The Kennedys

The Kennedys, a husband-and-wife folk-pop duo based in the D.C. area, have maintained a strong presence on the circuit ever since their 1995 debut River of Fallen Stars appeared on Green Linnet with its Celtic influences. Jangly guitar textures, close vocal harmonies, upbeat spirit, and incisive songwriting on that record and on its 1996 follow-up Life Is Large, which drew an all-star cast, earned the pair more than thirty Washington Area Music Awards plus a National Association of Independent Record Distributors indie honor for best contemporary adult album on River.

The two first crossed paths at a guitar pull in Austin while Pete was handling guitar duties in Nanci Griffith’s Blue Moon Orchestra. After spending an impromptu evening together during which they composed their initial song, Pete headed to Colorado for a festival yet phoned Maura anyway. Their first official date took them both five hundred miles to visit Buddy Holly’s grave. Maura soon stepped in for Iris DeMent as Griffith’s harmony vocalist on tour, and Pete and Maura in turn assumed Iris’s slot as opening act for the European portion of the itinerary; throughout those dates they wrote songs at a rapid clip, several of which later surfaced on the couple’s debut recording.

D.C. native Pete supplies the bulk of the group’s lead guitar work, the same role he once filled for Griffith on her Grammy-winning Other Voices, Other Rooms and its accompanying road dates. Earlier he had also performed with Mary Chapin Carpenter’s band. Prior to meeting Maura he issued several solo instrumental albums that received strong local notice. Maura, originally from Syracuse, NY, first attracted attention with Austin’s alt-country outfit the Delta Rays; before that she had claimed Songwriter of the Year honors from the New York Country Music Association and placed material with Warner Music.

Life Is Large, the duo’s second album, drew contributions from Roger McGuinn, Steve Earle, Kelly Willis, Nils Lofgren, the Dixie Hummingbirds, Peter Holsapple, Susan Cowsill, and John Gorka, among others. In practice the Kennedys themselves did most of the traveling; although the bulk of the album was tracked in Virginia, many of the guest appearances were captured while the pair passed through Nashville, Austin, and Florida on tour with Griffith.

For their 1998 release Angel Fire, the first album issued on Rounder’s Philo imprint, the Kennedys chose a fresh approach by laying down every new song inside their home studio, Maple Ridge House, within hours of composition. The method imparts an immediate, unadorned quality that aligns closely with the pair’s live presentation. Local favorites Eddie From Ohio supplied backing vocals on one standout track, “Just Like Henry David,” a Thoreau-themed number.

Literary and cultural figures regularly surface in the Kennedys’ writing; on Angel Fire the pair name Emily Dickinson, Vaclav Havel, T.S. Eliot, and poets Gary Snyder and John Malcolm Brinnin among their sources of inspiration. Evolver arrived in 2000 and steered the duo toward a markedly different sound incorporating ’60s Britpop, ’80s electronic textures, and Byrds-style harmonies. Positively Live! appeared in 2001, Get It Right in 2002, and Stand in 2003. Half a Million Miles, the duo’s eighth set of original songs, surfaced in 2005, followed by Songs of the Open Road in 2006.