Photo by Tom Bianchi

12/31/03 
Check this out. It's an older article - it dates from Halloween - but I just found it online. It's about the closing of the Kendall and the problems that independent artists and venues face in today's climate. 

12/16/03 
Check out this new Locust Years review from Soundcheck. This was a very nice holiday present for us! 

11/24/03 
The Café SCAT taping went really well and will be aired on channel 3 in Somerville in January. We're still working on the new material and perhaps a few new covers. Happy Thanksgiving! 

11/10/03 
We've got a great show coming up for Café SCAT in Somerville on the 19th... check gigs for more information. Songwriting is coming along okay and we're getting used to the cold! I've written some new poetry and posted some of it on the lyrics page - check it out and let me know what you think. Also, we've had the honor of having three of our songs, "Make You Feel Alright," "When The Sun Goes Down" and "Make Me A Gypsy" featured in Christian Wikane's film Questions and Answers. It was wonderful to hear and see. Stay warm!

10/20/03 
We had such a wonderful visit to London. Thanks to the Up All Night people for organizing all the music shows, and we hope to go back sometime soon. For now, we're going to take a performing break to focus on our songwriting... there are so many new songs that need to be developed, practiced, etc. 

9/29/03 
We want to thank Fishken & Groves for hosting and Thea Hopkins for organizing great show yesterday at the Sit 'N' Bull. We had a great time. The Sit 'N' Bull has a feel of the Adirondacks... especially with the light rain falling outside and the woodsy indoors. Also, thanks to Paul the bartender for his nice words after the show. Also, check out our new Enchanted Woods forum that our friend Jennifer Bliss set up!

9/22/03 
Please come out to the Sit 'N' Bull this Sunday! It'll be a great show, we're opening for some fantastic acts. Here's more info. 

9/15/03 
Thank you so much to everyone who came out to the Kendall last Saturday and made it such a special night for us. It was sad to play our last show there, but hopefully we'll find a similar venue for the band soon. You were great and made our entire week!   

9/5/03 
We're really looking forward to our September 13th show at the Kendall. Many of you have heard that the Kendall is closing - and it's true - so this will most likely be our last show there ever (unless whoever buys it makes it a music club again, but that looks unlikely). Please come out and have a drink with us to toast this wonderful club that supported independent acoustic-based music for so long.  

8/28/03 
We had such a good time playing Brookline's Roots Rock Live show - Pat Keating, the host, was really nice and made us very comfortable. Things have been busy but we're hanging in there - hope to see you at the Kendall on the 13th. 

8/7/03 
Thanks to everyone at the Skellig last night, and to Tom for having us. A special thank you to Table Two - you guys rocked! Things have been busy. We've got a lot of stuff coming up - an appearance on Brookline TV, the Kendall, a gig at Sit 'N' Bull and some time in London are all on the calendar.   

7/16/03 
A new show has been added - Saturday, September 13th at the Kendall Café! Opening at 9:30 will be Blue Tree, and we go on at 10:30. The 11:30 act is TBA. We've been doing a lot of booking otherwise, and have some exciting stuff coming up soon. 

7/7/03 
Our new friend Christopher Hwang has sent us pictures of the CD Release Party. He arranged them into galleries: Click here to see Gallery One, and click here to see Gallery Two.  

6/30/03 
Once again, thank you to everyone out in Harvard Square yesterday. It was a lovely day and you were wonderful... in other news, we just signed up with Sonicbids for an online press kit. We think it looks nice! 

6/23/03 
Well, we got rained out in Harvard Square last weekend... but we've got high hopes for the next few. We'll be out there during the week as well. Also, we've just started a street team!  

6/16/03 
Thanks to everyone out in Harvard Square yesterday. Sorry we had to stop early, our voices are not back yet. But they will be by Friday, so come on by the Chit Chat. 

6/5/03 
Locust Years is selling well and being played on 50 independent stations around the country. We are in the process of writing new songs - unfortunately as well we are fighting off severe throat infections. Something is going around.

