Album Notes

Northern California modern folk musicians Paul Kamm and Eleanore MacDonald have performed together for 22+ years, making the rounds on the national folk circuit for almost as long, garnering critical acclaim for their recordings as well as their performances wherever they go...

They tour regionally, nationwide and perform in Europe when their travels take them there - and there certainly have been times they've come home with empty pockets, but rich with new friends, new experiences and raw material for yet more new songs -
Because of current events in recent years they have found themselves devoted to activism for the causes of peace and justice, and much of their more recent music reflects this effort, in their own gentle yet persuasive style of combination of storytelling, luscious melody and haunting harmony - although songs pertinent to life's struggles, man's inhumanity to man and the abomination of war have always seemed to sneak their way into each recording they have made.

'Like Water', is a culmination of how the two feel about life, love and worlds' events as they stand today. Most of the songs on this CD are penned by Kamm as usual, although several have been co-written by MacDonald - who recently has taken a more active role in the creation of the songs. There are also 2 songs on board written by raconteur and historian Utah Phillips... one is a story about conscientious objectors in the second World War, which he handed as a poem to Kamm & MacDonald while sharing a concert stage with them, imploring them to write the music for it, and the other a well known and loved song, 'Starlight on the Rails'... also the title track of the new 4 disk CD 'songbook' recently released by Phillips.


Their music has been heard on Democracy Now!, satellite stations Dish Net's Acoustic Crossroads and the Sirius network, has been used for PBS programs (CA. Heartland and Visionaries') and their song 'Josephine' (their answer to the atrocities of 9-11 and all that has fallen around them since) was used at ground zero in NYC, in a multimedia presentation in tribute to the event's victims, on 9-11 2002, as well as on countless NPR, internet and community radio stations worldwide.

Their first album was recorded in 1986 on a whim in a friend's garage studio in Nevada City, CA - on a 4-track cassette tape deck with whatever microphones they could find. Their friend Mikail Graham helped them with the mixing and mastering process in his own, then fledgling, home studio and with the combined efforts of the 3, a cassette called 'Game of Dances' was born. Graham, now having worked with the duo on all of their recordings as well as on stage with them as a guitarist in their local and festival performances, has been right alongside them throughout the years. Kamm and MacDonald always consider Graham to be as important a part of the whole project as the songs and recording process are themselves.