Claudia Nygaard

When Claudia Nygaard's high school guidance counselor called her into his office during her senior
year, he handed the former C student her report card filled with straight A's and said, "Claudia I think you
might be a late bloomer." Little did either of them know how true those words would still be decades later.
Once described by a concert promoter as "Will Rogers without the rope", Nygaard is an entertainer known for
her quick wit and an affable connection with her audience. She is an incredible… Show more storyteller, not just as a
songwriter, but also in the charming tales she spins between her songs. She earned that skill as she fought to
hold an audience's attention night after night and year after year in some dive bar, rowdy honky tonk, or noisy
fairground. That's also where Claudia learned how to sing. Her rich, warm alto has a resonance and power that
can't be found in younger vocal chords. It is a voice that has learned phrasing from Frank Sinatra, belting from
Janis Joplin, subtle nuance from Joni Mitchell, and breathing from an opera coach.
But as strong as Claudia Nygaard may be as an entertainer and singer, it is her love of writing that has kept her
going. After winning several songwriting competitions on the west coast, Claudia loaded everything she owned
into a U-Haul and made the move to Nashville, Tennessee. Landing a job as a staff songwriter on Music Row,
Nygaard felt as though she was on her way up until the manager who had signed her was let go, and the
company began to decline. Shortly after, Capitol Records developed an interest in her as an artist, and once
again she felt she was finally gaining ground until they decided that rather than sign new artists they needed to
slash their roster. She has had some up times too, winning the coveted Kerrville Folk Festival "New Folk"
songwriting competition, and being chosen an "Emerging Artist" at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, but there
have been plenty of times when the long road she has traveled has seemed all uphill and she has been
confronted with the choice to hang it up or go on. Each time, her passion for writing has made her choose to
go on. While her fans have never lost faith in her and she has always had the support of her peers, it is only
now, with the release of her new album "Let The Storm Roll In", that this "late bloomer" has finally achieved
that long overdue respect from radio and press.
And the respect has been impressive. A review from Maverick Magazine, a well-known roots music monthly
in the UK, gave the CD five stars, saying "What a find this is! There are twelve real stunners here...impossible
to pick a favourite..." No Depression, an equally significant roots magazine in the United States had this to
say: "the immigration saga that accompanies "Big Country" and the naivet

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