Album Notes

Two highly original songwriters whose yin and yang make for lively listening have called upon superb West Coast and Chicago acoustic musicians to fashion an all-originals, upbeat recording. Larry and Nicole have brought the vaudeville style of Chicago folk -- using humor and a wild assortment of styles from Cajun through polka music and trad folk -- to the mild climes and laid-back music of the West Coast. Contributors include Bryan Bowers, a dean of US autoharp players; Bill Barrett, maestro of both the chromatic and diatonic harmonica and much in demand as an LA sideman; Bill Bell, California fiddler extraordinaire and veteran of the Celtic music campaigns, and Rick Veras, mandolinist and fiddler who brings his Rabelaisian riffs from Chitown. The result is "Deep-dish Folk," upbeat music with all the gusto of a Chicago pizza. Tracks were recorded at Ideawerks Studio (Dave Wohl, producer; Jon Wohl, engineer and mastering) in a Rhode Island house built in 1753, three years before Mozart was born and some of Larry's jokes were written... Speaking of history, Larry played an early 1950's Martin 00018 and a 1927 Vega banjo, and Nicole used Dave's beautiful 1962 Gibson Hummingbird and custom-built mountain dulcimer.