Curtis & Loretta

 Curtis & Loretta’s music comes straight from the heart.   The husband and wife duo’s extraordinary harmonies and proficiency on a parade of stringed instruments create an alluring frame for their poignant original songs, and some traditional pieces from America and the British Isles.  The current menagerie includes mandocello, folk harp, guitars, clawhammer banjo, ukulele, and mandolin, plus a bit of kazoo, harmonica, and shakers. Curtis’ down-home sense of humor and Loretta’s theater background engage the audience in an experience that runs the gamut of rolling with laughter to holding back tears, with plenty of side-trips in between.  They rack up countless miles each year, crisscrossing the country to deliver their own unique brand of folk singer/songwriter music. 

In 1977, a theater graduate from Minnesota was sitting on a beach in Santa Cruz, California playing her guitar, practicing for a variety show. A young Texan who had just returned to the mainland from Hawaii stopped and said, “Hey, I play guitar!”  And he did!  They sat down together on a piece of driftwood and as they sang, they couldn’t help but notice how well their voices meshed.  They played together at the variety show that night, and have been singing together ever since, as the duo Curtis & Loretta. 

They’ve received several grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, including the Creative Support for Individuals grant that backed their new album Lift the World – their 10th recording, which is being called “a generous cornucopia of beautifully crafted songs that speak from the heart of the struggles and joys of life, performed with honesty, grace, and uncommon musicianship.” (Chris Vallillo, Ginridge Music). Featuring songs that were written during the pandemic, the album celebrates what is really important in this life, from the heartwarming to the heart breaking. 

Their heartfelt originals explore timeless issues such as love and longing, and they also boldly tackle tough subjects such as Alzheimer’s (“Can You Take Me Home?”), and war (“Angel of Bergen-Belsen”).  Loretta was awarded an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board in 2015, and wrote 12 songs about real-life people who have overcome great odds in their lives.  This stellar cast of characters includes a woman who donated a kidney to a toddler she didn’t know; a woman who grew up in great hardship in the grasslands of Somalia and is now a nurse at Mayo Clinic; a couple facing the challenges and reaping the rewards of raising two severely autistic children; a WWII veteran who saved another man's life, a marriage "against the odds" in the 1940s, plus many more.  The resulting CD, “When There’s Good to Be Done,” released in November 2015, reveals that if we only look closely at the ordinary people among us, we often discover extraordinary people. You can read more about the project here.

The duo’s perennial humor is ever present, with songs and stories of harp players trying to get into heaven, small spenders on first dates, bugs, and lutefisk!  Their years of performing and touring together have honed their comfortable stage presence to a delightful edge. 

They've received six grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and were named Best Acoustic Performers of the Twin Cities by City Pages.  They have been on the South Dakota Arts Council Touring Arts roster since 2012. Their CDs have appeared on “Top Albums of the Year” at folkradio.org, and they’ve received several nominations for “Best Acoustic Folk Artist” for the Minnesota Music Awards.  They’ve released 10 CDs, and shared billings with such luminaries as Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Holly Near, Vassar Clements, Claudia Schmidt, and many more!  Curtis Teague and Loretta Simonet were married (to each other!) in 1987, and live in Minneapolis. 

Curtis Teague

Curtis grew up in the little town of Duncanville, Texas. It’s just south of Dallas, and has since become a huge suburb of that metropolis. But back then, his family lived on a dirt road a ways out of town. Main street consisted of a feed store and a Dairy Queen. His dad and grandfather took turns preaching in the small family church, and he learned to sing harmony there, sitting alongside his mother.  An uncle gave the family a record player, and it came with exactly 3 vinyl albums; Perry Como, Bing Crosby, and Pete Seeger. Curtis took to Pete right away, and has never looked back. At 12 he bought a guitar out of the want ads and taught himself to play. His determination to learn was bolstered by the fact that his parents told him it was just too hard to do.

Three years later he ran away from home and ended up in Hawaii! He lived there for five years or so, the“or so” part owing to the fact that he never owned a calendar and paid little attention to such things in this paradise.

He says he was a “beach minstrel / bum / tree house dweller.” He picked up and sold puka shells, learned shakuhacki (Japanese bamboo meditation flute), learned to sail and body surf. Once in awhile he returned to the mainland and hitchhiked up to Washington to pick apples to help make ends meet. The final time he left Hawaii was on an antique sixty foot ketch, as part of the crew. It took them 30 days to sail to San Francisco. He made his way south a bit to Santa Cruz, where his shakuhachi teacher, Peter Ross, had taken up residence. He continued studying with him, and apprenticed as a shakuhachi builder. And he joined the incredible street music scene happening on the downtown mall in Santa Cruz in the late 70s, along with such soon-to-be legends as slide guitar master Bob Brozman, jugglers The Flying Karamazov Brothers, and Artis the Spoonman.

Curtis is totally self-taught on guitar, clawhammer banjo, ukulele, mandolin, mandocello, harmonica, and spoons. "Teague is the master of a host of instruments, including guitar, mandocello, ukulele, and clawhammer banjo," says the Express-Times of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. And his full rich voice is an integral part of the duo's harmonies, whether they're singing their originals, or traditional songs.”

Loretta Simonet

Loretta grew up in the country too, almost 1000 miles north of Curtis. Her family lived on fourteen acres next to the highway just outside of the small town of Stillwater, Minnesota. It’s an historic river town, called the “Birthplace of Minnesota.” Performing was in her blood from a young age. She and her sisters put on puppet shows in the basement, she took piano lessons, and she absolutely loved singing. At 12, the same age as Curtis, she taught herself to play guitar out of a Peter, Paul, and Mary songbook. She played and sang in the Teen Choir at St. Michael’s Church. Her very first influences were P.P.M., along with Joni Mitchell, and like Curtis again, Pete Seeger!

