Rick Libert and Andy Buck began singing together in
Rick's basement after discovering an old Weavers
album. Since 1995, they have performed as Rick & Andy
at the People's Voice Café, Dixon Place, the Baggot Inn, Back Fence, Sun Music Company, Rose's Turn, and other venues. They have been featured on Oscar Brand's long-running WNYC radio program FOLK SONG FESTIVAL and -- for Manhattan cable television -- Joel Landy's SONGS OF FREEDOM and Andy Humm and Ann Northrop's GAY USA. Onstage, they have been guests in Jeff Weiss's Obie-winning serial musical HOT KEYS.
GOING PLACES is their first CD, featuring Rick and
Andy on vocals, Rick on six- and twelve-string guitar,
and Andy on recorder. On some of the songs, Sharon Abreu plays fiddle, Barry Mitterhoff (who recently finished touring with Hot Tuna) plays mandolin, and Barry Kornhauser plays bass. The CD was co-produced by fellow folk artist Ray Korona -- whose politically charged CDs are also available on CD Baby.
GOING PLACES is a collection of original and other
favorite songs taken from Rick & Andy's sparkling set
lists. Opening the CD is their own arrangement of
Randy Spark's "Today," which Rick recalled from his
elementary school music classes, and which showcases
the exquisite harmonies that typify these two guys.
(Having been compared to both the Everly Brothers and
Simon and Garfunkel, it has been said that their
harmonies are so tight that you can't always tell
which one is singing which part.) "Waltzing with
Bears" is one of their favorite songs for children (of
all ages!), and was featured in an off-off-Broadway
production called GRAND CENTRAL STORIES, in which Rick
& Andy appeared as a pair of street musicians.
"Just Over in the Glory Land" and "This World Is Not
My Home" are two of the traditional, bluegrass gospel
songs that Rick & Andy often perform in church and
around town. "Walk Away" is one of Rick's brooding
originals, and when he laments, "I don't know where
I'm going to," he's singing about everything from his
fragile relationships to his (and maybe our) lifestyle
choices. "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other" is a guaranteed crowd pleaser that dares to ask the age-old musical question, "what did you think those saddles and boots was about?"
Rick & Andy's take on "Wild Mountain Thyme" follows an
arrangement they heard performed in a Renaissance
Fair, and features Andy's full Irish tenor,
supplemented by Rick's harmony. The title cut "Going
Places" is Rick's anthemic vision of what the world
will be once homophobia is vanquished, and when he
sings "Come out, come out!" and "We'll never be mistaken for a scarecrow on a fence," his vision is infectious. "Till the Sun" is another of Rick's beatiful ballads, featuring Andy on lead vocals.
Andy's mom gets into the act on "Psalm 147," which she
adapted from the King James version of the Bible and
set to a familiar old tune about the sinking of the
Titanic. "Family Values," a collaboration between
Rick and Andy, has been called, somewhat rightly, an
angry song -- anger initially over Bill Clinton's
sleight of hand in giving us the Defense of Marriage
Act, and more recently over the spawn of similar gay
bashing on the part of Republicans (and others) in the
name of the fictitious "traditional family."
Softening the mood somewhat is Rick's "All is Well,"
his oldest song on this CD, having been written in the
mid-1970's in Indiana and initially recorded on an old
reel-to-reel recorder, a microphone taped onto a stick
close to Rick's mouth as he strummed his Martin
12-string. The song is a striking contrast between
some really disturbing imagery, on the one hand, and
the soothing, reassuring refrain "all is well" on the
other hand. Next is the only direct homage to the
Weavers on this CD, a cover of "Gotta Travel On,"
which has always been Rick & Andy's favorite song in
that group's repertoire. Finishing off the CD
(although we all know that artists sometimes include
"hidden tracks"!), just as Rick & Andy typically finish
off their live performances: Rick's gentle lullaby
"Wings of Peace," with its seductive "sleep, sleep,
sleep."
But nobody sleeps during a Rick & Andy set -- and you
won't be sleeping during GOING PLACES, either. This
is one exciting CD from two really talented guys, who
don't mind that they don't happen to sound like
everything (or anything) else on the radio.
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