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Melissa Carper and Jan Bell met at the Ozark Folk Festival in 1998. Exquisite harmony vocals alongside upright bass, guitar and banjo create an old time mountain sound from both sides of the Atlantic. Most folks describe their sound simply as 'Gorgeous'. Songs for my Baby is a collection of original and traditional easy-on-you songs, conceived as a lull-a-bye album for mothers and fathers and lovers and babes. "Country Blues to knock your socks off" Fayetteville Free Weekly, Arkansas. Jan hails from a coal-mining village in northern England, and Melissa's main home has been a solar cabin in the Ozarks, where they were snowed in enough last winter to hone down some new old tunes. In 2002 Mike West (Squirrel/Binky Records) heard them at Winfield Festival, Kansas and invited them down to his New Orleans Studio to make an album. 'Songs for my Baby' was made at The Ninth Ward Pickin' Parlor, under his industrious and loving eye. Mike accompanies on mandolin and slide guitar, alongside Katie Euliss on piano. Melissa was featured on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion Radio Show - with Gina Gallina as the Camptown Ladies - finalists in the Towns under 2000 Contest. The Tulsa World remarked on the beauty of her voice at the Woody Guthrie Festival, making the oft-made comparison to Gillian Welch. Jan also took part in an event organized by the Woody Guthrie Archives in New York City, and like many folkies, he has clearly been an influence. "Dark, old-timey spareness, like a Renaissance faire in the Mississippi delta" Village Voice, nyc. Jan and Melissa are also big fans of Hazel Dickens, Memphis Minnie and The Delmore Brothers. Its been said if Jimmie Rodgers and Leadbelly could've had an upright bass playing daughter - that would be Melissa. Now based in New Orleans, you can catch them singing by the river, or down in the French Quarter on a sunny street corner. In their daily set list, you can hear an appreciation for working and travelling peoples' songs from a time that is passing out of living memory. Melissa and Jan can't help but strive to keep that spirit alive, digging up rare pearls of songs and breathing new life into them wherever they may go. As a trio with fiddle, they are The Rhinestone Cow Bags. SONGS FOR MY BABY is Guaranteeed to soothe away your worries at the end of the day, or play it for sweet quality time with the one you call your baby. Track List: 1. Baloo Baleerie (Irish folk song) 2. Green Grow the Rushes (Robert Burns) 3. Yorkshire Water (Jan Bell) 4. Seems like Yesterday (Jon Carper) 5. Atlantic Bridge (Jan Bell) 6. Carried by the wind (Jan bell) 7. Springfield Mountain (American folk song) 8. Roll on little doggies (Anglo-American. words by Carper & Bell) 9. Beautiful City (Jan Bell) 10. Lonesome Cowboy (Melissa Carper) 11. Lover (Jan Bell) 12. Four & twenty ponies(British folk song) 13. Lullabye (Melissa Carper) 14. Sadie Morningstar Suggested CDs:Other Genres:
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