 At Stillwater High School, she was in plays, choral reading, and concert choir. She wrote for the school paper, and was editor her senior year. At St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, she acted in plays, made costumes and sets, and sang in concert choir. She did summer stock theater for two years, and graduated with a BA in Theater. 

Curtis says Loretta is a natural born singer. She sang for years in choirs, and with Curtis. But in the 2000s, she decided to study with Jeanie Brindley-Barnett at MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis. She spent five years learning to hone her vocal technique, and now Loretta feels like her voice is richer than ever. 

Rick Mason of the City Pages has called her voice “compelling and crystalline,” and Jon Bream of the Star Tribune wrote, “Loretta Simonet has a jewel of a voice.”  “Simonet’s vocals are heartrendingly lovely,” said the City Pages A-List. 

Self-taught on guitar and mandolin, she discovered the harp in the late 1980s. She got herself the requisite “Teach Yourself to Play Folk Harp” book by Sylvia Woods, and started on this new journey, but quickly decided this time, she’d opt for a teacher. It turns out one can do serious damage, such as carpal tunnel, with incorrect harp techniques. So she studied with Gaylord Stauffer for two years, then Bridgett Stuckey, former harpist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, for another five years. Loretta says the folk harp is the instrument she was “meant to play.”

Curtis & Loretta Find Each Other!

OK, if you’ve scrolled down to find out how they met, this is it! After graduating from college, Loretta decided to head to the West Coast, to get her break in folk music or theater.  Something involving a stage!! She did some acting in community theater, and she was singing in a variety show at Schiavo’s Bar on Mission Street in Santa Cruz every Friday night. But after dividing the money with the other 7 or 8 acts each week, she realized she needed a “real job.” She found a job as a nursing assistant at a rest home in Capitola, just down the beach from Santa Cruz. 

On a Friday afternoon in April, 1977, she headed to the beach to practice her guitar for that night’s variety show. A long-haired man (also with a long beard) walked up to her and said, “Hey, I play guitar!” Yes, it was Curtis, recently off the sailboat from Hawaii. Loretta had heard that line before and proceeded cautiously. She had encountered several young men on that same beach who claimed to play guitar, but had something entirely different in mind. But Curtis ran home and returned in a few minutes not with a guitar, but a mandolin. She made room for him on her driftwood log, and they played “Suzanne,” the Leonard Cohen song, together. Something clicked. Their voices effortlessly “meshed” together. They kept playing, and the harmonies on each song sounded just as good. She invited him play at her variety show gig that night. He invited her to share his gig on the street in downtown Santa Cruz. Eventually Loretta quit her rest home job, and they started hitchhiking (not recommended these days!!) up and down the West Coast, playing for tips and meals in coffeehouses and cafes. In Washington, Curtis showed Loretta the ropes of picking apples and pears for a season. 

They backpacked through Europe for six months. They busked on the streets and in cafes there, and picked tulips in Holland when they ran out of money. They lived in Texas and Oklahoma for a short while, and ended up back in Minnesota. They had started out together in 1977 playing 1960s folk songs. In the 80s they were drawn to Celtic music as a natural progression of Loretta learning to play the Celtic harp. An exciting step in the evolution of their music was starting to write some of their own songs. Their originals are absolutely influenced by their traditional background, but they’re not afraid to tackle tough, contemporary issues. 

They performed primarily in the upper Midwest though the 80s, and Curtis earned a degree in Musical Stringed Instrument Repair at Southwest Technical College in Red Wing, Minnesota. He did instrument repairs at several Twin Cities music stores throughout the 80s and 90s. Loretta started her own cottage industry making glass beaded jewelry, and selling it at Renaissance Festivals across the country. 

OK, you might ask, didn’t you say something earlier about being married in Mexico? We’re getting there. But first, Loretta must admit that Curtis wanted to get married way back there somewhere. Maybe not the first day on the beach, but soon after that, he decided this. Loretta on the other hand, was not so sure. He did finally convince her!  He claims he bribed her on a sub-zero Minnesota day, with a trip to sunny Mexico.  In February, 1987 they went to Mexico and were married in the little town of Santiago,  just outside of Manzanillo, on the West Coast. Yes, it’s legal! They sent all the documents to consulates, and here and there, and it is legal, although their marriage certificate is in Spanish. Neither of them speak Spanish, so Curtis always says, “I don’t know, it could say we’re Mexican citizens for all we know!”

They Hit the Road Again!

In the 1990s, their love for the music and performing drew them back to the road. This time they didn’t hitchhike though. They got a mini-van, loaded up all the instruments and started touring extensively across the country. They left instrument repairs and beadwork behind, and are still making their living doing what they love, performing folk music full-time.

In 2006, Loretta’s mom in Stillwater got sick, and the duo scaled back some on performing and touring, so she could spend time helping her out. Mildred Simonet died in 2014 at the age of 88, and bittersweet though it is, Curtis & Loretta are once again touring across the country, and internationally. 

Curtis & Loretta live in Minneapolis. After they were married in Mexico, Curtis said he would take Loretta back there on every anniversary.  In 1988, they went back to the same area on vacation. They haven’t been back since...

Recordings: 

•Lift the World 2022

•When There's Good to Be Done 2015

•Our Heritage in Song 2009

•Just My Heart for You 2006

•Sit Down Beside Me 2001

•Gone Forever 1999

•It's Where You Hang Your Hat 1994

•The Parting Glass 1993

•Christmastide with Curtis & Loretta 1991

•Haymarket Minstrels 1989