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Cletus Kennelly & Lori Kelley

http://www.lorikelley.com/LKandCK.html

Award-winning singer-songwriters as solo artists, Cletus Kennelly & Lori Kelley combined their artistries into a duo, developing a style and a sense for each other’s voices that is magical.  “I haven’t heard harmonies this tight since Simon & Garfunkel” (Gene Dawson, Dawson Concerts).  Their work has earned them 26 WAMMIE nominations and seven WAMMIE Awards (Washington Area Music Awards) between them, including the 2004 WAMMIE Award for BEST CONTEMPORARY FOLK DUO/GROUP.  Both approach their writing from a lyrical, melodic place with songs that speak to the heart.  The wit and depth each adds to the other’s songs makes for an engaging show.  “Cletus and Lori are two standout performers whose voices blend beautifully.” (Scott Moore, Moore House Concerts) As solo artists, both Cletus & Lori were honored to be selected to perform at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center.  Their much anticipated duo CD, Lotus, was released in September 2005.  Mike Joyce of The Washington Post writes, “In addition to sharing close harmonies on their new CD, Lotus, Cletus and Lori alternately contribute tunes that tend to fall gracefully between folk and pop.  In fact, so consistent is the song quality that it’s sometimes hard to tell who wrote what.” Richard Harrington of The Washington Post  writes, “What's better than a good singer-songwriter?  Two singer-songwriters whose meshed voices seem built for close harmony.  That's the case for Lori Kelley and Cletus Kennelly.” (Richard Harrington, Washington Post, 3-18-05)

CLETUS KENNELLY is a five-time WAMMIE-winner, including BEST NEW ARTIST, SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR, and BEST CONTEMPORARY FOLK VOCALIST .  He’s earned a total of 36 songwriting awards, including 15 WAMMIE nominations.  Ray Ruskin of the Kensington Coffee House Concert Series remarks, “What makes Cletus great is Cletus.  He has a way of connecting to the audience directly, and the rich quality of his voice is so effective, he doesn’t need a band behind him. Chris Slattery of the Gazette Newspapers writes, “Cletus Kennelly has a way with words.  [He] takes only the finest words--the most honest and expressive.  He painstakingly crafts them into finely wrought phrases, and coaxes them into verse.”  “[He] is able to pan for nuggets of lyrical gold.”  Says Eric Brace of the Washington Post, “Cletus Kennelly wields a mean 12-string acoustic and writes a moving tune…the earnest and true kind.”

LORI KELLEY is a three-time WAMMIE-winnner in the categories of: SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR and SONG OF THE YEAR, and has earned 12 WAMMIE nominations overall.  She wields a four-octave range, and her songs have been voted #1 by Northern Virginia Rhythm Magazine among all genres, and she was recently the overall GRAND PRIZE-winner in the 2003 Mid-Atlantic Song Contest. Lori’s last solo release, Like Sea Glass, earned an astounding seven WAMMIE nominations for 2003.  Michael Jaworek of The Birchmere Club states that her CD is “excellent on all accounts”.  Sing Out Magazine agrees: “Lori takes her writing seriously.  The lyrics are carefully crafted and the songs tell stories with ending that are not always predictable.  Lori has you listening for what comes next”.

Mary Sue Twohy

http://www.marysuetwohy.com

“Mary Sue Twohy's airy soprano is well suited to material that straddles the fine line between traditional and contemporary folk; on the latter front, she's like a graceful, guitar-strumming Sarah McLachlan.” –Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 2005

Songs to Hang on Stars, the new CD from Mary Sue Twohy (pronounced too’-ee) will release January 1, 2006 from Azalea City Recordings. This third album from the acclaimed singer-songwriter is an eclectic mix of acoustic folk-pop (the graceful title track “Songs to Hang on Stars”) and traditional (the haunting civil war song, “Missionary Ridge.”)

Luminaries Jon Carroll (Mary Chapin Carpenter), Dede Wyland, Pete and Maura Kennedy, and Scott and Jen Smith (Naked Blue) bring instrumental virtuosity and angelic harmonies to Mary Sue’s new compositions. Tracks include love songs (“Whole New View”), fresh new settings of Emily Dickinson poems (“’Twas the Old Road,” and “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”), a capella (“The Ghost of Matt McCann”), and heartfelt meditations on loss and hope (“Baltimore”). Weaving through the album is the promise of new hope shining through even the darkest times.

