Search - Dave Carter, Tracy Grammer :: Little Blue Egg

Recorded in their home studios between 1997 and 2002, the album offers a glimpse into the duo's musical process. Fully fleshed-out folk and Americana songs left off of other albums find a home alongside intimate, late-night living room recordings, reference tracks for multi-artist collaborations and rare demos produced for Joan Baez's consideration. A fan of Dave & Tracy's music, Baez has performed several of Carter's songs along with such artists as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Chris Smither and Lucy Kaplansky. Grammer discovered the tracks for Little Blue Egg during an emergency archiving project in the summer of 2010, a full eight years after Carter's death. Rescuing the original ADAT tapes from a moldy basement where they were stored, she happily discovered that the tapes were in pristine condition. As she digitized the tapes in real-time, Tracy pored over old studio notes about the recordings. "Tears flowed, I laughed out loud, memories flooded back," Grammer remembers. "It felt like a miracle to hear Dave's voice -- and our voices, together -- singing old songs that sounded new again, along with others I had forgotten about entirely." Dave Carter's voice comes like a ghost from beyond, delivering earnest, heartbreaking performances and reminders of the magical alchemy this duo shares, evident in their playful cover of the Woody Guthrie/Billy Bragg song "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key." From the lovelorn notes of the album's opener "Better Way" to the Americana drive of the award-winning "Hard Edge of Livin" and the tender compassion of "Amazon," Little Blue Egg is a stand-out among Dave & Tracy's recordings for its acoustic simplicity and its impressive lyrical depth. Literary, intelligent, by turns mystical and whimsical, Little Blue Egg is a must-have for any music fan.