Q and A with The Honey Dewdrops (at the me&thee on Friday, November 15)

The Honey Dewdrops sometimes make me want to weep…. That was said for effect, yes.  But seriously, their harmonies and musical kinship on stage is at times heartbreaking and oftentimes so much more than the sum of their talents.   Laura Wortman and Kagey Parrish blend their voices in a lilting and magnetic manner which draws the listeners in close.  Real close.  Their latest CD, Silver Linings, made many Top 10 CDs of the Year lists last year.  Their music is unforgettable.  Try it, you may want to weep along with me.

There’s much more about The Honey Dewdrops at their website.

Here’s a good example of the music of The Honey Dewdrops.

The Honey Dewdrops will be playing along with Annalivia at the me&thee in Marblehead, MA on Friday, November 15.

How long have you been playing together?  Is it true that you were part of a rock band?
We’ve played together for 10 years, 5 of them full time. And yes we met by playing in a rock band in college. We met at a band practice and soon realized we were both really into acoustic music as well. Music has always been a part of our relationship.

I understand that you were part of a Beatles tribute.  Have they been a big influence on you? What is it about their music that resonates with you?
Yes, the Beatles were and continue to be a big influence on us. Couple of things that resonate. 1) Their singing was so strong, individually and together. To hear two and three voices sounding like they did is still really powerful and hammers home the message of the songs. 2) Great songwriting from the early days to the end, from arrangements to structures to the lyrics, they knocked it all out of the park. 3) They kept growing and coming up with new ideas of what a song could be. They went from “Please Please Me” to “Come Together” in seven years, what a feat! A great inspiration for any artist.

Did you grow up listening to and learning Appalachian tunes?
We both got into American roots and traditional music in high school listening to old-time, old blues, old country, and bluegrass and took up learning some tunes then. We are still really drawn to that music because there is a power there that is infectious, makes you want to dance and sing and shout.

What was it like to appear on Prairie Home Companion?  How did that performance come about?
Did that really happen?? We heard an ad after a Prairie Home show in January 2008 about their annual talent show. All you had to do was send them a link to your myspace page. So we did that and forgot about and then they called in March and we flew to St. Paul and ended up winning the contest. It was the scariest thing we’d ever done. It was also a whole lot of fun.

What’s it like to spend so much time on the road?  What do you do to break the monotony of packing up the car and driving from Point A to Point B?
It’s mostly really great. We’ve learned there’s so much that is out of our hands. We adapt, try to go with the flow and capitalize on the things we can control. And when it gets tough we remind ourselves how lucky we are to be doing this, playing our songs for people (who are coming to listen!), getting to travel all over the country making friends everywhere we go. We are humbled by this lifestyle and grateful to be a part this scene.

You’ve now recorded three CDs, how would you compare them?  What have you learned about the recording process since you first started?
Our first two records were entirely self-written, performed, engineered, mixed and mastered by the two of us. It was a good way to make those first two recordings because we learned a lot very quickly. Our latest record was done the opposite way. While we recorded most of the songs as our duet, we had some amazing friends on hand who helped with writing and arranging, engineering and mixing, and we had two close friends in the producers’ chairs. It was great to open up our process with other people, we learned a tremendous amount from it and got a great record too!

Do you have any plans for a new recording?
We’re in song-writing and finishing stages for another record. No hard date for when it will be released. We’re taking our time with it because that feels right.