Mary Sue Twohy’s soaring, intimate vocals and warm, expressive guitar won her the 2004 Washington Area Music Award (WAMMIE) for Contemporary Folk Vocalist and the 1999 WAMMIE for Best New Artist. She has also garnered additional WAMMIE nominations for Contemporary Female Folk vocalist, Contemporary Folk Recording, and Song of the Year, and earned Honorable Mention in the 2004 Billboard Song Contest. “Songs to Hang on Stars” and “Bluebells” have already placed in the semi-finals of the 2005 UK Songwriting contest.

Dave Richards of The Morning News, says, "As far as the Goose-Bump meter goes, Mary Sue Twohy is up there with Nanci Griffith, Sarah McLachlan, Iris Dement."

Her previous album, The Risk Involved, was produced by Pete and Maura Kennedy, and her debut album, Training Butterflies, was produced by Pete Kennedy. Both CDs were critically acclaimed and have gone into additional pressings. She has sung live on XM Satellite Radio, Metro Connection on WAMU, and many other radio shows. Mary Sue plays venues from house concerts to festivals to large music halls. She has shared the stage with artists like John Gorka, Eliza Gilkyson and Ellis Paul.

The Washington Post called Mary Sue a “music community pillar” (March 18, 2005) for her support of live music through her national publicity company, BTM Communications (www.buildthemountain.com), open mic nights, and workshops (Making your Dreams at Night a Reality by Day, Write a Song in 20 Minutes, and Publicity for your Music Career). She has stage-managed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Flat Rock Music Festival and Country Roads Folk Festival and served as Program Committee member for the Takoma Park Folk Festival.

Songs to Hang on Stars is Mary Sue’s most confident album to date, and her first CD of all-original music. It delivers the new material her passionate fans have been waiting for, in a celebration of life out of the ordinary.

Ina May Wool

http://www.inamaywool.com

"I stood in a tent near the hospital in Exeter, NH, on a rainy day in June 2002. Thirty people were singing my songs along with me. 'J'ai Gagne (I Won)' and 'January Thaw' were favorites of the cancer survivors' support group there; a social worker had found my music on the Internet. It was such a visceral feeling of triumph over suffering and a joy at being alive and together - that day gave me fuel for months, " recalls Ina May Wool.

Ina May Wool has garnered her share of affirmation and acclaim since the release of her debut CD, "Moon Over 97th Street" in 1999. The Edinburgh Folk Festival invited her to play, and she toured the UK as well as in Europe. Representatives from BMI and ASCAP chose one of her songs for a CD of the 15 best unsigned acoustic artists worldwide, and she's been a finalist in the New Jersey Folk Festival songwriter contest and the Plowshares Songwriting Competition. The Just Plain Folks Music Awards named "Elephant Learning to Dance" the best song by a female singer/songwriter and placed "Moon Over 97th Street" in the top five albums worldwide. Suzanne Vega included one of her tunes on the Vigil CD, a collection by New York songwriters after 9/11 also featuring Vega, Christine Lavin, Richard Julian, and Jack Hardy.

In the 13 songs on the new CD, "Crack It Open" (release November 2003), Wool travels further down some of the roads hinted at in her debut. "When Tears Come Down" rings of some undiscovered Hank Williams gem you'd swear must have been burnished by time. "Lucky" is a love song with just the right touch of quirkiness. "Frida" broods but stays vibrant with colors and celebrates Frida Kahlo's strength and fire. Throughout the CD you'll find gorgeous vocal harmonies and a musical palette featuring rich color from accordion to steel guitar to banjo to clarinet to Irish bouzouki to mandolin.

"We were riding in the car listening over and over to this new CD - and it dawned on me that there is a theme I hadn't planned at all coming through all these songs. It's all about survival with joy intact, with rebirth and renewal." Wool's come to this new place in her life and writing from an eclectic apprenticeship - from bar bands to opening concerts in her native New England to New York's off off Broadway and r & b and jazz singing. She's found her way back to an intimate and personal blend of early acoustic folk guitar and vocal influences with the jazz, rock, and soul she's also loved over the years. Since the release of "Moon Over 97th Street" in 1999, Ina May has toured from Maine to D.C. to Chicago and shared stages with Leo Kottke, Sloan Wainwright, David Massengill, Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks, and Richard Thompson. "Writing the songs for this CD I tried to let it come -- whatever it sounded like at 5 in the morning when I was writing a song in my kitchen. Maybe it was blues or bluegrass - I didn't know - but I had to stop worrying about those distinctions and just let it go."

 Institute of Musical Traditions

http://www.imtfolk.org/

Washington Area Music Association

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