5/27/03 
We had a blast last Sunday night playing the Burren. Thanks for all of your support, you rock. Locust Years is now available on CD Baby. 

5/21/03 
What a great night at the Chit Chat yesterday. We played the open mic for a possible booking, and they booked us for Saturday the 31st. They were so nice and so incredibly supportive! Haverhill is lovely, with its atmosphere and hugely supportive musically-inclined crowd. The only thing we couldn't find was a CD store... maybe someone can help us out with that next time we're in the area.   

5/17/03 
Thank you for a fantastic CD Release Party at the Kendall last night. We had a great time and we really appreciate your energy and enthusiasm. Performing is a cycle - whatever the audiences gives, we reflect and give back to you... and yesterday you were wonderful! Thank you. Locust Years is now available on the site through PayPal and will be coming to CD Baby this week.  

5/16/03 
Yoursound.com has featured us on their site. They are also going to do a real audio interview with us either tonight or next week. Come out to the show! We can't wait, it's going to be great. 

5/14/03 
Jennifer Lawinski of the Cambridge Chronicle has written an excellent article about Locust Years and us.  We met her last week in the 1369 Coffeehouse and had a great time talking with her - she was incredibly nice and really interesting to talk with. Click here to read the article. 

5/13/03 
Kindamuzik.net has printed a very favorable review of Locust Years - it's in Dutch, but a translation will be coming to our site soon. The CD Release Party is this Friday! We're really psyched, it's going to be a great show! 

5/3/03 
Skope Magazine has featured us on their artists' page along with Nickel Creek, Amun-Ra and the Naked Sams!

5/2/03 
So, the CD Release Party is getting closer! A couple of radio stations are giving away our CD and it's getting air play around the country. Also, we just posted the lyrics from the new album. 

4/25/03 
We've gotten another review for Locust Years and we've been working hard at practicing and getting our live act tight for the CD Release Party. It should be a great show and we're really excited about it. LP is a big name in NY and the area (she's gotten accolades from Howard Stern and written songs with Cracker) and many of you are already fans of Winterboy so you know about his wild and innovative songwriting and live show. Happy spring - it's probably finally here! 

4/22/03 
We just got our first review of Locust Years! Check it out on the press page.

4/21/03 
Café Scat has chosen our performance for its "best-of" DVD collection. Check out the Web site! Otherwise, we are doing well - practicing really hard - I'm working on some more "fiddle-style" violin work and the weather outside looks beautiful.

4/10/03 
Thanks for all your votes - "Living In Dream" was chosen as the song previewed on the site. 

4/2/03 
So, as you can see we've spent some time revamping the Web site. We tried several different designs but decided to stick with the one that we have and make improvements. Things are quiet, we've been practicing and working on some new material as well as preparing for the CD's release. There's a lot of back work that has to be done when releasing a CD; bios and one-sheets have to be composed, etc. Our friends Jason and Jill were very helpful with the process of writing and designing those and we are very grateful! We're still working on getting some dates in Europe (mostly London) together, and we'll be busking out in Harvard Square again this summer - although with the weather this week it doesn't feel like summer is coming anytime soon! We're working on getting some photos of the making of the CD up on the site, as well as photos from the beach shoot that we did for the CD. 

3/20/03
We're waiting on the copies of Locust Years.  We had a good show at the Abbey on Tuesday and our new friend Rick Berlin from the Shelley Winters Project sent us some photos he took that night. Thanks for all your votes for the songs, we'll put one or two up there when we get the CDs back from the manufacturer. Hope you are all well and be safe. 

3/4/03
Mastering is finished - we now know what the CD sounds like, exactly. We send it off to the duplication company this week, and we should get the final copies back in a bit. There are seven full-band songs on the album and three acoustic songs. One, "Blanket Song," is just acoustic because that's the way it was written, and there are acoustic remixes of "Grace" and "Cocoon."

