Album Notes

Claudine is best known for her banjo, mandolin and vocal work with Touchstone, the highly acclaimed Irish-Appalachian fusion band based in Chapel Hill, NC, and featuring the Bothy Band’s Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill. Touchstone recorded two award-winning albums on Green Linnet records, The New Land and Jealousy. Claudine has spent time in Galway, Ireland, Cape Breton and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia learning the local music, and she currently performs with Gypsy Reel, who have recorded six CDs in Claudine’s Mount Hollywood Studio in Vermont and have been recipients of a National Endowment for the Arts award for touring artists.

Claudine maintains a musical connection with the traditional music of the maritime provinces of Canada, especially her father’s native Nova Scotia. She has been a guest singer at the Celtic Colours Festival in Cape Breton, and was featured on Brian O’Donovan’s Celtic Sojourns radio show in Boston. Claudine has led workshops at folk festivals in the US, Canada, and England, including the Gathering’s Celtic Week. She founded the Mount Holly Folk Club, a weekly gathering of singers and players in her Vermont community.

Victor is an award winning songwriter and photographer. He is also an artist and a music producer. Victor’s songs have a positive energy; they are about the belief that we come through life’s difficulties stronger and wiser for having made the journey. On The Door EP (The Burlage-Paul Band), released in 2009 and recorded with long-time friend Guy Burlage, that positive energy shines through on both "Heaven Is on Your Side" and "Acadia Highway." Acadia Highway features the great T-Bone Wolk (Hall & Oates, Saturday Night Live) on bass, accordion, and mandolin, and mixing by Julie Last (John Lennon, Joni Mitchell).

Victor’s 1993 River Dance CD celebrates the healing power of the natural world, a theme Victor often writes about. The CD featured Claudine as well as blues legend Sandra Wright. Other recordings by Victor include Love Me Tonight and Seabird Band. Seabird Band received radio airplay across the USA as well as in Australia and Japan. Their song "Don't Disguise" was a Hot Pick in Billboard Magazine.