Meredith Carson: His second language, right?
Carla Sciaky: Just about, yeah.
Meredith Carson: That’s so cool. Was there active musicianship in your house? Did you and your dad sit around and play? Did he teach you or sing at home?
Carla Sciaky: My dad took banjo lessons. In fact, I’ll put a little query out there. My dad took lessons from a guy named John Allison, probably around 1968, ’69 maybe? ‘68, I think. My dad then said to me, “Hey, do you want guitar lessons from John?” And so, John Allison is really the guy that got me started into the Travis pick and how to use my fingerpicking, and that’s what got me, it really catapulted my playing. I’d love to find the guy and thank him. And it’s not the John Allison who builds guitars. But sadly, my dad had a lot of trouble with rhythm, so it was cringy listening to him practice because the next note didn’t ever come at the right time, but he loved it.
Meredith Carson: Some people are really sort of rhythm Demagogues, and insist on things and other people just have a looser approach.
Carla Sciaky: It was pretty loose. Yeah, he struggled but… Yeah
Meredith Carson: So, you grew up in this area?
Carla Sciaky: I grew up mostly in Boulder. My family moved here when I was five from Brooklyn, New York where I had a, I said things like long and, yeah. But it got “cultured out” of me in Boulder. Yeah. So I grew up here from the age of five.
Meredith Carson: Yeha. That’s cool. And then, when did you start deciding you were gonna be a professional musician and teach and all those things?
Carla Sciaky: I never, I, it was not in my head I was gonna be an elementary school teacher, like my mom and but then in high school I auditioned to get into this folk music club. And then we performed and we made a record, and then Mel Stonebraker was in the group, and he and I did a gig in the fall of 1970, at a rally where George McGovern was appearing.
Meredith Carson: I was probably at that rally!
Carla Sciaky: It was in Denver. Yeah, it was a big deal. We sang, and we were hired to sing five songs. And that changed my life. That became Propinquity, which was my first band. And I think the album, we made an album and I think it’s here at KGNU.
Meredith Carson: I think so!
Carla Sciaky: Yeah, it launched my career. I tried to be an elementary school teacher. I went back to college and I tried to get a real job and it kept just not working
Meredith Carson: Music had you in its clutches.
Carla Sciaky: Yeah.
Meredith Carson: And then for a long time though, didn’t you teach at Swallow Hill?
Carla Sciaky: I did, yeah. And then I became a certified Suzuki violin teacher. And I loved that. That just, that brought everything together.
Meredith Carson: My niece took that, and now she’s at the New Mexico High School for the Arts.
Carla Sciaky: Dr. Suzuki was a genius. It was fantastic. But it isn’t, you know, it’s not where my heart is, Meredith. The teaching has moved now into being a mentor and coach for people. mentoring and coaching. Coming out of my years of, I left my solo career almost 30 years ago. And, it was a dark night of the soul for some stretch of time and now I bring that wisdom that I gained working through my own recovery into, along with music, into my coaching and teaching people.
Meredith Carson: You’ve circles back
Carla Sciaky: Yeah, so now it’s much more whole and full than it was before because, I’m all in it instead of just seeking approval and trying to be acceptable
Meredith Carson: Yeah and you know what your strengths are. We’re older.
Carla Sciaky: Yeah, it is somewhat the gift of age, isn’t it?.
Meredith Carson: It is such a gift. I’ve been saying since I was in my 40s, I don’t want to be any younger. You couldn’t pay me. I don’t want to go back to any of those decades. No, it’s wonderful. I will never claim wisdom, but I will claim perspective.
Carla Sciaky: I won’t claim wisdom either, but I’ll claim wisdom over where I was. I’ve got more than I had.
Meredith Carson: That’s a beautiful thing. You have a brand new album out, with a gorgeous piece of art on the cover. That’s you reaching out to a swan in this beautiful lakey pondy thing.
Carla Sciaky: Yes, it’s a pastel painting made by our younger child Rafa. Both of my kids, Chloe and Rafa Prendergast, are on the album. And some other names that you’ll recognize, I’m sure.
Meredith Carson: Shall we take a look?
Carla Sciaky: Sure!
Meredith Carson: But, while I have a look, would you play a song? In fact, why don’t you just play two? Play a couple.
Carla Sciaky: Sure! I’m gonna start with a song that I co-wrote with Celeste Krenz and it’s called Mrs. Carlton. We wrote it about this fictitious woman that you and I know well, Meredith. There’s so many women like this, who need it to look good on the outside, but inside they’re broken, or breaking.
Meredith Carson: Not only women. Men as well. It’s really true.
Carla Sciaky: It’s really true. There’s a certain kind of getting the makeup perfect that is the women part of it. So here’s Mrs. Carlton.
[Carla Sciaky plays Mrs. Carlton]
Meredith Carson: That’s so beautiful. It’s so right on. It’s just a heartbreaking song.
Carla Sciaky: Thank you.
Meredith Carson: And, Celeste lives in Nashville now, and while that person certainly exists in Colorado, that person really lives in Nashville and some of those southern towns where all of that sort of, still from the 50s and 60s emphasis on makeup perfection. That’s a beauty. That is included on Carla Sciaky’s new album, Heart of the Swan. May we have another?
Carla Sciaky: Sure! I’ll sing a song by David Mallet. He passed away this week. This is not like a well known song oh his. Everyone knows Inches and Miles or Garden Song. But this is a song, for many years, I was singing at Swedish Hospital once a month for their healing service and non denominational. And was put on by Dr. Ed Aronson who is a neurosurgeon at the hospital who realized that people need nourishment, spiritually and emotionally and so he called me in and he would read poetry and I would sing songs. And then he started making modern art paintings so he left Swedish Hospital and moved out of the country. Anyway, I used to sing this song that David Mallet wrote. It’s called Hope for One and All. And thank you, David, for everything that you gave the world.
