MICHAEL & CARRIE KLINE with Joe Blumenthal & Jim Armenti

Carrie and Michael Kline’s lives circle around one another and are inspired by Appalachian music and culture. Their voices carry the songs with truth and authenticity, and their guitar accompaniments and haunting harmonies get you where you live. With their lifelong focus on West Virginia history and tradition, their performances celebrate the old-time singers as well as the songs.

Michael and Carrie perform in Europe and across the United States. As folklorist-musicians they weave songs and stories, evoking the times that really matter, time with family and friends, spiritual times, wrapped in a patchwork quilt of vivid imagery. Kitchen songs. You can smell the biscuits baking. “We bring to this listening space an appreciation for small town life that will resonate with members of the community.

We place our songs in a historical, folkloric context with stories and images to set the stage for the songs. We banter with one another and with our audience. But mostly we sing in the kind of tight, high mountain harmony that comes from living and loving together for thirty years, having met in the Valley and recently returned after 26 years as West Virginia-based folklorists, oral historians, and music makers.

Our guitar accompaniments are also in closely arranged harmony, with Michael’s melodic lines and Carrie’s rhythm and runs, elevated by Joe Blumenthal’s upright bass arrangements. Jim Armenti brings special pizzazz through his intuitive gifts on the mandolin. We specialize in songs of working people, Appalachian songs, and country duets of people and nature, with a couple of country love songs woven into the mix.” A beloved musical fixture in the Valley, Jim Armenti raises the energy of the Klines’ band a few notches with his creative and high-powered mandolin backup bringing a new level of passion. Armenti is a band member for several well-known performing groups from The Young At Heart Chorus to Klezimir to The Lonesome Brothers. https://www.folktalk.org

Listen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CH8woGxbnk

*Suggested donation: $15 to $25 (or pay as you are able)*

*Reservations at diacrowe@yahoo.com or call 413-336-2589*

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**COVID Policy:** *Masks are required indoors. Proof of Vaccination for the virus is required or a negative test taken within the previous 2 days. Additional safety measures include reduced room capacity to 50 people, distanced seating from others, and the use of room purifiers.*