Album Notes

CARRIE AND MICHAEL KLINE:
COUNTRY HARMONY ON GUITAR AND VOICE
www.folktalk.org; 301-737-7712

“Their sweet, tight harmonies are a scintillating meshing of the American folk tradition.”

These soulful singers are preoccupied with West Virginia songs, from the ancient ballads of the Hammons Family in the central highlands to mining laments and songs of resistance in the coal fields. As two people absorbed in the study of oral tradition, they spend time with old-time singers and tellers winding out their lives in remote corners of the country.

They weave their sweet, tight high mountain harmonies into love ballads and country duets, especially the poignant imagery of Kate Wolf and Laurie Lewis.

The Klines present their music, both as entertainment and social history, with engaging ease and hard-hitting passion. Their memorable style is an amalgamation of primary musical and oral sources representative of places like the Appalachian coal fields and industrial cities of the American Heartland.

Singing to audiences of all ages, the Klines perform in a variety of situations, from classrooms to prisons, from coffee houses and concert halls to porches and picket lines.

The Klines are often joined by Bill Gorby, Peach Hampton and Bruce Betler. A singer/bass player and stand up comic, Bill Gorby enjoys a great following as "Big Bill Dup" in an eastern Ohio band, Big Bill Dup and the Let Downs. Peach Hampton is noted throughout the Ohio River Valley for his mellifluous riffs that clothe vocals with his fluid mandolin and lead guitar breaks. Bruce Betler, a native of the Swiss community of Helvetia, West Virginia, is as likely to break out into a spellbinding yodel as to interject a sweet mandolin break, add a close penetrating vocal harmony, or pull out his fiddle for a lively dance tune.