Finding Inspiration and Overcoming Writer's Block

By now, Nancy Atlas needs no introduction, but I'm going to do it anyway. It's possible a listener might've been living under a rock for the past 25 years, or maybe they live far away. For anyone who's spent more than a week or two on the east end, though, it'd be pretty hard to avoid Nancy Atlas. And even though you might see her on Friday at the Talkhouse, Sunday at Gurney's and Wednesday at the Surf Lodge, you will not have seen the same show. As I learned in this episode with her, Nancy walks on stage with a set list. And then it goes out the window. Reading the room, reading her feelings, the events of the day or week, and she may not play another song off that list the rest of the night. These and other bits of knowledge about her practices in her performances, her songwriting, her child rearing and community involvement all come to light in this freewheeling conversation about so many of the things that are important to her and what makes living in Montauk so very, very special.