Album Notes

Jaguar at Half Moon Lake is a synthesis of world beat, funk, and folk music featuring Indie-award winning Dean Magraw on acoustic guitar and Alan Dworsky on conga drums.

Magraw's sparkling guitar patterns on 'Festival' float nimbly above Dworsky's organic cong beat, conjuring up a sunny outdoor market during the Caribbean's Goombay Sumer. 'Molly Dugan'is a verdant green jaunt through the Irish countryside where you get to see small cottages, laughing children, and perhaps the lovely, raven-haired lass of the song's title. The moody, 'Rose Dance'features ethereal vocals from Dworsky's sister, Sally Dworsky (who's played with Peter Gabriel and R.E.M), as well as some amazing, fleet-fingered African drum solos from Congolese master, Coster Massamba. The staccato funk of James Brown is the inspiration for the rhythmically precise, 'Scratch it.' The party concludes with 'Arms of Family,' a gentle paen to the richness of an extended family, with lyrics (written by Dworsky and his wife, Betsy Sansby) that glow with hope for future generations and include an improvised narrative by their eight-year old daughter, Molly.

Throughout Jaguar, the duo is backed by a band of first class musicians that includes: percussionists Marc Anderson, Jorge Bermudez, and Scott Sansby, bassist Jim Anton, and Dworsky's brother Richard, who is the pianist and musical director of Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion."