Album Notes

Paul & Jody accolades from fans and clients:

“I sang along with most of the songs you played last night, and though I had heard them before, you made them sound fresh and new. There is an authenticity to your presentation that made me feel like I heard those great old songs again for the first time.“ - LINDA

“Jody, I listen to the CD several times a week because it has so many wonderful renditions of old stuff--- it's nostalgic and fresh, a great combination. My faves, though all are terrific - Wreck of the Six Wheeler and Rain and Snow. I've heard so many versions of the latter, including a great one in the parking lot in Galax, West Virginia in 1963 sung by Obray Ramsey.  Yours really holds up - your timing is so fine on that.” - NANCY

"We’ve been basking in the good feelings from last night’s house concert. A few people called and emailed today to say how much the enjoyed the music. Your playing is an inspiration to me, and it was so enjoyable to hear Paul.” - BETH & DAN
 
“Paul & Jody- Thank you SO MUCH for an incredible concert - I knew you’d be good, but I didn’t know how good!” - PENELOPE

"I have been enjoying your album so much that I play it on the 'repeat' setting and just let it go." (S.K.)

"Really lovely album, very tasteful, nicely conceived and executed." (V.M.)

Paul Friedman - fiddle
Jody Kruskal - Anglo concertina and vocals
with
Bill Peek - banjo and piano

This new recording presents a unique and memorable duo in a program of rarely heard American songs and tunes. Jody Kruskal (Anglo concertina and vocals) and Paul Friedman (fiddle) have been playing traditional music for more than 30 years in New York City and beyond.  

The songs tell American stories that are hilarious, gritty and true — stories of train wrecks and wrecked marriages, death-row convicts and lonesome lovers, heroes, losers, swaggering braggarts, and lazy slackers. The instrumental fiddle tunes hail from New York to California, from the Southern states on up to Quebec.

Jody sings passionate country vocals with playful wit and a hint of the blues. His Anglo concertina playing has a distinctly American sound. He pumps out rhythm with the bellows and delivers rich harmony and counterpoint. You might imagine a fistful of improvising harmonicas, but you're hearing just one squeezebox, powerfully played in a style quite different from that of English and Irish traditional music, where the Anglo is most popular today. Anglo concertinas once came through North American ports by the hundreds of thousands. Then they faded almost completely from the American scene, a generation before the beginnings of recorded music. Jody returns the Anglo to the company of the fiddle, banjo and guitar central to American old time music.

Paul plays fiddle in a direct, rhythmic, sensitive style. It’s the development of his decades of playing for dances ranging from contras and squares to Swedish, English country, Morris and sword. This is the fiddling of a musician who loves to dance and loves songs. Paul is one of a generation of old time musicians excited by the playing of North Carolina fiddler Tommy Jarrell. He visited Tommy. He listened, watched and learned. Paul also visited old timer Jehile Kirkhuff at his home in Pennsylvania. Paul still plays the fiddle tunes he learned in Jehile’s living room in the 1970s. You'll find two of those tunes recorded here.

Bill Peek adds variety and depth to four tracks with his expert piano and banjo playing. Together, these three veteran dance musicians present a vibrant new American album, offering up a fresh crop of old songs and tunes.

For information about bookings and sales, please contact Jody Kruskal at: www.jodykruskal.com