Aztec Two-Step

Aztec Two-Step originated in 1971 as the acoustic soft rock pairing of Rex Fowler and Neal Shulman. Longtime fixtures on the folk festival circuit, the pair issued more than a dozen albums across the decades, among them the 1996 live compilation Highway Signs and the 2009 Simon & Garfunkel tribute Time It Was.

Fowler and Shulman first crossed paths during an open stage at Boston’s Stone Phoenix coffee house. Months into their collaboration they cut their initial album under the Aztec Two-Step name, and shortly afterward secured a contract with Elektra Records. The label issued the self-titled debut in 1972, which earned broad critical praise; guests on the sessions included John Sebastian, Doug Dillard, and Jerry Yester, among others, while the early-’70s radio hit “The Persecution and Restoration of Dean Moriarty (On the Road)” emerged from the tracklist. Their follow-up, Second Step, appeared in 1975, succeeded by Two’s Company in 1976 and Adjoining Suites in 1977. Although their folk-rock style waned in popularity toward the end of the decade, the duo kept touring behind prior releases and delivered The Times of Our Lives in 1979 before pausing further studio work while still performing across the United States and Europe.

They resurfaced in 1986 with Living in America on Reflex Records, an album that captured the 1987 New York Music Award for Best Folk Album. The next release, See, It Was Like This, came out on Flying Fish in 1989. During the 1990s Aztec Two-Step put out Of Age in 1993 and the live set Highway Signs, captured at three separate New York coffee houses in December 1995. PBS broadcast the documentary No-Hit Wonder about the band in 1999.

The compilation Live & Rare arrived in 2001, after which the pair returned to original songs on Plums (2003) and Days of Horses (2004). The 18-track live recording Time It Was: The Simon & Garfunkel Songbook surfaced in 2009, the same year Renaissance Records released the anthology The Persecution & Restoration of Aztec Two-Step. Forty years after their first album, Cause & Effect appeared in 2012. Their subsequent project, Naked, addressed sociopolitical subjects and was funded through the group’s initial crowd-sourcing effort in 2017.