Album Notes

He's a sucker for lace. She's a sucker for stubble. He can't resist a pretty face, and she never could say no to trouble. And that's how Megan Jean and Byrne Klay came to find one another, form a family of two, and call it their family band.

Born to free spirited musicians, Megan Jean grew up with melodies in her heart and a guitar in her hand, in a small town just outside Seattle. Byrne Klay grew up 3,000 miles away in New York State spending endless afternoons in the library absorbing as much music as he could get his hands on from Charles Mingus to ancient church music. He went on to study upright and electric bass at Oberlin Conservatory and the New School in New York, and in the process, traveled the world with a variety of musical acts and genres. Megan Jean learned to play guitar from her singer/songwriter mother, and her father, an accomplished bluegrass and blues flatpicker. She grew up listening to her mother's original country songs, Dolly Parton, John Prine, and Neil Young.

Upon moving to New York in 2001 to study at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, she began utilizing her informal training to compose songs of her own. She played the New York acoustic circuit for three years solo before meeting Byrne Klay in a smoky New York nightclub. By both accounts, that was the night they would each meet their match. Sharing musical influences ranging from Robert Johnson and the early 20th century blues men, to the traveling family bands of the Depression-era, to Hank Williams and the Golden Age of American country music, the two began collaborating on a body of work they identify as young-blood, old-soul Americana. The combination of Megan Jean's theatrical songwriting and Byrne's extensive musical know-how and discipline has produced a collection of music that both celebrates and challenges American life by using universal human themes, vivid storytelling, and haunting melodies.