2/26/03
Well, we're finally done with the mixing, for better or for worse. We mixed "Living In Dream" on Monday and remixed "Gypsy" yesterday. They sound good. On Sunday we're going to master the disc out at Peerless Mastering and then it's just the long wait for duplication. Hope to see you May 16th if not before.

2/21/03
We've been mixing all week. We finished "Make You Feel Alright," "Cocoon," "Farewell," "Blanket Song," "Grace" and "Tell The Truth." We mixed "Make Me A Gypsy" but we're not really satisfied with the results so we're going to remix it next week. "Living In Dream" is the only song we haven't worked at all on but that will be our first priority next week. Whew! It's a lot of hard work.

2/14/03
Our official CD Release Party is scheduled for Friday, May 16th at our favorite venue, The Kendall Café! We will be joined by Winterboy and another special guest TBA. It's going to be a great night and we can't wait. 

2/10/03
This week we've been touring mastering studios and putting together some cover songs. Hopefully you'll like them when we get out of the studio and to gigs again. Thanks to everyone who came out to the Kendall on the 31st. That was the fourth really great show that we've had there in a row! Look for a CD release party date coming soon.

1/28/03
Here's a letter we got from a Yugoslavian radio station regarding our first CD:

Dear Elizabeth,
I did receive CD and copy of your press kit. Thanks, again! About music... it is so honest & human sound. From rock to folk with nice tunes and good playing (singing, too). We use to play ALL of your songs in our broadcast. Blue Horizon will be guest in our special broadcast called "Promophone" (bio + music). My heart is with you!
I'm waiting for Locust Years...
Friendly,
Dragan Stajic

In other news, we are finishing up everything for Locust Years this week. Today Russell is coming back in to put a couple of finishing touches on "Make You Feel Alright" and tomorrow we are getting rough mixes together.

1/22/03
Last weekend we tracked keyboards and percussion. Peter came in Saturday and Jeff came in Sunday. Earlier this week Russell Chudnofsky came in to track some electric guitar. The songs are sounding very rich and full now. We also did some rough mixes of the acoustic "Grace" and "Cocoon" and some editing and clean-up. We have a few more days of clean-up and recording and we'll be mixing by mid-February!

1/14/03
Yesterday we tracked the violin. It was an amazing experience. We went up to a place in New Hampshire owned by this incredibly nice guy, Gary. He's a friend of Brian's. He has this beautiful, rustic farm-style house with a lot of land. Out behind his house he has a cottage. It's got amazing acoustics - high wooden ceilings - everything you could want in a room in which to record violin. Gary was so nice, he made apple pie and cookies and left us some cold cuts, fruit and coffee and started a fire in the wood stove. I can still smell the scent of it in my hair today. I loved the experience of standing there in this cabin, surrounded by snow, with a fire crackling in the stove, looking over the mountains - recording the music. It brought out the best in me and I'm so grateful to the people who made it possible!

1/6/03 
Last weekend we got more harmonies done - Elizabeth did some of hers on Saturday and I did some of mine on Sunday. We experimented a little with keyboard sounds ("Living In Dream" is turning out to be interesting) and next week we'll be tracking violin up in a big cottage in New Hampshire. It's exhausting work but gratifying.

12/30/02 
Another weekend in the studio... we tracked vocals for "Farewell," "Grace" and "Living In Dream." We also tracked harmony vocals for "Blanket Song" and "Make Me A Gypsy." It was wild. First off, on Sunday "Living In Dream" was a very difficult vocal and took a long time to get right. Then we did the harmonies for "Make Me A Gypsy." Brian brought out this crazy thing called a Zube Tube. When you shake it it makes this sound like something bouncing around in space. When you sing through it it makes your voice all echoey and and creepy. For my "oooohs" on "MMAG" I sang through the tube - it was a lot of fun.

12/16/02 
On Sunday we did the vocals for "Make You Feel Alright" and "Make Me A Gypsy." It's such a contrast with last time, the way we are experimenting with different sounds and taking a lot more time out to do the vocals. I love atmosphere and am very big on having the room dark and conducive to the imagination. Next up, "Living In Dream," "Farewell" and "Grace" - and then the acoustic stuff! We can't wait.

