Bio
Nancy Sferra is a multi-instrumentalist living in midcoast Maine. She discovered a love of songwriting and the community around music and songwriting, particularly strong in Maine. Her inspiration for song lyrics comes from found poems – snatches of overhead conversation, notes from a discarded journal, objects, lines from books or other texts, and photographs. For instance, her song “A Cat is a Haunt in My Lap” originated from a diary left in an abandoned house. Around these images and ideas, she builds stories into her lyrics. In the spirit of Lucinda Williams, the specific acts and objects of daily life serve symbolically to lend her songs a poetic and philosophical context. The story inspires the mood and melody of the song and she experiments with instrumentation to complement the moods and undertones of the song’s narrative. Her songs are often focus on the working class, day to day struggles, and the simple life inspired by rural Maine. While she deals with serious subject matter, many of her songs are whimsical or have a comedic element.
Nancy was a finalist in the 2012 New England Songwriting Contest with her song, “The Line.” She placed fourth in the 2013 contest with her song "Brash." She is a board member of the Maine Songwriters Association, which supports the art of songwriting in Maine, and recognizes the work of emerging singer-songwriters. She recorded and produced her first CD, Smoke and Bone, in 2013 and released her second CD Hardened Ground in 2016. Her third CD, Walking Down the Grain, is scheduled for release in 2020.