[Carla Sciaky plays Hope for One and All]
Meredith Carson: Carla Sciaky live in the KGNU studios with David Mallet’s song Hope for One and All. Man, that;s a tune we need right now. We need Dave too, but he can help us in other ways. Wonderful song. You have a brand new CD out, Heart of the Swan. You’re gonna be singing some stuff from this tonight in your show at the Dairy with Martin Gilmore and Danny Schafer and Ingrid Everson.
Carla Sciaky: Definitely. It’s cool to get back in the songwriter’s circle again
Meredith Carson: What time does the show start?
Carla Sciaky: I believe it’s at 7:30, though it may be sold out. People can check.
Meredith Carson: Okay, and you know, sometimes people don’t show up—yeah.
Carla Sciaky: For sure.
Meredith Carson: Give back their tickets and that kind of stuff. So if you’d really like to see these four excellent, fabulous, lovely songwriters. I’ve worked with all four of you and I’ve known you the longest, though.
Carla Sciaky: Yeah, I think I’m the longest.
Meredith Carson: So you’re the one on the radio. This is great. Do you have other musical endeavors coming up?
Carla Sciaky: I don’t have anything set until a concert in April, actually, as a songwriter. But I’m going to the South Florida Folk Festival at the end of January to sing. And I’m also in a Baroque orchestra, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, and we’re doing a concert in February and one in March.
Meredith Carson: Okay, so those are local?
Carla Sciaky: Yes, those are local.
Meredith Carson: Tell us about those, too, because we tried to get you on before your concert with the orchestra, and then, oops, I broke my leg.
Carla Sciaky: Oops, you broke your leg, yeah. That’s right. I’m really glad to see you upright and walking.
Meredith Carson: Yeah, thank you so much.
Carla Sciaky: Yeah, so the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, we generally have a concert almost every month. I think we don’t have one in December. People can go to the website for that, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado.Yeah, they’ll find it there. And Dan, my husband, is sitting right next to me. He’s great at updating my calendar. So people can go to CarlaSciaky.com for it. We have some other concerts coming up; we just haven’t secured all the dates yet.
Meredith Carson: Okay, cool.
Carla Sciaky: Yeah.
Meredith Carson: Great. All right, so Carla Sciaky—S-C-I-A-K-Y.
Carla Sciaky: When I was three, I’d listen to my mom spell it on the phone, and I learned it, S-C-I-A-K-Y.
Meredith Carson: Aww, that’s cute.
Carla Sciaky: Yeah, and I said, “Mommy, it… but I didn’t know the word for ‘rhyme.’”
Meredith Carson: That sounds the same!
Carla Sciaky: Yeah, it sounds the same.
Meredith Carson: That’s pretty cute for a three-year-old. My granddaughter just turned three this week, and I’m leaving this afternoon to go spend Christmas with them. It’s such a precious age. I bet you were an adorable three-year-old.
Carla Sciaky: Of course, I was.
Meredith Carson: And, of course, excruciatingly bright.
Carla Sciaky: And precocious. And I had a Brooklyn accent.
Meredith Carson: You got me with that one. How about singing another song?
Carla Sciaky: Okay. I’m going to sing this one. This is another nod to the people we’ve lost in the last couple of years. Boy, we’ve lost a lot. This is a song I learned from Pete Sutherland. Pete was the producer of three of my albums back in the 90s. Remember that whole other century? I do. And Pete passed away a couple of years ago. So, I learned this song, and it’s another hopeful one. I used to sing this at the healing service as well.
This is “Stanzas from the Psalm of Life,” written by Longfellow. Apparently, Longfellow was teaching a class at Harvard on Goethe, and he was so overcome with inspiration that he wrote this poem, Psalm of Life. It’s a very long poem—you can find it online or in a poetry collection. Lotus Dickey, do you remember him?
Meredith Carson: Of course, yeah.
Carla Sciaky: Lotus took three of the verses and turned them into a song, connecting it with a traditional tune. I went back to the poem because the song was too short, and I added one more verse. So, here it is—Psalm of Life.
[Carla Sciaky plays Psalm of Life]
Meredith Carson: Carla Sciaky live in the KGNU studios. You’re listening to KGNU FM 88.5 Denver, KGNU 1390 Denver, KGNU FM 88.5 Boulder. Thank you so much for coming in this morning, Carla. Are you going back to Denver and then coming back for the show? You’re going to have lunch and take a little walk?
Carla Sciaky: Yeah, I never spend much time in Boulder, so here I am.
Meredith Carson: I’ve loved coming up here most Friday mornings for the last several decades. I think I have more regular miles on my car between here and my house than anywhere else.
Carla Sciaky: Probably true.
Meredith Carson: What a privilege it is to have KGNU in our community and to be able to bring the music that we love and share it with people.
Carla Sciaky: I think my band, Propinquity, did an interview at KGNU when it was above some restaurant in downtown.
Meredith Carson: The Aristocrat.
Carla Sciaky: Yeah! We were crammed into this tiny room, and we did an interview there. Had to be around 1972 or something.
Meredith Carson: And they were there through the early 80s, then we had that place on Folsom, and now we’re moving again. Yeah, they bought that building—it has a performance space. It’s going to be super cool.
Carla Sciaky: Wow, that sounds exciting!
Meredith Carson: Yeah, it’s going to be very cool. Carla Sciaky, CarlaSciaky.com, for those of you who’d like to keep up with Carla. Thanks so much for coming by and dragging Dan along. It’s great to see you both.
Carla Sciaky: It’s great to see you too.
Meredith Carson: I never get to see you all! And say hello to your girls.
Carla Sciaky: I will!
Meredith Carson: Great. All right.