Husband and wife duo Pete and Maura Kennedy bring their high energy acoustic folk rock to the Mainstay in Rock Hall on Thursday June 17 at 7:30 p.m.
The Kennedys wield plugged-in acoustic guitars, but audiences across the nation have quickly figured out that the New York duo are not your Dad’s “folk”, even before their feet hit the overdrive pedals. Over the course of ten CDs and countless touring miles, Pete and Maura Kennedy have carved out their own niche in the indie music scene, somewhere between pop and acoustic rock, not-too-loud but brimming with supersized energy. Think vintage Beatles meets current Wilco, topped off with a voice (Maura’s) that has melted hearts from Austin to Paris (where she was the toast of the town on a recent solo tour). Think edgy but positive energy, soaring vocals and guitars that ring like church bells and rock like an indie-pop revival tent.
Pete and Maura Kennedy met in Austin Texas in 1992. Virginia native Pete Kennedy was playing a solo show at Austin’s Continental Club while on a brief sabbatical from his duties as lead guitarist for country-folk singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith when he met former Syracuse, NY, resident Maura Boudreau, enjoying a night off from performing with her own country-rock band, The Delta Rays. The duo “instantly connected on a soul level, or maybe even something deeper,” according to Pete. They wrote their first song together the following day before Pete returned to the road, and they had their first date ten days later at mutual hero Buddy Holly’s grave in Lubbock, 500 miles equidistant between them.
Within a year, they were touring together, as part of Nanci Griffith’s band, and as the opening act on Nanci’s two-month tour of the UK and Ireland. In a dusty little dressing room on the top floor of Dublin’s Olympia Theatre, they penned the songs that would become their first CD, “River of Fallen Stars.” The CD was awarded the “Indie” award in 1995 for “Best Adult Contemporary CD” by the National Association of Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD).
Ten CDs and several side-projects later (The Strangelings, The Stringbusters, and their solo projects), they enjoy loyal followings among guitar devotees, singer-songwriter admirers and fans of light-hearted pop-folk-rock. Ultimately it’s their tight harmonies, their chemistry, and their unashamedly idealistic outlook that has carved them their own niche in the studio and onstage.
After meeting, spending several years touring with Griffith and marrying, the duo seceded amicably from Griffith’s Blue Moon Orchestra and became The Kennedys, recording the CDs that encompass their favorite musical styles while incorporating the naturalistic, transcendental and mythological teachings of Joseph Campbell, Eckhart Tolle, Walt Whitman, and various Eastern-oriented philosophers into their music and their lives: living in the moment, appreciating every second of sensation, and filling their music with a constant sense of wonder and freshness.
Their most recent duo recording is Better Dreams, a CD of all-original material, inspired by a pair of seminars they conducted on using dreams to unlock creativity. “We found that we were writing really interesting songs in and around the workshop sessions,” they explain. “All of these songs have something to do with the dreamtime… [where] we have a different kind of freedom.”
Whatever the scenario, The Kennedys use their full palette of vocal and instrumental colors to bring their songs to glowing life. Maura’s lead vocals range from comforting to yearning, from exuberant to delicate. Their harmonies range from sweet to edgy. Multi-instrumentalist Pete provides a vibrant tapestry of chiming, jangling and twanging guitars, as well as mandolin and keyboards interwoven with Maura’s sturdy acoustic rhythm guitar, harmonica and glockenspiel.
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