Arts & Entertainment
Traditional Folk and Americana music featured at Branford Folk Coffeehouse
November 8, 2014: The Honey Dewdrops in concert
Branford Folk Music Society
November 8, 2014: The Honey Dewdrops
A severe snowstorm last December cancelled the Branford debut of the Virginia-based Honey Dewdrops but we worked quickly to make sure they graced our stage as part of our 40th Anniversary Celebration. There is a high lonesome quality to the way the voices of Laura Wortman and her spouse Kagey Parrish blend that is familiar, yet the mixture is unique. Their music covers the ground between hand-crafted folk songs, Appalachian fiddle tunes, and a cappella spirituals.
The musical career of Laura and Kagey has been on an upward curve since they captured the “Prairie Home Companion” Talent Contest in 2008, besting five other groups in the finals of the national radio show competition hosted by Garrison Keillor. Up to that time, Kagey and Laura were teachers who performed music on the side but who desired to ultimately make music a full-time occupation. “Winning the contest really inspired us to keep on going and writing at the time,” Kagey says. A year later, they recorded their first CD, let their teaching contracts expire and they hit the road performing.
Since then they’ve crisscrossed America with their blend of new Americana and traditional folk music, building up loyal audiences along the way. They create inspired songs that are rooted in the experience and lives of people. The songs they write shine with energy and emotion through intimate performances with a handful of acoustic instruments and tightly layered harmonies. In fact, their song “One Kind Word” is covered by the San Francisco Bay area band Front Country on their brand new album, “Sake of Sound.” On stage, the Honey Dewdrops focus on dynamically blending the sounds of instruments and voices by singing and playing into a single microphone.
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Today this duet is in the vanguard of a new generation of young performers bringing contemporary folk into the American mainstream. The Honey Dewdrops have recorded three albums and are now gathering material for a fourth. Their latest offering, “Silver Lining”, ranked fourth in 2012 in folk music radio play monitored by FolkDJ. It’s no wonder that Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine said this about the duo: “Their talent is such that it’s quite possible that a new band recording in the year 2020 might cite The Honey Dewdrops as a prime influence.”
