Artist description Laura Lind and Adam Miller are an award winning acoustic duet from the San Francisco Bay Area. Their repertoire includes old-time country, gospel, bluegrass, and traditional and contemporary folk songs.  Renowned for their inspired harmony singing and their spare instrumental accompaniment, their performances have won them fans at grade school assemblies and folk festivals across the country including, the San Francisco Free Folk Festival (link to: http://www.sffolkfest.org/) and the Willamette Valley Autoharp Gathering. (link to: http://members.aol.com/autoharps/wvag.html)

Music Style Old Time Country / Traditional Folk

Musical Influences The Carter Family, the Weavers, Kate Brislin, Jody Stecher, Mike Seeger, Peggy Seeger, Mark & Linda Fackeldy, John & Kathy Hollandsworth, Sam Hinton, Faith Petric, Bryan Bowers, Bob Lewis, Ivan Stiles, David Maloney, Stan Rogers, Ginny Reilly, Gordon Bok, Ed Trickett and Ann Mayo Muir.

Similar Artists Carter Family, Kate Brislin and Jody Stecher, Dave Para and Cathy Barton, autoharp

Artist History Laura Lind and Adam Miller are the three-time winners (1999, 2000 & 2001) of the Leonard Reid ? People’s Choice Award for Outstanding Musical Performance on the Open Stage of the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering. (link to: http://www.fmp.com/orthey/ml01.html) Laura Lind’s childhood was both musical and artistic.  A third generation San Franciscan, she began singing and dancing on stage at the age of four and she has played piano since the age of eight.  Her summers were spent making up songs, riding horses, climbing apple trees at her Grandparent’s ranch in rural Sonoma County, California.   A graphic designer and singer/songwriter, she has performed with the swing vocal trio, Julater, Mel Torme, and the San Francisco State University Choir. Adam Miller grew up a few blocks from historic Cannery Row on the Monterey Bay.  He developed a serious interest in folklore and folk music after his parents took him to a Sam Hinton (link to: http://musicfinder.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1802475387&cf=11&intl=us&clink=) concert when he was 12 years old.  Adam was the founding Music Director of community radio station KAZU fm in Pacific Grove, California.  (link to: http://www.kazu.org/mon.html) He began playing while still in his teens and took up the autoharp in 1994. Adam plays acoustic finger-style guitar and melodic autoharp (link to: http://www.autoharp.org/) using fingernails instead of picks. He plays several custom made diatonic and chromatic autoharps built by Fladmark Woodworks, (link to e-mail address: fladmark@sunlink.net) Orthey Instruments, (link to:\ http://www.fmp.com/orthey/) and Oscar Schmidt International. (link to: http://oscarschmidt.com/)

Group Members Laura Lind:  Vocals; Adam Miller:  Vocals, guitar and autoharp

Instruments Acoustic steel string guitar, diatonic autoharp and chromatic autoharp.

