Album Notes

Steve Palazzo and Laura Smith have been singing and playing together whenever possible since they met in 2000 at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop. Both of them had played for decades previous to their meeting, and since they live a long way from each other they both continue to play with other musicians.

Steve has been a dulcimer maker and a guitar maker (with the Santa Cruz Guitar Company) and now teaches guitar full time. He is an awesome guitar teacher! He also plays in the Bluegrass Band, Homefire, and lives in Santa Cruz, California.

Laura has taught at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop for 25 years and also teaches at the American Banjo Camp at Fort Flagler, Washington. For over 20 years her day job has been as a public school teacher. Her school now operates within a Dual Language model. Laura lives in Bellingham, Washington, although she is originally from Hawaii.

Both Steve and Laura have been devotees of traditional American Music for decades, covering old time, bluegrass and folk genres as well as fiddle tunes. Steve is a top-notch guitar player, both in flat picking and finger picking styles, and he knows hundreds of songs. Laura plays guitar, but she especially loves the old-time banjo, on which she plays tunes as well as accompanies herself on the hundreds of songs in her repertoire.

Playing with each other has been a highlight from the very first word of the very first song they sang together (it was “Rose of My Heart”). They have a very special blend in their voices, and the songs and tunes they choose are all their favorites. Many of their songs come from the Carter Family and the brother duets of the 1930s – 1960s. Their CD, Like Strangers, reflects these musical bonds. Five of the sixteen cuts are instrumentals, and eleven are songs.



“A musical match of the highest order . . . This is easily the best old-timey album I’ve heard in years!” -Meryl Korn, Portland Folklore Society Newsletter