The duo returns with their 17th album that features a familiar laidback musical interplay with vocals and mandolin featured on every track. The joyful intensity of the songs highlights the duo’s musical abilities and Americana and Bluegrass vibes.

 

Initially when we went into the studio we recorded all the tracks as the duo: mandolin, guitar, bass and vocals. After this, Paul Mertens was able to, in a very masterful way, massage the tracks with various keyboard and horn arrangements, background vocals, percussion and even the jaw harp. Once Paul had laid down his enhancements, we were able to huddle around the project deciding who to outsource as our side men and what instruments to continue with. We were not sure what it would be like tracking and then having a drummer track after the fact, but we are thrilled with Paul’s choice of his old bandmate Ryan Murphy from Poi Dog Pondering and his ability to create a feel on these tracks that will seem to the audience like he was actually in the initial performances. One thing that we wanted to make sure on this album was that the mandolin would be heard on almost every track. Our last album didn’t have that presence and so we deliberately tried to create mandolin-centric tunes. Also, we really worked at creating short pieces for this, and most of the songs will come in under three minutes. That was deliberate song writing on our part, to see just how much we could express lyrically and sonically within a brief timeframe.