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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels December 10, 2003 The alluring sounds of the saw By Susan DeRosia Ashland Daily Tidings In the summer of 1944, Nancy Spencer was 18 years old and working in a defense plant. The way she remembers it, there wasn't a lot to do that summer in Wauwatosa, Wisc. where she lived. One day a man named George Nixon came through the neighborhood, visiting with people across the street. He played the saw. Spencer was immediately captivated by the sound of the music he made. Mother and daughter team Nancy Spencer (right) and Lisa Spencer combine song and saw music for a concert Saturday at the Bellview Grange. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings "That was the only time I ever saw him," she recalls. She went home, took her father's saw from the workbench in the garage, got the bow from her violin and started playing. The haunting, mellifluous sound was not unfamiliar. She had gone to a concert in high school where a theremin was played. It was a large concert hall and she couldn't see the instrument or how it was played, but the ethereal sound stayed with her. When she heard the saw played, she was immediately smitten. A flute player from the age of 10, Spencer soon became adept at handling the unlikely instrument, holding it between her legs and with one hand holding the small end, bending the blade to form an S-curve and bowing it lightly. She played popular music and classical music, especially opera arias. The following September, Spencer brought her saw to college with her. While studying English and the history of music, she and her friends formed a group. "There was a very popular show, Phil Spitalny and his Hour of Charm, featuring his 'all-girl orchestra with Evelyn and her magic violin.' We called our group, Full Spittoon and His Hour of Harm. I was 'Nancy and her magic saw.' We entertained at parties. We also had a shower hose, played in a French horn case, toilet paper/comb, and a piano to hold it all together," she said. While in school Spencer continued to study classical and early music, adding the recorder to her list of instruments. Spencer finished college, married and began a family. Her husband had earned a Ph.D. and in 1963, they moved with their four children to Corvallis, where he taught history of science at Oregon State University. In Corvallis, she played with the orchestra and chamber music groups and taught flute and recorder lessons. In 1974, another musical epiphany came when an article about her saw-playing brought Spencer an invitation to play at the 1974 World's Fair in Spokane. It was during "wood week" as part of the Folk Life Fair. With her family's blessings, she went off to play saw seven hours a day, meeting dozens of folk musicians and becoming fast friends with organizer and folk legend U. Utah Phillips. "After that week, I was invited back two more times during the summer. It changed my life. I thought all life should be like a folk festival," she said. Right away, she started learning and singing folk music. When she returned home, she began to produce music concerts, first in Corvallis, then in Ashland, when she moved here in '83. Since then she's worked in folk music in many ways, including starting the folk music society, teaching music, hosting the folk show on JPR, appearing on "A Prairie Home Companion," and always, playing the flute, the saw, the recorder and the limberjack. Visualizing the sound When Spencer plays the saw in demonstrations in schools, she sometimes will perform the "sugar trick." First to play the saw, she holds the handle of the saw between her knees and puts an S-curve in it by pushing down with her thumb and pulling up with her fingers. "Then if you bow in the dip of the S-curve, that's where your fundamental is. If you get away from that, you get the harmonics. In the sugar trick, I'll put sugar on the surface of the saw and then if you bow the fundamental, the sugar forms two lines along the length of the saw, then when you play the first harmonic, you get two lines going across the saw. When you play the next harmonic, you get three longitudinal lines, then the next harmonic you get lines going across again and then if you still have sugar on the saw and play way down at the large end of the saw blade, which produces the high harmonic, you get four longitudinal lines." Fellow artists "It was a great trial as a teen to have a mom who plays the saw. It was just too odd. But now, it's a delight," said Lisa Spencer, who's been singing and playing guitar since the age of 15. By her early 20s Spencer realized what fun the two could have playing together. They've been playing ever since. On Saturday at 7 p.m. the singer/guitarist will join her mother, Nancy Spencer, and multi-folk instrumentalist Rick Meyers at the Bellevue Grange in an evening of all-ages contemporary and traditional folk music. Spencer is a part-time special education assistant at Bellevue School and a full-time mother. Like her mother, she has four children. Spencer has sung and played electric bass and with the all-woman rock 'n' roll band Blue Lightning for seven years - since her youngest daughter, Isabel, was 4 months old. For Lisa Spencer, the saw is a crowd-pleaser. "It's an unusual instrument. People can't believe how well you can play melodies. There's this haunting, ethereal quality that has them transfixed, enchanted and amused," said Spencer. At the concert, saw player Rick Meyers will join the Spencers playing harmonies on the saw and also singing harmony. Meyers is a traditional American music and dance instructor, performer and folklorist who plays mandolin, banjo, guitar, jewsharp, spoons, limberjack, ukelin, washboard and washtub bass. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams