Laurie and Nina have been friends and collaborators for over four decades There has rarely been an album that Laurie released that didn’t include Nina on at least one cut. These two California musicians are deeply rooted in the landscape, the colors, the aromas, and the sounds of their homeland. Nina was born and raised on the outskirts of Sebastopol, a semi-rural town in Northern California, where she grew up surrounded by fields, fruit trees and horses under wide blue skies. Laurie grew up in Berkeley, just about fifty miles away, and found solace in the regional parks of the East Bay hills.
For fiddler, guitarist, singer, and songwriter Laurie Lewis, the traditions of bluegrass and folk aren’t so much tools in her hands, but burning sources of inspiration that have driven her through a 40+ year career at the forefront of American roots music. Her personal sensibilities and innovation within traditional styles have created waves of change throughout the acoustic music world. She continues to write and perform her own compositions, dealing with love, loss, life, aging and death and the nonhuman world around us in her own unique voice. She has twice won the International Bluegrass Music Female Vocalist of the Year, and has over 20 critically-acclaimed albums to her name.
Since Nina Gerber’s accompaniment of Kate Wolf first earned her recognition, her acute skills as performer, producer and arranger have continued to deepen. Her contributions to acoustic music have earned her a following as loyal as for the numerous high talents she has accompanied (among them are Karla Bonoff, Greg Brown, Kate Wolf, Dave Alvin, Lucy Kaplansky, Rosalie Sorrels, Mollie O’Brien, and Nanci Griffith). Nina has a unique ability to completely free herself within an eclectic range of styles. Presented with folk, country, bluegrass, rock, or blues, she is able to fall into leads which have rare reverence for the true feeling of a song, always emphasizing taste over technical display. She seeks to express through her hands, rather than gain attention, and it is this integrity which makes her expressions worth intent listening.
Together, Laurie and Nina weave a rich tapestry interwoven with insightful stories, a good measure of humor, rocking headbangers and a shared musical sensibility.