Laurie Raveis, pronounced "ray-viss," and Dennis Kole, both multi-instrumentalists, make up the acoustic-based duo Raveis Kole. Their fusion of alternative folk, country, rock, and the '70s singer/songwriter tradition first appeared on record with the 2016 Electric Blue Dandelion LP. The pair followed 2020's 3D Immersive with the more stripped-back 2023 release In the Moment, keeping the material buoyant despite its pandemic origins.
The two first crossed paths at the Crown of the Continent Guitar Festival in Bigfork, Montana, in 2013, yet their collaboration did not begin until a later encounter in a blues and rock jam class. After class they would improvise, trading instruments freely. Once Raveis settled in Boston, Massachusetts, and Kole in Bellingham, Washington, they sustained the exchange across distance and eventually cut an album with producer Matt Smith on bass and lap steel, David Webb on piano and organ, Kris Wade on bass and keyboard, and James Gwyn on drums; that project surfaced as August 2016's Electric Blue Dandelion. A live edition, Electric Blue Dandelion: Nashville Sessions, arrived with a slightly altered track list, reached number 11 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, and placed in the Top 50 of independent albums; Jeff Silverman, known for work with the Allman Brothers Band and Rick Springfield, served as its producer. By then Raveis and Kole had married and were living in Bellingham.
Returning to the studio, again with Silverman as co-producer, they issued October 2020's 3D Immersive, which featured more than a dozen guest musicians including Matt Smith. The set included covers of John Prine and the Oscar-winning duet "Shallow," made famous by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Their original seasonal track "Ho Ho Home Holidays" appeared the following December. For 2023's In the Moment the duo performed roughly a dozen instruments themselves, again working with Smith and choosing acoustic guitars over a conventional rhythm section to drive the pulse of the pandemic-inspired material.