12/9/02
Yesterday we tracked vocals for "Tell The Truth" and "Cocoon" - and it went really well. Jason's vocals were done in an unorthodox way - he stood in the control room with the speakers blasting the song instead of working in an isolation booth with headphones to avoid sound-bleed. It worked for "Tell The Truth" since it's such a rough bluesy song. "Cocoon" we did the more traditional sort of way, with the candle-in-the-darkened room effect. We had just finished and were listening to the playback when I noticed something. The pickup to the second chorus is the word "you're," which I usually pronounce as "yo-ou're." But when I heard it, it sounded like "your whore"! So we had to take out that pickup word and change it to be like the other choruses. Funny, the things you learn in the studio when you hear yourself played back.

12/2/02 
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving break - we went back to Upstate NY to visit our families. It snowed really hard the day we left - supposedly they got seven inches, minimum, eventually. It brought back a lot of memories... Anyway, we're still plugging away at getting things done for the CD; also we're booking more gigs in Boston and the surrounding areas. Gotta get the name out there - but much, much more importantly - we gotta get the music out there. (And the December letter - but it's still being conceived.)

11/19/02 
Yesterday we tracked vocals for "Blanket Song." It was such a good experience. We lit a candle in the room and turned off the lights to set the mood, and I just retreated to somewhere within myself. I'm very proud of the results and can't wait to track some more vocals. Show-wise, we're tentatively planning to go down to Nashville next year and hit some places around there. Also, possibly Austin and London - I've always wanted to see London and the idea of playing shows over there makes me so happy. Hope to see some of you at the Gallery next Tuesday!

11/4/02 
Alright! Basic tracks are done! Next step: acoustic guitar.

10/22/02 
Thank you for the great shows at the Kendall and the Blackthorne. We've been asked back on a regular basis at the Blackthorne! We're heading into Q Division to do the basic tracks on the first weekend in November. Also, an acoustic EP, Road Work, will come out with Locust Years when it is released.  

10/1/02  
We had a wonderful vacation week and now we're ready to get out there and play. Hope to see you at the Kendall, and we will be here and there as well so perhaps we will run into you.

9/20/02 
Yesterday we continued to work with Jeff on pre-production for the Locust Years songs and it was great, a really creative session. We're looking very much  forward to this next CD. We're hoping for a release date in March - and a lot of productive work between then and now. And in the meantime, to get out there and play our music as much as possible, and be exposed to and appreciate art and life as much as possible. Happy autumn (soon enough)! 

9/6/02  
Yesterday we had a very good practice and preproduction session - it went very well. Peter is adding wonderful textures to the songs with his bass, and Jeff (in spite of a nasty cold) had a ton of ideas for drum/percussion parts. It's coming along quite nicely! Our first CD is continuing to sell quite well (thank you) and the money it is generating is all going toward Locust Years, which will be THE album. Our relatively new practice space is working out quite well, too - it has good atmosphere and is conducive to good ideas.

8/26/02   
We wanted to thank the people out in Harvard Square yesterday - you made our week! You were so wonderfully kind. Thank you. And for the CDs that you purchased, we really appreciate it. Every dime of their sales goes toward the recording of the next CD - one that we are really looking forward to. We know a lot more about the process now and we think the next album has a lot of promise. 

I'm listening to the Black Crowes as I write and noticing how much they do with their rhythm/percussion. It's really impressive. What a band.

8/23/02   
If you care about music, please read Courtney Love's speech to the Digital Hollywood Online Entertainment conference. After you've read that, read this interview with a record-label executive. Also, read this sad story of a hugely talented band that stopped creating their art because it was killed by the business side of things. I'm not sure anymore if there was ever a time when music wasn't dominated by business, but I don't think it was always at the almost-total expense of the art, not just the artists. As a musician I feel pretty hurt by this whole thing - the music-as-product way of thinking. And as a music fan I feel triply hurt by it. Who knows what we have missed? How we might have grown if we'd been exposed to the stuff that never gets paid attention to? 

