Anna & Elizabeth

Anna & Elizabeth is American folk duo Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle. Their music comes from a heartfelt commitment to the mountain music tradition. Anna and Elizabeth have immersed themselves with old (and young) masters and folklorists, playing on porches and in kitchens, staying up all night to learn just one more song. Each used college to dive deep into history and archives, reading folklore and stories, listening to scratchy records of haunting voices, learning from relatives of long-gone greats. Their music has evolved; raw, sparse ballads, sweet lullabies, driving fiddle tunes and banjo songs, home music where less is more. Elizabeth’s remarkable deep mountain voice and Anna's modern one, an uncanny blend create a unique combination. Anna is a New Englander who apprenticed with Kentucky master fiddlers such as Bruce Greene, John Harrod and Paul David Smith and master banjo players Lee Sexton and Earl Thomas. She’s co-founded several bands, won awards for her fiddle playing at many conventions and festivals and is a published writer. Berea College gave her a fellowship to research the lives of female fiddlers in Kentucky. She’s finishing up a video documentary about the Kentucky Clodhoppers, a central Kentucky string band. She produced a compilation album of young traditional musicians The New Young Fogies, with Joseph DeJarnette; teaches at fiddle camps and festivals throughout the southeast, and is faculty coordinator of the Cowan Music School, a Kentucky traditional music school. She is one of 25 musicians from around the world chosen to participate in OneBeat, a month-long creative fellowship and tour in Arizona, Nevada and California. Elizabeth is a native of Rural Retreat, Virginia, has won awards at fiddlers conventions for her powerful voice since she was 11. At age 16, she was the first recipient of the Henry Reed Award from the Library of Congress. She has recorded three solo albums, and her singing has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and Prairie Home Companion. She has sung for audiences across the country, and has taught Appalachian ballads and unaccompanied singing at several music camps including The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes and The Augusta Heritage Center.  At College of William and Mary, Elizabeth designed a major in Southern Appalachian Traditional Performance.  In 2012, she won the Mike Seeger Award at Folk Alliance International. Elizabeth may be the most sought-after ballad singer of her generation. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.