Magpie

Magpie, the duo of Terry Leonino and Greg Artzner, merges themes of labor, justice, and the environment with those of romance and personal bonds. The pair first joined forces in September 1973 while Leonino was completing her senior year at Kent State University. After she graduated the following spring, they settled in Takoma Park, MD, and entered the folk scene of the Washington, D.C., region. Their debut album, Magpie & Friends, appeared in 1978, and their third release, If It Ain't Love, followed in 1986; both displayed a broad range of material. By comparison, the 1983 album Working My Life Away concentrated on working-class struggles, while Living Planet from 1990 and Circle of Life, their first children’s collection issued in 1992, addressed ecological concerns. Songwriting came to the fore on Seed on the Prairie.

Although grounded in folk tradition, Magpie has absorbed influences from acoustic country, pre-World War II swing and blues, and contemporary folk-style pieces by numerous songwriters. The duo regularly appears at schools and museums, among them the Smithsonian Institute, and holds master-artist status at the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts. Several recent engagements have paired them with topical singer/songwriters Kim and Reggie Harris. The 1997 quartet album Spoken in Love emerged on the duo’s Long Tail Records label, Give Light arrived two years later, and John Brown: Sword of the Spirit surfaced in spring 2000. Inspired by December themes, Magpie assembled original songs with favorite Hanukkah and Christmas numbers for the 2002 release Last Month of the Year.