That's why we play in the streets. There is no next level. There is only the level of showing people your art whenever and wherever you can and being honest about it, the good parts, the brilliant parts, the flaws, the things that you'd rather sweep under the rug - all of it... and we're lucky to do it if we can.

8/12/02 
We're still cracking away at the new stuff. Pre-production takes a long time! There's so much to put together, tempos, instrumental parts, harmonies. We feel so lucky about the people who will be working on this record - Jeff Harrington will be playing drums again, Peter Fernandez (formerly of Tobin Bridge) will be playing bass and keys, Brian Brown will be engineering and producing at Q-Division Studios and at Pearl Street Studio. We can't wait. The Kendall show in July went a long way toward encouraging us - everything went over so well. We feel so much more ready to be in a studio than last time - now we know what to expect, know what to look for. Experience is a good thing. 

7/15/02   
We're further narrowing down the songs for Locust Years and it looks like things are coming together. People seem to like the new songs and we are feeling pretty good about them. Preproduction continues to go well and there are a lot of new ideas being tossed around.

5/15/02   
Well, we took our month-and-a-half break and accomplished a fair amount. Here are the current contenders for Locust Years, our next album:

* Cocoon * Tell The Truth * Blanket Song * Farewell * Make Me A Gypsy * Living In Dream *  Can't Take It Anymore * Make You Feel Alright * I Wish I Knew You * Grace *

I'm really looking forward to making the album. We know a lot more about the process now, what sounds to look for, stuff like that. Most importantly, this album is going to be fun to make - I can feel it. Not that the first wasn't, but we were still feeling our way around the studio and the whole process and now we have that experience to draw on. We'll probably start recording at the end of the summer - we're still in preproduction for the time being. It's all a learning process, every step of this journey - this 'vision quest.' But I really can't wait for this next step!

4/10/02  
We're going to get our busking permits this week. We're really psyched to get out there again and as soon as the weather permits it, there we'll be. Hope to see you out there!

2/11/02  
Here's the letter we got from the Belgian radio station:

Dear Elizabeth,

Thank you so much for sending us your beautiful release with Jason, 'Blue Horizon.' I've enjoyed listening to your great voices, beautiful, strong songs and great music and I will give your disc regular airplay on my radio show because you're damned good. Many thanks again...

Raymond Swennen & Theo Geenen,  Roots Revival Radio

1/29/02  
Well, it has been a quieter month - mainly because Jason is fighting off a tough case of laryngitis. Send good energy, please! We'd like to get out and play our new songs, they're pretty good but need to be road-tested. Maybe we'll see you out on the subway once everybody's healthy. We apologize for having to postpone Cafe SCAT but are looking forward to next month's show. News - we just got a request from a radio station in Belgium for our disc! It's amazing how it slowly crosses the world, I wish I could travel as much as it does. Also we got to give a copy of it to Levon Helm of The Band, who was in town with his current band, the Barn Burners. Thanks for all the encouraging e-mails and hope to see you soon.

9/21/01 
We are so excited to report that "Back To Memphis" has been added to The Band's Web site. It's amazing, we've been visiting it for years, and suddenly there we are. Also, they are huge influences on us so it is an honor to be included on their site. Click here to see the page.

9/18/01  
Well - thanks to everyone last Sunday in Harvard Square. You were so kind to us. It has been a strange and terrible week for everyone and performing music was both very difficult and very rewarding. We're continuing to work at music, trying to get the CD on various radio stations, doing promotional work, etc. although for about five days we didn't feel like doing much of anything. Just about everyone we have talked to has said some variation of the same thing: that it's very difficult to continue with any sense of normalcy. We are sending our best and hoping that your friends, family, etc. are all safe and well.  

Photo by Uncle Scam

Click on the photo to go to Uncle Scam's Web site - there are more busking pictures of us as well as other Harvard Square performers and a comprehensive look at the Harvard Square scene.

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