Review from Portland Folk Music Society

A big thank you to the Portland Folk Music Society for running a very nice review of our new CD in their newsletter this month.

Great timing too, since we are doing a concert at Artichoke Music in Portland this Saturday, with James Faretheewell opening!

Click here for details about the concert. 

The reviewer, Meryle Korn, also sent me this fantastic email - 
 
"When There's Good to Be Done" arrived yesterday but I didn't have time to listen until this evening.  I AM BLOWN AWAY!  What an incredible, meaningful collection of songs! … I gotta say, lady, you just keep writing better & better!  I ran the emotional spectrum while listening, ending with laugh-tears."
ALBUM REVIEW ~  Meryle Korn  
(This review is in the September / October issue of the Portland Folk Music Society newsletter)
Curtis & Loretta:  When There’s Good to Be Done
 
Curtis Teague and Loretta Simonet, from Minneapolis, are two of my favorite musicians, and they don’t get to the West Coast nearly often enough.   Loretta is the songwriter of the duo, and she’s come up with a dozen mighty fine ones here.   Well grounded in American and Celtic folk music, the tunes fit the lyrics and are at home in the tradition.
 
Each song is an oral history set to music.  If there’s an overarching theme to the album, it is triumph over adversity.  Loretta has written about people she knows and values who have had some amazingly hard times, and despite them have come through stronger.  From the title song through the last cut, you’ll come through smiling.  One piece of advice – don’t listen straight through; take at least a few moments to think about each song before you move on to the next.
 
The song When There’s Good to Be Done kicks off the album with the story of a Florida woman who noticed online that a 2-year-old girl in Minnesota needed a kidney transplant, and she had the correct blood type to be a donor.  She volunteered, and they both came through the transplant with flying colors!  June on His Mind and I Will Get Home tell the stories of two WWII veterans, one in the Pacific and one over Germany, who survived to return home to the ones they loved.  Where the North Wind Blows and Case 9164 tell the tales of two boys who lived in brutal conditions in orphan “asylums” but overcame their mistreatment (and that is a completely inadequate word) to become loving, caring adults.  What Each One Needs is a song of praise to a couple who parented two autistic children and one “neuro-typical” child and gave all of them the love and help they needed to grow to be their best selves.   Rounding out the album, Dragonfly, The Bridge, Habibo, Give Love a Chance, On the Day They Said ‘I Do’, and Wilmar 8 (We Are All Equal, You Know) each will warm your heart.
 
Loretta alternates on folk harp and guitar, while Curtis plays guitar, mandocello and banjo, and their songs are beautifully harmonized in the way two people who have sung with each other for years can shine.  They are joined on various cuts by Sandy Njoes on base fiddle, Peter Ostroushko on fiddle, Sherri Leyda on pennywhistle and hand drum, Chuck Leyda on mandolin, Bobb Fantauzzo on Native American-style flute, Jacqueline Ultan on cello, and a 10-women chorus on Wilmar 8.    
 
The album is available through CD Baby:  $15 plus shipping for CD, or $9.99 for download:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/curtisloretta7.  You can get further information about the people in the songs and see their photos at the website www.curtisandloretta.com.  The albums, plus their previous releases, are also available directly from Curtis and Loretta at their live performances.

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