Albums Wild Birds (LLM 3789) Released: 2001

Press Reviews Laura Lind and Adam Miller perform an intriguing variety of songs sung with a style and vocal blend that make me want to listen to the CD again and again. Their voices are lively, beautiful and unique, and Adam's instrumental accompaniments enhance the vocals perfectly. Definitely a keeper for anyone interested in hearing good songs performed at the highest standard of the 'folk' tradition. -Cindy Harris, Pittsburgh, PA * . . . . . . * . . . . . . * Adam's autoharp technique is superb... Laura's unique and powerful voice is captured very well on this recording. Every tune on the CD is a winner... -Fuey Herring, Yuma, Arizona * . . . . . . * . . . . . . * Tasteful. That’s the word that came to mind when we heard this CD. The songs are tastefully chosen and tastefully arranged with a minimum of accompaniment. On most tracks the singing of Laura and Adam is backed by a single autoharp or guitar sometimes with the addition of just the right amount of bass. On "Kissing is a Crime" Brittany Haas adds a fiddle and on "Snake Song" Alan Smithline adds his guitar to the autoharp and there is one unaccompanied song, the captivating "Cousin Emmy’s Blues". The album is tastefully recorded and mixed so that Adam and Laura’s voices are perfectly balanced and are clearly heard over the instruments. . . . The harmony singing is a pleasure to listen to no matter which one of them is singing melody. Their blend is amazing and their phrasing is impeccable which can only be the result of endless hours of rehearsal. Adam’s autoharp playing is superb and imaginative using one chromatic and four diatonic harps. This album captured our hearts immediately with the first cut being one of our favorites, "Going to the West". Only two of the 15 songs on this CD are listed as traditional but that does not include "Kissing is a Crime" which is copyrighted by A. P. Carter and "River of Jordan" which might as well be traditional. The remaining songs have copyright dates ranging from 1938 to 2001, the last being Laura’s original "Dancing in Fifty-Year Forests". Many of these could easily be mistaken for traditional songs. The endless variety of arrangements will keep you engaged from start to finish. -Bev & Jerry Praver, (link to: http://www.lov.org/jerry&.htm) San Francisco FolkNik (link to: http://www.sffmc.org/) * . . . . . . * . . . . . . * "This is a good one to sing along to, and a great example of really tasteful autoharp accompaniment behind the vocals. Clearly, they are having a wonderful time... Moreover, this is one of the most nicely "packaged" independent CD's I've seen. Clearly a lot of care went into the liner notes, pictures, and design, and the whole result is absolutely lovely." -Cathy Britell, (linkt to: http://home.att.net/~larkpoint/) Mercer Island, WA * . . . . . . * . . . . . . * "…their songs are great, their harmonies are superb, the instrumental backup is clean and tasteful, and their togetherness is wonderful…" -Carey Dubbert, (link to: http://www.monitor.net/~dca/carey/default.html) 1999 Mountain Laurel Autoharp Champion * . . . . . . * . . . . . . * "When I heard that Laura and Adam were coming out with a CD, I had very high expectations. After all, they are the three-time winners of the Leonard Reid Open Stage award at the Mount Laurel Autoharp Gathering. They sing with joy and passion, creating gorgeous harmonies effortlessly, or so it seems. Adam is a championship-caliber ‘harper to boot. What could be bad? Then again, you never know about these things… Well friends, I’m here to tell you that I wasn’t disappointed in the least. In fact, I’m very, very impressed. These folks have crafted an album that is a blend of traditional and written songs that is a joy to play, then play again. They have included one of my sentimental favorites, Ian Tyson’s "Someday Soon", some Carter Family ("Kissing is a Crime"), some great old-time songs (the Louvin Brothers’ "River of Jordan", Peggy Seeger’s "Going to the West"), some outstanding duets (notable Cousin Emmy’s version of "Cornbread, Molasses and Sassafras Tea", via Sandy and Caroline Paton) and a touching original tune, "Dancing in Fifty-Year Forests". There are some great tear-your-eyes-out sentimental songs like George Jones’ "The Old, Old House" and one called "Ten Cents a Ride", the story of a faded old man who always dreamed of being a cowboy but ended up giving pony rides in a carnival. These are all winners. The effort that went into this recording really shows. The artwork is first rate, the liner notes are informative without being ponderous and the recording and mixing is done with skill and sensitivity. Adam’s skillful autoharp comes across clear and ringing, without any of the muddy distortion you hear in analog autoharp recordings. The best quality of this recording, to my ear, is the texture. These folks know how to entertain you. Many, many albums have a meat-and-potatoes (oops, these guys are Californians. I better say tofu-and-sprouts) sameness cut after cut. Lind and Miller know how to vary tempo, instrumentation, theme and vocals to keep your attention. There were a few disappointments to my ear, but these were matters of personal taste. I didn’t like the "Snake Song", though Laura’s gutsy vocal reminded me of an old Ida Cox recording. I thought "Courage", while a nice enough piece, wasn’t strong enough to use as a final number. But that’s it. This is a winner. You’ll listen to it, you’ll enjoy it, you’ll think about it and you’ll learn some great songs. Who could ask for more???" -Banjer Bob Woodcock, Autoharp Quarterly (link to: http://www.autoharpquarterly.com)

Location Woodside, California - USA

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