Peter Mika and I met at the bluegrass jam session at Barfly in the summer of 1997, back when it was being run by Tom Small. While my pedigree of growing up in Southeastern Kentucky would indicate that I would be a natural for bluegrass music, I’ve never found it to be the music that makes sense to my particular set of fingers. I made a small effort for a few years to learn it, mostly because it seemed to be the music played by the musicians I met upon arriving in Montreal, and more importantly because I was just hungry to play music. Any music. One night when the crowd had dissipated, I got up and sang some blues, accompanying myself on fingerpicked guitar. Peter joined me on the piano, and right away something clicked. Immediately after playing those three songs, we decided that we should pursue making music together. Not long after meeting, Tom left town for Ontario, and we took over the regular Wednesday night slot at Barfly.

Peter was the first musician I really locked in with upon arriving in Montreal. In the beginning I played my solo blues material, learned from growing up watching Nick Stump and Frank Schaap with the Metro Blues All-Stars. Overtime, as we developed a sound together, I started investigating guitar and piano duos like Scrapper Blackwell and Leroy Carr. Listening to Lonnie Johnson led me to Eddie Lang, which opened up a whole world of jazz music to me. Over the past twenty-three years Peter and I have always played together under our own name, but we have also worked together backing up many other musicians. We have absorbed those experiences into our own playing, and have evolved musically in a trajectory that mirrors the evolution of jazz and blues itself. We started playing music from the 1920’s, but have over time worked our way through the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s incorporating what we liked, and leaving behind what we didn’t. More than anything, playing music together has, for us, been about prioritizing listening to each other’s playing over trying to reproduce a certain style or sound.

When the pandemic hit in March of last year, our regular gig of over 21 years was put on hold. Unsure of when or how we would ever play music in the same room together, we began seeking other ways of making music. In the second half of 2020 we recorded a series of singles with the fabulous singer Emily Estrella who we had both been working with for a couple of years. Peter would record a piano track, then it would be sent around, each musician adding their own track, until it landed back in Peter’s hands where he would mix and master them. It became like a puzzle, each musician listening for little details in what had been left behind, complimenting them, and leaving clues for the next person in line.

We were so pleased with the results that Peter and I decided to use the same format to make this record. This is the result. Like a lot of people i’ve spoken too recently, the pandemic left me with a deep homesickness, and a longing to reinvestigate my origins. A lot of the material on this album are songs that Peter and I have played countless times, but that had been pushed to the back of the repertoire. Two of the songs, Hesitation Blues, and Blues In A Bottle, we performed on that fateful night 23 years ago when we played together for the first time. I even pulled out the fiddle, which I picked up during lockdown for the first time since leaving those bluegrass jams behind. Playing these songs again after having developed years more experience was eye-opening and exciting. These are old songs to us, but they are definitely being played with a fresh set of ears. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoyed recording them.